Almond Milk Isn’t What We Thought It Was

In recent years almond milk has quickly eclipsed soy as the most popular dairy milk alternative. Coffee shops around the country have already caught on, although Starbucks is investing in coconut milk instead due to nut allergy concerns. At the Refinery29 offices, the almond milk is often first to go during the morning coffee rush. But a lawsuit against Blue Diamond's Almond Breeze almond milk is making us rethink everything we thought we knew about the creamy beverage. In fact, the almond milk we're buying at the store isn't even predominantly made of almonds. The lawsuit alleges that Blue Diamond milk (one of the major nondairy milk brands here in the U.S.) is actually only 2% almonds. Shocking, right? Apparently the drink is mostly water, sugar, carrageenan, and sunflower lecithin. The lawsuit was filed in New York on July 14 and suggests that while consumers might not know how to make almond milk from scratch, they do expect a beverage called "almond milk" — with almonds on the packaging — to contain more than 2% of the supposed main ingredient. “Upon an extensive review of the recipes for almond milk on the internet, the vast majority of the recipes call for one part almonds and three or four parts water, amounting to 25-33% of almonds," the lawsuit claimed. Therefore, although almond milk must contain a good amount of water — unless you're into drinking almond butter— expecting this beverage to consist of more than 2% of almonds, isn't crazy. Since most companies don't list exactly how much of each ingredient goes into their almond milk, it seems the only way to be certain that you're getting a predominantly almond-based milk is to make it yourself. It's actually way easier than you'd think! (TIME)