Verdict
While plant milk can be made in any blender, the practicality is that this is a very difficult job; the Salter Plant Milk Maker makes this easy, with its built-in filter basket. Its instructions could be better, and the product could be easier to clean, but these are minor issues, and the Salter Plant Milk Maker makes brilliant plant milk at a very affordable price.
Pros
- Good value
- Easy to use
- Excellent results
Cons
- Fiddly to wash up
- Only makes large capacities
-
A special blenderIntegrated filter basket keeps chunks of nuts or other ingredients out of the finished product. -
Works with most plant ingredientsFrom oats to cashews and almonds, you can use practically any ingredient to make your own plant-based milk.
Introduction
Making plant milk is stupidly easy: all you need for a basic recipe is a blender, water and your main ingredient (nuts or oats) and away you go.
The difficulty is that getting clean results means straining the final mix, which can be cumbersome and fiddly. That’s where the Salter Plant Milk Maker comes in, as it has a fine strainer built in, so you can have plant milk in as little as one minute with no fuss.
It’s well-priced, will pay itself back in no time and is very simple to use. Salter could improve the manual, and it’s not the easiest of devices to tidy up at the end.
Design and features
- Larger jug design
- Can be fiddly to clip on the mesh filter
- Very easy to use
The Salter Plant Milk Maker looks like a combination between a blender and a jug, largely because that’s exactly what this device is.
Rather than having blades at the bottom, as a blender would, they hang suspended from the jug’s lid, encased in a mesh filter, which doubles up as the ingredient holder. It’s designed this way so that when you blend your chosen ingredients, the pulp stays inside the mesh and doesn’t need filtering.
Trying to get the filter attached when it’s full of ingredients can be a little tricky, but a bit of a wiggle and a bit of force was all that I needed to get it attached each time.
Salter has a selection of recipes in the box, but the actual instructions aren’t very helpful. They just say that you shouldn’t fill the basket past the max line on the side and, that for the best results ingredients, should be soaked for at least 12 hours.
There’s not much in the way of actual guidance. And, surprisingly, there’s no recipe for making oat milk, despite the fact that this is just about the most common form of plant milk, and it’s also the cheapest to make.
It’s worth experimenting and looking at other recipes online to get the right mix of ingredients. Don’t just blindly soak everything either; soaked oats tend to make for slimy milk whereas cashew nuts definitely need to be soaked before use.
If you do have to soak ingredients, they can be soaked in the ingredient basket, placing it in the plastic cup and holder that’s provided in the box.
There’s a minimum fill of 1.3-litres and a maximum of 1.6-litres of water. There’s no option to make a smaller amount of milk, say around a pint.
Using the Plant Milk Maker is very easy. Drop the lid, which holds the motor, blades and ingredients into the water-filled jug and hit the on button. Tap the Mode button to select the milk option, and everything is automatic.
The milk program runs for one minute, blending in three 15-second chunks, separated by a resting period. Once it’s finished, the lid can be removed, and the milk decanted into a suitable bottle.
There is also a blend mode, which can be used without the filter basket. However, as the blades are suspended, rather than sitting at the bottom of the jug, as with a normal blender such as the Ninja CB350UK, I didn’t find the results as good.
Cleaning up is a bit fiddly. The jug is easy to hand wash, and the ingredient basket unclips so that the pulp can be emptied out: you can throw it, or leave it to dry out and use what’s left in bars or for other cooking.
Cleaning the main handle is fiddly. It can’t be submerged in water, but the blades can get quite messy. I found I had to dunk it into a sink full of washing liquid, and then sponge down under running water. Most blenders are far easier to clean up afterwards.
Performance
- Excellent quality
- Very clean milk
- Cheap to use
I started by making oat milk, as it’s our drink of choice in our house. Rolled oats can be bought as cheaply as 95p for 1kg. As I make it, oat milk needs around 90g of oats per litre, which works out at just 9p per litre, plus the water (the cost of which is negligible). I used filtered water, through a Zero Water jug, as I wanted to remove any tap water taste from the final mix. Given that regular oat milk costs around £2 per litre in the supermarket, that’s quite a saving.
So, how does it taste? Unlike supermarket-bought milk, my milk needs a shake to mix everything together before pouring, otherwise it can be quite watery. And, there is some sediment collection at the bottom, so I tend to wash up the bottle when there’s around 50ml left.
I found my oat milk to be more subtle than the supermarket stuff, with less of a taste to it. For adding to coffee or cereal that’s a good thing, as the oat milk turns tea white or makes cereal easier to eat, without adding flavour of its own.
Depending on how you like it, there are some things you can try. Adding a pinch of salt can help bring out the flavour, while using a date or a teaspoon of sugar can add sweetness. Adding half a teaspoon of vanilla can help add a bit of flavour to the milk.
Next, I tried making cashew milk. Cashew nuts are much more expensive than oats, and work at around £1.50 for the 150g needed to make 1-litre of milk, based on ordinary supermarket costs. Buy in bulk and you may get the price down a little, but it’s not going to be a lot cheaper. That’s still cheaper than buying cashew milk in the supermarket, but not quite the same bargain that oat milk is.
Soaking the cashews overnight made them soft enough to blend with water. As cashews have a relatively high fat content, they created a creamier milk than oats. In fact, in texture and look, I thought that my cashew milk looked closer to real milk than my oat version.
There’s a slight hint of cashews in the final milk, but it’s a very subtle taste. I found this milk good for cooking and for use with cereal. Again, pitted dates, vanilla and salt can be added to taste.
Additional ingredients are what really sets supermarket plant milks aside from the ones you make at home. I personally prefer just simple ingredients, but if simple additives, such as salt, vanilla and sugar, can make a difference if you prefer a different taste.
Home-made plant milk is also likely to have lower calcium and vitamin D levels than supermarket-bought milk. Additives can make up the difference, but it’s possible to get these through different sources.
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
You want to save money: If you like plant milk but don’t like the supermarket cost or packaging waste, then this is a neat tool.
Supermarket quality: If you don’t drink a lot of plant milk or want a prepackaged product with all the vitamins and calcium included, this won’t be for you.
Final Thoughts
In terms of cost and simplicity, the Salter Plant Milk Maker makes it easy to make plant milk at home, at a lower cost than buying it (particularly oat milk, which is comically cheap to make).
Basic recipes give good results, but you can tweak and add additional ingredients to change the flavour and, if required, add vitamins and calcium. While plant milk can be made in a blender, the Salter Plant Milk Maker makes the job easier, even if the product is a little fiddly to clean up. Since reviewing this, I’ve stopped buying supermarket oat milk, and make my own at home.
How we test
We test every plant milk maker we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main milk maker for the review period
Tested with a variety of plant ingredients
You might like…
FAQs
Yes, although its controls and performance are more limited than with a traditional blender.
No, the components all need to be hand washed and the main motor should not be submerged in water.
Sustainability
TrustedReviews holds the fact that global warming is not a myth as a core value and will continuously endeavour to help protect our planet from harm in its business practice
As part of this mission, whenever we review a product, we send the company a series of questions to help us gauge and make transparent the impact the device has on the environment
We currently haven’t received answers to the questions on this product, but we will update this page the moment we do. You can see a detailed breakdown of the questions we ask and why in our sustainability info page.
Verdict
While plant milk can be made in any blender, the practicality is that this is a very difficult job; the Salter Plant Milk Maker makes this easy, with its built-in filter basket. Its instructions could be better, and the product could be easier to clean, but these are minor issues, and the Salter Plant Milk Maker makes brilliant plant milk at a very affordable price.
Pros
- Good value
- Easy to use
- Excellent results
Cons
- Fiddly to wash up
- Only makes large capacities
-
A special blenderIntegrated filter basket keeps chunks of nuts or other ingredients out of the finished product. -
Works with most plant ingredientsFrom oats to cashews and almonds, you can use practically any ingredient to make your own plant-based milk.
Introduction
Making plant milk is stupidly easy: all you need for a basic recipe is a blender, water and your main ingredient (nuts or oats) and away you go.
The difficulty is that getting clean results means straining the final mix, which can be cumbersome and fiddly. That’s where the Salter Plant Milk Maker comes in, as it has a fine strainer built in, so you can have plant milk in as little as one minute with no fuss.
It’s well-priced, will pay itself back in no time and is very simple to use. Salter could improve the manual, and it’s not the easiest of devices to tidy up at the end.
Design and features
- Larger jug design
- Can be fiddly to clip on the mesh filter
- Very easy to use
The Salter Plant Milk Maker looks like a combination between a blender and a jug, largely because that’s exactly what this device is.
Rather than having blades at the bottom, as a blender would, they hang suspended from the jug’s lid, encased in a mesh filter, which doubles up as the ingredient holder. It’s designed this way so that when you blend your chosen ingredients, the pulp stays inside the mesh and doesn’t need filtering.
Trying to get the filter attached when it’s full of ingredients can be a little tricky, but a bit of a wiggle and a bit of force was all that I needed to get it attached each time.
Salter has a selection of recipes in the box, but the actual instructions aren’t very helpful. They just say that you shouldn’t fill the basket past the max line on the side and, that for the best results ingredients, should be soaked for at least 12 hours.
There’s not much in the way of actual guidance. And, surprisingly, there’s no recipe for making oat milk, despite the fact that this is just about the most common form of plant milk, and it’s also the cheapest to make.
It’s worth experimenting and looking at other recipes online to get the right mix of ingredients. Don’t just blindly soak everything either; soaked oats tend to make for slimy milk whereas cashew nuts definitely need to be soaked before use.
If you do have to soak ingredients, they can be soaked in the ingredient basket, placing it in the plastic cup and holder that’s provided in the box.
There’s a minimum fill of 1.3-litres and a maximum of 1.6-litres of water. There’s no option to make a smaller amount of milk, say around a pint.
Using the Plant Milk Maker is very easy. Drop the lid, which holds the motor, blades and ingredients into the water-filled jug and hit the on button. Tap the Mode button to select the milk option, and everything is automatic.
The milk program runs for one minute, blending in three 15-second chunks, separated by a resting period. Once it’s finished, the lid can be removed, and the milk decanted into a suitable bottle.
There is also a blend mode, which can be used without the filter basket. However, as the blades are suspended, rather than sitting at the bottom of the jug, as with a normal blender such as the Ninja CB350UK, I didn’t find the results as good.
Cleaning up is a bit fiddly. The jug is easy to hand wash, and the ingredient basket unclips so that the pulp can be emptied out: you can throw it, or leave it to dry out and use what’s left in bars or for other cooking.
Cleaning the main handle is fiddly. It can’t be submerged in water, but the blades can get quite messy. I found I had to dunk it into a sink full of washing liquid, and then sponge down under running water. Most blenders are far easier to clean up afterwards.
Performance
- Excellent quality
- Very clean milk
- Cheap to use
I started by making oat milk, as it’s our drink of choice in our house. Rolled oats can be bought as cheaply as 95p for 1kg. As I make it, oat milk needs around 90g of oats per litre, which works out at just 9p per litre, plus the water (the cost of which is negligible). I used filtered water, through a Zero Water jug, as I wanted to remove any tap water taste from the final mix. Given that regular oat milk costs around £2 per litre in the supermarket, that’s quite a saving.
So, how does it taste? Unlike supermarket-bought milk, my milk needs a shake to mix everything together before pouring, otherwise it can be quite watery. And, there is some sediment collection at the bottom, so I tend to wash up the bottle when there’s around 50ml left.
I found my oat milk to be more subtle than the supermarket stuff, with less of a taste to it. For adding to coffee or cereal that’s a good thing, as the oat milk turns tea white or makes cereal easier to eat, without adding flavour of its own.
Depending on how you like it, there are some things you can try. Adding a pinch of salt can help bring out the flavour, while using a date or a teaspoon of sugar can add sweetness. Adding half a teaspoon of vanilla can help add a bit of flavour to the milk.
Next, I tried making cashew milk. Cashew nuts are much more expensive than oats, and work at around £1.50 for the 150g needed to make 1-litre of milk, based on ordinary supermarket costs. Buy in bulk and you may get the price down a little, but it’s not going to be a lot cheaper. That’s still cheaper than buying cashew milk in the supermarket, but not quite the same bargain that oat milk is.
Soaking the cashews overnight made them soft enough to blend with water. As cashews have a relatively high fat content, they created a creamier milk than oats. In fact, in texture and look, I thought that my cashew milk looked closer to real milk than my oat version.
There’s a slight hint of cashews in the final milk, but it’s a very subtle taste. I found this milk good for cooking and for use with cereal. Again, pitted dates, vanilla and salt can be added to taste.
Additional ingredients are what really sets supermarket plant milks aside from the ones you make at home. I personally prefer just simple ingredients, but if simple additives, such as salt, vanilla and sugar, can make a difference if you prefer a different taste.
Home-made plant milk is also likely to have lower calcium and vitamin D levels than supermarket-bought milk. Additives can make up the difference, but it’s possible to get these through different sources.
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
You want to save money: If you like plant milk but don’t like the supermarket cost or packaging waste, then this is a neat tool.
Supermarket quality: If you don’t drink a lot of plant milk or want a prepackaged product with all the vitamins and calcium included, this won’t be for you.
Final Thoughts
In terms of cost and simplicity, the Salter Plant Milk Maker makes it easy to make plant milk at home, at a lower cost than buying it (particularly oat milk, which is comically cheap to make).
Basic recipes give good results, but you can tweak and add additional ingredients to change the flavour and, if required, add vitamins and calcium. While plant milk can be made in a blender, the Salter Plant Milk Maker makes the job easier, even if the product is a little fiddly to clean up. Since reviewing this, I’ve stopped buying supermarket oat milk, and make my own at home.
How we test
We test every plant milk maker we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main milk maker for the review period
Tested with a variety of plant ingredients
You might like…
FAQs
Yes, although its controls and performance are more limited than with a traditional blender.
No, the components all need to be hand washed and the main motor should not be submerged in water.
Sustainability
TrustedReviews holds the fact that global warming is not a myth as a core value and will continuously endeavour to help protect our planet from harm in its business practice
As part of this mission, whenever we review a product, we send the company a series of questions to help us gauge and make transparent the impact the device has on the environment
We currently haven’t received answers to the questions on this product, but we will update this page the moment we do. You can see a detailed breakdown of the questions we ask and why in our sustainability info page.
