You probably won’t find it at your favorite coffee shop … in fact, I’m pretty sure you won’t. While soy milk has been rising in popularity over the past several years as a lactose free milk alternative, rice milk hasn’t experienced the same growth. There are a couple reasons. It’s a pretty far departure from the natural taste of milk, and the consistency is too thin for most coffee-based beverages.

Why bring this up? Because I believe the pursuit of great coffee shouldn’t be limited to what you think great coffee should be. Experiment. Have fun. And find some styles and flavors that match your personal preference. With this in mind I’d like to introduce tonight’s experiment … one that, honestly, I thought would fail miserably. 

Since the AeroPress makes a decent concentrated coffee, and since I don’t (yet) have an espresso machine, I got out the gear and produced a double shot’s worth of strong coffee. I’ll note that I’ve recently been uses an inverted AeroPress method to reduce seepage (more on that in another post). Next, I poured 4 ounces of Rice Dream rice milk in a food processor and whipped it up as best I could. What you should know about rice milk is it doesn’t retain a froth very well, so I had to agitate it immediately prior to adding it to the coffee concentrate from the AeroPress.

I poured slowly and deliberately (what the hell was I thinking? Latte art?) then mixed the rice milk with a quick stir. The color was light caramel. The aroma was similar to that of a soy milk latte, but less “nutty.” I gathered my courage and had a sip. To my amazement it was a decent drink. The rice milk added a slight sweetness and fuller body to the cup, but wasn’t overpowering like soy milk tends to be. 

Tonight was a reminder to not let preconceived notions get in the way of good coffee. Am I going to make this again tomorrow morning? No. But at least I know the result; that it’s possible and that it’s better than I would have ever expected.