But first, I have an important question to ask:
Cake or Frosting?
Even as a little kid, I was a frosting-over-cake girl; I always vied for those frosting roses. Did any of y’all do that? (I’m not sure I even liked the taste; they were just so gosh-darn pretty!)
Anyway, in my exuberance about the Raw Chocolate-Raspberry Cake, I forgot to mention that you don’t have to make it a cake. You can do this…
Or chocolate-raspberry fudge frosting.
Try this on top of Banana Pancakes for One.
If you dare. You might never want to eat anything else ever again. Or skip the pancakes and opt for straight-up frosting shots. Yeah, frosting shots. And if you’re looking for something with which to wash down said shots, I’ve gotcha covered. Or, rather, Silk’s gotcha covered:
I mentioned the coconut in the New Product Alerts page awhile back, but hadn’t yet tried it.
Unsweetened Almondmilk:
Silk came out with plain, vanilla, and chocolate almond milks a few months ago, but did you know that they now have an unsweetened one as well?
It’s my newest-favorite thing! I’ve always loved Almond Breeze, but this milk is like three times creamier! Plus, it’s fortified with vitamin B12. (Almond Breeze is not.) Price-wise, Silk also holds an edge ($3.50 for 8 cups as opposed to AB’s $2 for 4 cups when on sale).
Coconutmilk:
I love coconut. Did you know? Yeah, um, unless you’ve been living under a rock, I’m sure you did. (And even those of you rock-dwellers have probably heard by now.) So I was surprised to find I didn’t like the So Delicious brand’s coconut milk beverage. Even the sweetened one, I found to to be watery and bland. Good news, though: Silk Coconutmilk is much thicker. Even my dairy-drinking mom likes it! I bet it’d be really good in oatmeal!
Final thoughts… and opinions welcome:
I know Silk is owned by Dean Foods, who also happens to be the biggest dairy-seller in the US. I’m not sure how I feel about this… but I think their clout and reputation in the dairy industry give them the ability to make products like soymilk more mainstream (for example: Silk commercials, advertisements in magazines, and availability at places like Starbucks and Wal-Mart). And more easily-accessible vegan products means more people will be turned on to them, which will eventually translate to fewer animal products consumed. Obviously, there are positives and negatives (and I haven’t done much research on them, so if anyone wants to leave their own thoughts on the issue, I’d be happy to hear others’ opinions). But I’m just excited to see non-dairy milks are becoming so popular that even the big dairy guys are taking notice!
Speaking of milk, I thought I’d give a preview of tomorrow’s post:
Hint: It is not a Cookie Dough Milkshake.
What’s your favorite milk?
And do you ever drink it straight-up?
I hated drinking milk when I was little. My mom had to put food coloring or cocoa powder in it to entice me. But now, I really love a big glass of almond milk!
I’m now hooked on the unsweetened pacific almond milk. I like that it’s organic however it isn’t fortified with calcium but is fortified with vitamin D. I actually bought it because you can’t take calcium with antibiotics and love the taste more than almond breeze. You’d be surprised how some of the more mainstream “healthy” products are owned by big company’s. Heinz actually owns a bunch… who knew?
Oh my gosh, no kidding! Or like General Mills owning Larabar and Muir Glen!
?
General Mills owns Larabar?
I thought they were still independent. Well, damn.
General Mills doesn’t bug me as much as companies like Con Agra (Lightlife) and Dean (Silk) which are really founded and funded nearly entirely by animal torture, death and enslavement.
I also will not buy any products from Proctor and Gamble, even “vegan” ones and I refuse to buy Kraft (Boca) due to the Phillip Morris connection. Super duper horrific animal testing goes on with P&G and PM, they kill and torture rats and other animals so I will not give them a dime, if I can help it.
I might be funding them without knowing it, all the brands are so entangled!, but when I realize they are connected, I stop buying those products. My mom will occasionally get me Boca stuff when I come to visit and I’ll eat it – I just won’t buy it and she knows I prefer not to support Boca and why. 🙂 She’s a good lady. I also tell her she doesn’t need to buy me stuff(!) but that never works. LOL.
In that vein, I refuse to buy Silk unless it is literally the only option and I absolutely must have milk for something – and that’s never been the case in the last couple of years (yay!) since, as you said, non-dairy stuff is more and more available. It’s a shame the most visible vegan milks are funded by and funding the number one perpetrator of the miseries of dairy, though. I just can’t do it. I think of the cows and the (veal) calves and they are just too much a part of what I see when I see Silk. 🙁 Luckily, I like So Delicious coconut milk and Almond Breeze is in like 90% of markets now? Crazy!
I agree 100% about P&G. In fact, I stopped giving them a cent even before I went vegan! I found out about animal testing before factory farming. So yeah, it’s hard, but no p&g, kimberly clark, johnson-johnson, and oh holy cow so many others! Sometimes, it means I have to buy generic, and goodness knows if the generic brand tests too… but I try to do as much as I can, and I will not knowingly give my money to a company that tests on animals. Over 90% of those tests are deemed useless anyway, because people and animals are different! (Did you know tylenol causes cancer in rats?!)
I did not know that. I did know that they tested Baytril on rats (and its one of the antibiotics I commonly use with my rattie kids – my hands are tied on veterinary medicine. I can choose to not take pharma for myself but the rats will die without medicine so many times and I can’t allow that!) and it was fine – but caused INSANE hallucination in humans! And who knows, maybe it makes the rat kids hallucinate, too. It doesn’t seem to but how could I know for sure?
ARGLEBARGLE… “it’s one of the antibiotics…”
It just makes me so mad that they still test on animals when we have computer simulations that are a LOT more accurate. Forget the animal suffering for a moment… what about the huge waste of MONEY?!?
If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend “Lethal Laws” about toxicology testing on animals and the many things that are wrong with it, scientifically.
It’ll get your rage on, though.
That and “The Unheard Cry”… powerful stuff. Good books.
Thanks, Melissa! I already have so much rage about the issue, though… dunno if I can handle any more! I often write to those companies and let them know I’d like to see them stop the useless animal tests. I think that if people really knew what was going on (just like with factory farming), they’d be outraged.
I LOVE that non-dairy milks are becoming mainstream. Even my fiance, who will never, ever be vegetarian let alone vegan in his life, now loves almond milk, and we now buy it exclusively to use in our coffee (no cow’s milk in our apartment!). He’s still terrified of soy milk but almond is a go.
I think having Dean Foods as a backer for non-dairy milk is more positive than negative. If the demand is there, and non-dairy milk proves to be very profitable, this could someday result in them decreasing their production of cow’s milk in favor of non-dairy. I wish more companies would recognize that this is important! I have recently begun a crusade of one to get Dunkin Donuts to start carrying non-dairy milk. They would do alot of business, both from vegans and from people who are lactose-intolerant. The “America” that supposedly runs on Dunkin includes alot of people that don’t drink cow’s milk!
Great post 🙂
It’d be awesome if Dunkin would carry non-dairy milk. I’m surprised they don’t already! C’mon Dunkin! Follow Starbucks’ lead!
That looks sooo good katie~~! I think it’s awesome that in the U.s. we have such a wide variety of foods! It’s awesome that the food industry is opening up more options to an eclectic range of folks. Dude, the SILK almond milk is awesome huh?! I def. think it’s better than almond breeze. AND they have more sales with SILK
I know! I can’t imagine how vegans did it, ten years ago… or even five. Heck, I was a vegan 5 years ago… how did I manage? lol
prettiest thing ever – that pic of the secret shake! 🙂
I used to love cake more than the frosting for sure- but I LOVED the roses too! and I too was disappointed with the thin coconut milk from so delicious. so excited to try silk!! xo
oh! and have you tried this http://www.shoporganic.com/product/pacific-foods-unsweetened-almond-beverage/soy_and_grain_beverages – its my favorite – much better than almond breeze.
I haven’t! I think I saw it once, but it was twice the price of the AB 🙁
Yes the dairy companies are getting in on the nondairy milk. Just in case everyone goes vegan huh?
I personally opt for non dairy owned products if possible because I don’t like the thought of my money going to anything that might hurt animals. But if there is only once choice obviously I go with it. My favorite nondairy milk is my own homemade almond or hazelnut milk, then if I am in a pinch, I also use so delicious coconut milk. Good stuff.
Woah, I wanna make homemade hazelnut milk! That sounds exciting!
When I was little, I used to eat the frosting and leave the rest of the cake behind 😀
Now I find most frostings waaay too sweet.
I just got Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk, I’m excited to try it! After reading this post, I’m looking forward to it even more now!
lol I hope it doesn’t let you down! 🙂
Found this on the P&G website…not the best, but at least they make mention of their practices and intentions (goal of eventually not using any animals)… I avoid most of their products simply because they’re full of chemicals, but I hadn’t given a lot of thought to their testing practices. Again it’s such a conundrum because obviously they have the industry $$ and clout to do research and change things for the better, yet I really don’t want to support them. Here it is:
“Today, more than 99% of our safety assessments are accomplished without the use of additional safety testing with animals. We reapply existing information and make extensive use of non-animal methods to determine safety. P&G is working with many partners and lawmakers globally to continue to advance science and technology in this area.
P&G is well known for leadership in developing alternatives to animal tests, investing more than $265 million and developing or adapting more than 50 alternative methods. Many of these methods are not only faster than corresponding methods using animals, they are also more predictive of environmental or health effects.
We are committed to continuing our leadership in developing non-animal alternatives, and our goal is to ultimately eliminate all animal research.”
Wow, Rachel, THANK YOU for bringing this to my attention. I have to admit, I hadn’t really been keeping up with their policies except what I’d heard a few years ago (and I knew from PETA that they were still on the “naughty” list). But you’re right; it’s at least nice to know they’re starting to change, because this was definitely not the case a few years ago when I first started boycotting them.
I don’t buy it. Not for a second.
P&G will say whatever they think we want to hear to get the business.
Monsanto has nice things to say about itself on its site, too.
Until independent research shows that P&G is doing more than just blah blah blah I will never give them a cent. That Iams fiasco is a bit fresh in my mind, ditto so many other atrocities.
Keep in mind that if they are only doing 1000 tests a year and only 1% are animal based, that’s still 100 animal tests. With 100s of animal subjects being killed in each one. They still do LD50s, they won’t make any real pledge for a solid animal testing cut off date – they just keep the positive spin that they are “working on it”. They’ve been saying the same thing for years. I call BS.
Sorry, I just HATE them so much. They and Monsanto are my least favorite corporations ever – with Walmart a close third.
I definitely prefer frosting! I hate regular milk, but I use almond milk now instead 🙂
I just saw Silk’s brand of coconut milk yesterday while grocery shopping! I pretty much dropped to the floor, now Silk’s getting on the coconut train? I even saw individual- sized milk cartons of unsweetened coconut milk. Wheeee! Now people are starting to get what’s good 🙂