Almond Milk vs Coconut Milk

Question: What are the differences between almond milk vs coconut milk?

Answer: Many dairy milk alternatives have emerged over recent years with almond milk being the most popular among these beverages. People have elected to switch to non-dairy milk products for many reasons. Some reasons may be to avoid lactose or animal products. Needless to say, products like almond milk and coconut milk are here to stay for the time being.

Many grocery stores offer a variety of non-dairy milk products like cashew milk, almond milk, soy milk, and coconut milk. It is often difficult to understand the differences between these products when looking at them at the store. Below we have provided the ingredients and nutrition facts for almond and coconut milk to give you an idea of how these two differ.

Ingredients

Almond milk in its simplest form is only water and ground almonds. Cane sugar is often added for sweetness. However, the almond milk you buy in the grocery store will likely have additional ingredients such as stabilizers or additives. Here are a couple examples of the ingredients of some popular almond milk products:

Silk – Original Almond Milk: Almondmilk (Filtered Water, Almonds), Cane Sugar, Contains 2% or less of: Vitamin and Mineral Blend (Calcium Carbonate, Vitamin E Acetate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2), Sea Salt, Sunflower Lecithin, Locust Bean Gum, Gellan Gum.

Almond Breeze – Unsweetened Original Almond Milk: Almondmilk (Filtered Water, Almonds), Calcium Carbonate, Sea Salt, Potassium Citrate. Sunflower Lecithin, Gellan Gum, Natural Flavors, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2, D-Alpha-Tocopherol (Natural Vitamin E).

Coconut milk is derived from a combination of water and the white fleshy interior of a coconut (coconut cream). The water and coconut interior are ground into a liquid and then strained to remove any chunks of remaining coconut. Like almond, the coconut milk you buy at the store will likely not just consist of water and coconuts. Let’s take a look at the ingredients of some common coconut milk products:

Silk – Original Coconut Milk: Coconutmilk (Filtered Water, Coconut Cream), Cane Sugar, Contains 2% or less of: Vitamin and Mineral Blend (Calcium Carbonate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin B12, Vitamin D2), Sea Salt, Natural Flavor, Sunflower Lecithin, Locust Bean Gum, Gellan Gum.

So Delicious – Unsweetened Coconut Milk: Organic Coconutmilk (Filtered Water, Organic Coconut Cream), Contains 2% or less of: vitamin and mineral blend (calcium phosphate, magnesium phosphate, l-selenomethionine [selenium], vitamin a acetate, vitamin d2, zinc oxide, vitamin b12), sea salt, organic sunflower lecithin, organic locust bean gum, gellan gum.

Note that coconut milk is not to be confused with coconut water. Coconut water is the transparent liquid inside the coconut while coconut milk is made from the white meat of the coconut.

Nutrition

We took a selection of almond and coconut milk products and provided their nutrition facts below. We included the different types of milk like unsweetened, chocolate, vanilla and original to give you an idea of the nutrition in each. You will notice not many striking differences between the two products in regards to nutrition.