The Cost of Making Homemade Almond Milk

I have to admit, the engineer in me is coming out in this recipe.

Because this isn't just a "how to make almond milk" post.

It's also the economics of making your own almond milk. Does it make sense to make your own? How much does it cost? Is it worth the time/effort?

It's fun, to make your own, yes! But it's also time consuming, and a little messy. So I decided to run the numbers on if there was a real advantage of making my own almond milk versus just grabbing a delicious, already made bottle at the store.

First things first, I do have to say that this process was a lot easier than I was expecting. Once the almonds were soaked, you simply throw the almonds in a blender with fresh water and some vanilla, dates, press it through a cheese cloth, and bam, homemade milk!

So now that it's made, the real question comes down- is it worth it? Get ready math nerds, because we're going to talk numbers! I hope my math nerds are out there and it's not just a bunch of people skipping over this part to the end... If you do that, it's okay, I'll forgive you.

But if you're interested in the Hows, here's what I did.

I broke down store-bought and homemade almond milk into servings (to then get cost per serving).  I personally use almond milk daily in my superfoods shake, and use about a cup of milk. So that means that I can get about 6 servings out of a normal container of almond milk (about 2 quarts). With the homemade almond milk, I had about 4 servings.

For the homemade almond milk, I excluded the cost of equipment and time, so if you don't have a high power blender, obviously it will be cheaper for you to just go grab a bottle of Silk and be done with it. But the actual ingredients (almonds, vanilla extract, and dates) obviously cost some money. I found raw almonds at my grocery store for $7.99/lb, and since 1 cup of almonds is about 0.31 lb, that means I spent $2.51 on almonds. If you factor in a couple more cents for the vanilla and dates, that gives you a total cost of $2.83 for 4 servings of almond milk, therefore giving you $0.71/serving (easy, right?)

However, if you don't need any additives in your milk, you can stick with the $2.51 and that gives you a cost of $0.63/serving.

Okay, but is that a lot?

Honestly, I wasn't sure until I went to the store. I looked at my neighborhood Kroger and Sprouts, and there were plenty of options such as: Silk, Almond Breeze, Califia Farms, Sprouts brand, and So Delicious. These ranged between $2.50 (Silk on sale at Kroger) and $4.69 (Califia Farms at Sprouts). So based off that 6 serving basis, store-bought milk is somewhere between $0.42/serving all the way to $0.78/serving, with most of them averaging out to about $0.75/serving.

Type	Cost per Serving
Homemade	0.63 - 0.71
Store-bought	0.42 - 0.78

So what does this mean for me?

Well, it depends on what kind of person you are.

If you are hell bent that homemade almond milk tastes that much better, then have at it and know that you're not costing yourself an arm an a leg.

But if you don't have the time or motivation to make your own milk, congratulations, there's plenty of cheap alternatives to buy yourself! Stores run sales so often that if you're willing to change it up a bit, you can always come out ahead (as long as you're less than $4.26 for 2 quarts, you're in the green). 

Overall, this little experiment didn't tell me anything shocking. I was expecting one option to be significantly cheaper than the other, and that just didn't happen. I will say that I held a little more pride in my homemade milk, and I did love the flavor of it! If you're into drinking your almond milk straight, I'd recommend the homemade! 

Vanilla Almond Milk

Servings 3-4

Prep time: 6-8 hours

Cook time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 8 hours, 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup raw almonds

4 cups water

2 dates

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1. Combine 1 cup almonds into a medium sized bowl with water, making sure all almonds are completely submerged in the water. 
2. Let the almonds soak for 6-8 hours. 
3. Once soaked, drain almonds from the liquid. 
4. Add almonds, fresh water, and flavoring into a high power blender, and combine.*
5. Using a mesh strainer and a towel or cheese cloth, run the liquid through the cloth and squeeze out the liquid into a bowl. Feel free to use the leftover almond residue in baking or energy balls! 
6. Let chill, and enjoy!

* I used my Nutribullet and prepared the milk in batches, which worked quite well, but any Vitamix, Ninja, or other high power blender will work fine.

Note: it's quite good with some blueberry mini bagels ;)