‘The demand from our customers for alternative milks continues to rise, with oat milk proving particularly popular’

Waitrose has recorded a staggering 113% spike in the sales of oat milk over the last year.

According to the retailer with the lockdown shuttering cafes, most coffee lovers have been recreating their favourite drinks at home as sales of barista-style alternative milks designed especially to be used in coffees are up 64% along with a rise in sales of whole bean coffee and coffee-making equipment.

Among all the alternative milk options available, Waitrose adds that online searches for ‘oat milk’ are up 210% and the search term ‘barista oat milk’ is up a staggering 1,517% on Waitrose.com vs last year.

‘Increased demand’

The increased demand for oat milk has prompted the British supermarket to launch two new dairy-free oat drinks.Oat Milk and Organic Oat Milk by UK coffee company Minor Figures will be available as national grocery exclusives from 5th August.

“We’re really excited to be launching these new oat milks from Minor Figures,” said Alice Shrubsall, buyer for Long Life Milk & Dairy Alternatives at Waitrose in a statement.

“The demand from our customers for alternative milks continues to rise, with oat milk proving particularly popular, so we know these varieties will be the perfect addition to our range and we can’t wait for shoppers to try them.

“We predict that as social distancing restrictions lift, sales will continue to do so too, as more of our customers continue to work from home and enjoy their barista-style coffee while doing so.”

‘Designed for coffee’

According to Minor Figures, the new oat drinks are designed to complement the flavours of coffee, don’t split and create perfectly textured micro-foam when steamed.

In addition to coffee, the plant-based drinks can be added to tea, smoothies and cereals.

“Our Regular and Organic Oat M*lks have been designed to pair perfectly with great tasting coffee,” Stuart Forsyth, co-founder and CEO of Minor Figures said.

“We’re all coffee people, and wanted to reflect that by creating a product that would allow baristas to heighten their customers’ own coffee-drinking experience. The desire for decent dairy-free products is huge, and only getting bigger, with café customers choosing oat in and out of home.”

‘Win a year’s supply’

The brand is also running a contest allowing customers a chance to win a year’s supply of oat milk.

Announcing the contest on its Instagram, the brand wrote: “Fancy winning a year’s supply of Oat M*lk!

“That’s 144 litres of the good stuff, completely free. Visit our Latte Art Simulator, create and save an original artwork and upload to Insta, tagging us and using the hashtag #highonacids.

“We’ll award our favourite three entires.⁠ Competition ends 6th of August.

• Read: Plant-based meat sales spike by 23% when sold in meat aisles, shows study

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Mohsina Dodhiya

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