Quaker Bets Oat Milk Is More Than Just a Passing Fad
These days, a trip to the grocery store to pick up milk can be a daunting task. Not only are there new spins on traditional cow’s milk — ultra-filtered? grass-fed? — but there’s also a dizzying array of alternatives made from soy, rice, coconuts, almonds, cashews, hemp and even peas. Now, Quaker Oats is muscling its way into the aisle with a version based on the grain that made it famous.
In January, the company plans to bring Quaker Oat Beverage — not “milk,” perhaps because of the debate over whether the word is appropriate for nondairy drinks — to the mass market. It will use the distribution might of its parent company, PepsiCo, in hopes of claiming a big piece of a fast-growing sector.
Oat milk, while gaining popularity in parts of Europe, has been mostly a trendy, fringe product in the United States. Quaker is betting it can be more than that. The company’s main competitor in the category is Oatly, a 25-year-old company based in Sweden, and its namesake drink. Oatly tiptoed into the United States market about two years ago, persuading small coffee chains like Intelligentsia and some stand-alone shops to use its dairy milk alternative.
Oatly quickly developed a cultlike following among the coffee elite as baristas took of advantage of its consistency — thicker than other plant-based options — to whip up lattes and other foamy drinks. (How does it taste? Well, like Quaker’s version, a little like oats.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/business/quaker-foods-pepsi-oat-milk.html?action=click&module=In%20Other%20News&pgtype=Homepage&action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage
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