If some non-dairy milk alternative is on your grocery list every week, you probably already know it could be made at home for fractions of the cost. The thought that I have a blender and nut milk bag at home sometimes crosses my mind as I put another gallon of Oatly in my shopping cart. If you're like me, the habit of store-bought convenience wins over homemade alternative milks simply because of the time commitment it takes to make them.
As a bit of a skeptic, the idea of a machine that makes every type of non-dairy milk sounded no different than my blender and nut milk bag that I’m already not using. However, after spending a month with the Nutr, I can say this small device has done what no blender can do: it’s helped me build the habit of making plant milk at home.
Price (Direct from Nutr): $169 | Price (Amazon): $169
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How the Nutr Machine Works
The Nutr is part blender, part electric kettle, and comes powered with some smartly programmed cycles that can boil and pulverize your nut, bean, grain or seed of choice into frothy milk. While the room-temp cycle takes about five minutes to run and is great for oat milk, the hot cycle highlights the strengths of the Nutr best.
For soy milk, add 1 tbsp of dried yellow soybeans, some sweetener and a pinch of salt to 1 cup of water and press the hot cycle. Over the next 20 or so minutes, the Nutr will go through a cycle of boiling, resting, pulsed pulverizing, more boiling and more pulsed pulverizing to finally finish off with a gentle beep to let you know your steamy soy milk is ready. Once complete, all you need to do next is strain your milk through the provided strainer into a cup and give the Nutr a quick rinse so it’s clean for the next use.
As a single-serving device, the Nutr will process up to 1.5 cups of milk at a time and it can be used twice before needing a 1-hour rest period for the motor and internal components to cool down.
What’s Good About the Nutr
The recipes are intuitive
Included in the box is a quick start guide that’s possibly one of the best I’ve received from a consumer kitchen appliance. The Nutr's catalog of plant milk recipes is extensive but follows a general formula that’s easy to remember and riff on. Add 2-4 tbsp of dried nuts, grains, seeds or beans, 1-1.5 cups of water, some sweetener and a pinch of salt to the Nutr, select your cycle and strain when done. It’s a simple ritual that's easy to work into your day.
It makes high-quality milk alternatives
In my skeptical opinion, a plant milk maker is only going to be worth it if it can make alternative milks that are equal to or better quality than store-bought. In my testing, I tried milk recipes for oat, almond, soy, cashew, pecan and peanut.
Although taste is wildly divisive, I can say that out of the six, fresh soy and almond milk tasted the absolute best when homemade. Pecan and cashew made some of the most unique-tasting coffee creamers I’ve had. And while the Nutr made perfectly palatable oat milk in a pinch — it’s still my go-to recipe for a bowl of cereal — I couldn’t expect top-shelf oat milk quality with homemade. Oatly uses the magic of enzymes to break down the starches in oats to sugars, and put simply, their quality is hard to beat at home — even with the Nutr.
What’s Not Ideal About the Nutr
It’s a small serving size
As the Nutr only makes a maximum of 1.5 cups of milk at a time, it may not be the most suitable device for larger families. Having spent the past month with the 1.5 cups serving size model, I can say it’s been perfectly sized to keep up with the typical intake of two adults. While I wouldn’t want a larger capacity, Nutr has debuted a 2.0 lineup including a larger model that makes 3-4 cups dubbed the ‘Family Size.’
Straining is on the thicker side
While your tastes may be different than mine, the provided strainer with the Nutr tended to make a more pulpy milk than I preferred. While it would have been nice to see multiple strain mesh levels, I do stand by my opinion that the strainer is a good design and it’s perfectly manageable to use. The strainer fits perfectly on a mason jar and it’s still easy to add a cheesecloth liner for a more filtered end result. Even with a cheesecloth lining, filtering is no more painful than making pour-over coffee.
The Nutr: The Verdict
Before you press buy on this product, though, I have one question for you: Do you dream of making plant milk at home, but don’t get around to making batches in your blender? As someone who answered yes, I can say the Nutr machine will change your habits for the better. You can make high-quality plant milks at the same convenience as making a cup of coffee. If you want to remove expensive milk alternatives from your grocery list, this little machine will help you make the jump to homemade.
