Overherd the one about powdered oat milk?

As someone who had completely dismissed dried milk powder as ‘pretty disgusting’ in the days when I used to eat dairy products (many years ago), I was going to need some convincing about a vegan version. So, having sampled it for this Overherd powdered oat milk review, I can now reveal whether this plant-based version fared any better in the Vegan Mum household.

Discount code for Overherd powdered oat milk

Readers of this Overherd powdered oat milk review can get an exclusive 15% discount – use code VEGANMUM15 at checkout

What is powdered oat milk?

Essentially, powdered oat milk is oat milk without the water added! But it is a little more sophisticated than just straightforward ground oats because it is instantly soluble, contains added nutrients like Calcium and Vitamin B12, and all you need to do is dilute it in water and it’s ready for use – amazing! Not only that, you can actually just stir the powder straight into your coffee and it acts like a vegan creamer – now that’s even more amazing!

Of course, you can make your own oat milk out of oats and water. However, apart from the convenience factor of just opening a recyclable pouch of powdered oat milk like Overherd, homemade oat milk has some other limitations too:

• You need a high speed blender
• It needs straining at least twice
• If you overblend, it goes slimy
• It doesn’t respond well to heat, so no hot chocolate or bechamel sauce
• You can’t just stir ground oats into your coffee (well, you can if you want but you might not want to drink it if you do!)

What are the benefits of oat milk powder?

Most oat milk powders are inherently healthier than many commercially prepared, ready-made oat milks and there is good reason for this. There are far fewer additives in Overherd’s oat milk powder for example, which contains just organic oats, coconut powder, chicory root fibre, and the nutrients Calcium and Vitamin B12.

Interestingly, you can take a look at some of the benefits of chicory root fibre on Healthline’s website.

Many ready to drink alternatives contain additives including ingredients like sunflower or rapeseed oils, sweeteners or sugar, salt, and acidity regulators. There is an informative article about the side effects of drinking ready-made oat milks on Eat This, Not That.

Overherd’s powdered oat milk compares very favourably with several leading brands of ready-to-drink plant milk brands, being generally higher in fibre, and lower in calories, fat, sugar, and salt. But it’s definitely not lower in flavour! Read the rest of this Overherd powdered oat milk review to find out more about the benefits of this particular product.

Pros and Cons of Overherd Oat Drink Powder

OK, so we’ve had a look at what powdered oat milk is, and what the benefits are, so let’s take a look now at the pros and cons (mentioned at the beginning of this Overherd powdered oat milk review) which are specific to Overherd oat drink powder.

And just to confirm that for the purposes of this Overherd powdered oat milk review, I made up 600ml of diluted product in their handy glass bottle and used that in everything I tested (tea, overnight oats, and homemade bechamel sauce). The only exception was for my coffee when I used it ‘straight’ – and very tasty it was too.

Tastes really good

I had pretty low expectations to be honest, but I was blown away by the quality and flavour. Overherd’s powdered oat milk is very impressive (and bears no resemblance to a dried dairy milk powder that I remember from many moons ago!) But that’s not only because it’s made from oats, not dairy. It’s because instant ‘anything’ so often tastes, well…instant, but this really doesn’t. It tastes just like oat milk should – not sure why I am so surprised but there you go!

So as you can see from my cup of tea (and I do like a good, strong cuppa), the colour is great. So often your tea ends up with a deep burnt orange appearance with anything other than barista-style plant milks, and I find that the taste often reflects the colour too – harsh and uninviting. But not with this little marvel! It turns your tea a beautiful caramel colour that looks just right, and that’s important because we drink with our eyes too. Although not literally of course because that would be a bit freaky.

Not only is it tasty, but it doesn’t contain any of the more disagreeable ingredients like gluten, seed oils, gummy stuff, salt, sugar, sweeteners, genetically modified ingredients, puppy dogs’ tails, eyes of newts…see the Benefits of oat milk powder section above for Overherd’s full list of ingredients.

A better environmental choice

If you look at the ingredients list on most cartons of ready-to-drink plant-based milks, the first one on the list is invariably water (ingredient lists always go in descending order, hence the first ingredient is what it contains most of). So what you, and the planet, are paying for is greater transportation costs, more fuel, increased emissions, for the sake of something you could just get out of your tap. It’s a no-brainer really, especially when you can buy a product the quality of Overherd and make your own oat milk at home, just by turning on the tap. I am really quite passionate about this, so if you take nothing else from this Overherd powdered oat milk review, if you give some thought to the environmental implications of buying cartons of ready-to-drink plant milk, that will be a win for me. And just one single pouch of planet-friendly, gut-loving oat milk powder can make a whopping 8 litres – no contest! Trying out this product has certainly changed my shopping list.

You might also benefit from less waste using a powdered milk because when you buy a 1 litre carton of the ready-made stuff, you’re committed to drinking it within a certain timeframe – normally about 3 days. If you don’t use it all, it ends up down the sink and that is so wasteful of both your money, and the resources that went in to making that product. With Overherd, you make only as much as you want to and the packet then goes back in the cupboard where it lasts for ages and ages, even though it doesn’t contain any preservatives. Clever, huh?

You also get all the environmental and cruelty-free benefits of a plant-based product with Overherd – no land clearance for cattle-farming, no forced cow pregnancies, no calves being hauled off to the abattoir – want me to go on?

Convenient for travelling

On a lighter note, this is also a great product to travel with. In order to write this Overherd powdered oat milk review, I was sent a sample just before I went away on a week’s holiday and it hugely improved my packing space. So just think how many more outfits you’ll be able to fit in your suitcase when you don’t have to pack half a ton of plant milk to take on holiday with you. And they won’t get leaked on when the carton bursts…

Campings trips? No problem. Festivals? Bring it on. Hotel rooms with little plastic pots of cow’s milk? Who cares.

Cost effective

If you buy an 800g pack on subscription, you will pay £10.99 (and get a free glass Overherd bottle to mix it all up in). This works out to about £1.37 per litre once you dilute it. Of course, you need to take into account the postage cost, but even then, this is a relatively cost-effective option. Not cheap, but not horribly expensive either and you are doing your self and the planet a favour at the same time. Plus, you only make up the amount you want to use so there is far less waste. Can’t be bad.

Some may not recycle the packaging

Overherd’s powdered oat milk pouch is fully recyclable and made from only 1 material, which makes it much easier to do so. However, not all council kerbside schemes will recycle this kind of packaging. If yours doesn’t, take a look at the recycle now website to find your nearest recycling point. This is really the only ‘con’ that I have with this product, so overall, this Overherd powdered oat milk review is very positive. But I guess there is the chance that some people just won’t bother recycling the packet if it’s too much trouble for them.

Vegan Mum’s conclusion of this Overherd powdered oat milk review

Because of my negative associations with dried dairy milk powder from my childhood (which was a very, very long time ago, believe me), I had never really considered dried milk powder as an option ever since, vegan or not. So when Overherd approached me to review their powdered oat milk, to say that I was unconvinced about the product is an understatement.

Well, I am unconvinced no longer, and let it be said that I’m now a believer in the power of Overherd’s oat milk powder! Honestly. I just wish I had tried it before. I might even start a sect…

As a long-term user of a certain barista oat milk, I had become increasingly concerned by the amount of the stuff that I seem to get through, and the number of tetra paks that build up in the recycling box as a result. I’m lucky in the respect that we have a local community ‘green team’ who collect tetra paks and take them to an appropriate recycling point in bulk for us. However, it is unsettling to see the sheer volume of cartons collected and I kept thinking there had to be a better way. I had started to buy some oat milk, supplied in glass bottles, through my regular veg box scheme, but it is a horribly expensive option that is not sustainable for me in the long term.

Then, enter stage left, a pouch of Overherd oat drink powder. What a revelation! I have been really impressed by its taste first and foremost, but also by its versatility. I have used it in my tea and coffee, it’s become a regular in my overnight oats, and perhaps most surprisingly of all, I have been able to cook with it successfully. I made a bechamel sauce for my leek and mushroom pasta, the odd hot chocolate (OK, maybe more regular than occasional) and used it in porridge too. I have even stirred a couple of spoonfuls into my homemade soup for an extra creamy flavour.

There is no doubt that cartons of barista plant milks make a mean cup of frothy coffee, and an even frothier hot chocolate when you get the whisk out, but there’s a price to pay. And whilst Overherd oat milk powder can’t quite compete on those fronts, if you whisk really hard, you can definitely get some bubbles going. You just need to see it as a useful arm exercise.

Not only that, in these times of concern over ultra-processed foods, surprisingly, this product seems less processed than the barista plant milk cartons – the ingredients are certainly more recognisable and it’s a much shorter list too.

So, if you wanna join my oat milk powder sect, and wave goodbye to those tetra pak mountains, this Overherd powdered oat milk review could have been written for you. It’s not perfect, and I may still buy the odd barista product here and there for those occasions when froth is really important, but this fabulous oat milk powder has an awful lot going for it. I genuinely like it and would really recommend you give it a try.

Where can you buy Overherd Oat Drink Powder?

You can buy Overherd direct from their online store, and then you get to benefit from their subscription discounts. And don’t forget that as a reader of this Overherd powdered oat milk review, you can benefit from an exclusive Vegan Mum 15% discount (enter VEGANMUM15 at checkout).

You can also buy Overherd from Amazon. Take your pick below…

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