By Eva Strand, from the April 1999 Newsletter

During the last few days I have been carrying five bricks of soy milk around town looking for a wide selection of mouths to taste a wide selection of soy milks. We picked the unflavored soy milks for this comparison rather than vanilla, chocolate or carob. Twelve testers out of fourteen came to the same conclusion: Pacific Select Soy Drink from Pacific Foods in Oregon is the BEST! With a clean taste similar to cow milk, no `wheaty' or `beany' after taste, light color, full and creamy rather than watery–this is obviously what most of us are looking for in the search for a lactose- and cholesterol-free alternative to dairy milk.

Pacific Select soy drink is made from organically-grown soybeans and contains 26.8 mg soy isoflavones per serving. Isoflavones has been identified as one of the anti-carcinogens in soybeans. According to current clinical studies isoflavones also produce enough mild estrogenic effects to alleviate the symptoms of menopause. Price-wise, Pacific Select falls in the average- to low-cost category. Pacific Select is great to drink plain, on cereal, in shakes, for baking and cooking—basically, use it as you would dairy milk.

White Wave Silk Dairyless Soy beverage was only sampled by a few mouths, but I would like to give the Silk beverage second place in this taste test. Silk has a clean, refreshing taste with a touch of sweet vanilla. I would use Silk on cereal, in shakes, in baking or to drink plain, but maybe not in cooking because of the sweet vanilla flavor. Look for Silk in the beverage cooler at the Coop rather than on the soy milk shelf. Silk also comes in half pint containers—great for lunch boxes.

Have you ever eaten the leftover milk in your kids' cereal bowl? Soy Dream from Imagine foods had this wheat-like, but not unpleasant, flavor. Because of this distinct flavor, Soy Dream would be best with cereal or in baking—I would not pick Soy Dream for plain drinking.

Eden Soy from Eden Foods Inc. turned out to be the favorite for two of the tasters while others among us thought Eden Soy has a touch of wheat flavor—however, less so than Soy Dream. Eden Soy was also thinner and less sweet compared to Soy Dream.

Vitasoy from Vitasoy USA Inc. was very light—like skim milk with a tad of after taste. This milk would be good for drinking plain, however it was not as tasty as Pacific Select or Silk.

Last in the glass and our least favorite was West Soy from Westbrae Natural Foods. We found West Soy less appealing because of its strong soy flavor and aftertaste, plus excessive sweetness and watery consistency.

I was surprised to find such variety in flavor among the soy beverages—next time I will pick Pacific Select or Silk.

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