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Tuesday 3 November | TRINITY NEWS
Making: Milk Allegra Della Ragione asks: is it worth ditching the carton and making your own plantbased milk?
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he day before writing this article, my flatmates and I received a sixpack of Oatly, Barista Edition, obviously from Amazon, so I feel a bit cheeky asking you to try and make your own plant milk. In the morning, I drink milky coffee for the sole purpose of experiencing the creamy, frothy goodness that is Oatly. I was utterly devastated upon learning of Oatly’s disappointing behaviour: selling shares to the Trump-linked private equity firm, Blackstone, which has also been accused of contributing to the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. After experiencing the creaminess of Oatly, I just couldn’t go back to one of the other lame nut milks, so I tried to make my own at home: less waste, guilt, and cheaper. But, crucially, would it froth? Oat milk Of course, I began my experiment with oat milk. The oats do not need to be soaked overnight, unlike some nuts. This typically seems to make them slimy rather than creamy. A nut milk bag helps, which you can buy from any health or eco shop for a few euros. A cheesecloth or a T-shirt works well too. Attempt #1: This attempt consisted of blending oats, water, and a pinch of salt together with a ratio of 1:3 cups of oats to water. After blending, pour the mixture through your strainer of choice. My high expectations were obliterated — it tasted too much like porridge, was not sweet enough and had a noticeable grainy texture. 3/10. Attempt #2: I edited the recipe with this next attempt by blending oats, water, the ratio of oats to water is 1:3 again, with a pinch of salt, half a date, and 1 Tbsp rapeseed oil together, and then double straining the mixture through a nut milk bag once it had been fully blended. I hoped the addition of rapeseed oil would make the milk froth – this did not happen but it did make it creamier! This was considerably better. 6/10. Attempt #3: This time I just attempted to adjust the flavour, blending oats, water, the ratio of oats to water is 1:2, then add a pinch of salt, honey instead of date, 1 tsp of rapeseed oil and double straining again. Adding honey works just as well but is not vegan. I ended up preferring the 1:3 ratio of oats to water as it had the best
texture. 5/10. I was pleased with my attempts yet remained unconvinced that I could produce a homemade version of oat milk that could rival Oatly’s. The factor that makes homemade oat milk preferable to store-bought oat milk is the price difference. I bought a 1 kg bag of Irish oats for €4.50. 200g of these oats made 1 litre of oat milk for 90c, whereas buying 1 litre of oat milk is €2.50, so it is considerably cheaper to make it at home. Almond milk In the past, I have been dubious and dismissive of almond milk because I’ve always found it to be too sweet, watery, and bad for the environment, and so generally it has been a milk I’ve avoided. I soaked the almonds overnight in the fridge, but otherwise my method here remained the same as with the oat milk. Blend a ratio of 1:2 cups of almond to water, then add a pinch of salt and half a date. This tasted really good, it had much more of a subtle sweet taste than shop-bought almond milks I’ve tried. It also kind of frothed, which was a much welcomed surprise. I really enjoyed this one, which, to me, is a success and didn’t warrant any more attempts. 7/10. Cashew milk I soaked the cashews overnight in the fridge as well and proceeded to blend a ratio of 1:2 of cashews to water, then added a pinch of salt, half a date, and only a single strain — nut pulp doesn’t go through the nut milk bag as easily as the oat pulp does, so a double strain wasn’t needed. I also didn’t add rapeseed oil to the almond nor the cashew milk, as I thought they would make creamy enough milks on their own. The result was much creamier and tastier than the homemade oat milk, frothed beautifully, and had a perfect level of sweetness. The problem I seem to be encountering so far has been the pricing difference. 200g of cashews was €5, the same as 200g of almonds, and this goes to 1 litre of cashew milk. However, buying 1 litre of cashew milk is €2.50, so this is not very cost effective. This can be somewhat altered by making a mixture of oat and cashew milk – this was a good combination of flavours, it frothed, and it was cheaper to mix these ingredients rather than using pure cashews as these are not very economical, especially for students. I was happy with the outcome and made no further attempts. 8/10. You could take my experimentation further by using different ingredients such as hazelnut — I imagine this being incredible in hot chocolate — macadamia, coconut, rice, hemp or a mixture of these. However, if one of your main priorities is having milk that froths, for coffee for example, making homemade plant milk might not be the option for you.
What we have learned from the gatherings at the Powerscourt Steps Large outdoor gatherings have been symptoms of a lack of public spaces, write Connie Roughan and Sean McElroy
PHOTO BY VICKY SALGANIK FOR TRINITY NEWS
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utside the Powerscourt shopping centre, a short stroll from Trinity’s campus, many young people have been gathering by the steps to meet and drink. Social distancing is but a distant thought. The wide steps have long been a popular resting point for weary shoppers, but throughout the summer they have become an evening hotspot for people to relax with a few cans while alternative bars and restaurants have been closed. The questions arise: are these kinds of outdoor congregations an acceptable alternative in the absence of bars; and what does this tell us about spaces for people to pause and have a drink in Dublin’s city centre? The practice has been controversial. It drew significant online attention when TD for Dublin North West Paul McAuliffe tweeted a (now deleted) picture of a crowd of young people on the steps, commenting, “It doesn’t look like anyone is halfing [sic] the number of close contacts they had last week”. The image recalled the familiar scenes of the smoking area of a Harcourt street club. Most replies lamented the lack of a Garda presence and some went further to blame the group for the local lockdowns. Some responded that the demonisation of young people simply meeting for a drink seems somewhat unjust when this level of social interaction elsewhere is actively encouraged by the state. Schools have reopened, meat packing factories remain open despite outbreaks of Covid-19 and direct provision centres are still having asylum seekers congregate to eat communally. Such a response does, however, oversimplify the rationality behind the Covid-19 restrictions. Schools being open undoubtedly has more benefit to the population, and the economy, if that’s a better success metric, than a bunch of students drinking Karpackie alfresco. But back when Dublin was in Level 3, restaurants and pubs were open to the patrons wanting to drink and able to afford the €9 meal with it. It was unfair that those who couldn’t afford it were not able to socialise in the same way. Such unfairness becomes heightened
when those who cannot afford the additional expense of a meal anytime they want a drink are also living in cramped and isolated conditions, which is the case for many students and young people in this city. Wealth imbalances have been a major problem in how people have been negatively affected by certain restrictions, and this has very much extended into how people eat and drink socially. Large gatherings such as those as the Powerscourt Steps have emerged in response to such imbalances, and as restrictions change, we should recognise this history. Although we may acknowledge how restriction issues have been dominated by various imbalances, the question nonetheless remains: are large crowds gathering for a social drink together safe? And the answer is, at the moment, certainly not. With that said, although we are currently in a Level 5 lockdown and any kind of gatherings will have to be extremely limited, we nonetheless cannot expect people to stay isolated indefinitely. People’s weariness towards restrictions has been exemplified not just with the crowds at the Powerscourt Steps, but also with scenes of NUIG students near Spanish Arch, and groups gathering around Grafton St on the eve of Ireland’s transition into Level 5. Pubs and bars have been shown to not just be a pleasant extra-curricular as part of society, but to play a necessary and essential role in facilitating social interactions that we have all suffered without. In their absence, we must ask what Dubliners are left with once they are allowed to have small outdoor gatherings once again. Apart from back-alleys and street corners, there are few public spaces for people to meet and have a distanced drink together in Dublin. This is especially true in the evenings; Dublin City Council closes the city’s parks at dusk. This frustrates even the idea of social distancing. If there were the opportunity not to
have to be in a crowd, the scenes at the Powerscourt Steps would have been largely avoided. While smaller public gatherings are obviously still not perfect in terms of viral transmission and restriction of movements, it would be a compromise for those who are defying the restrictions, having gaffs or drinking at the steps for example, regardless of safety. Of course, at the moment only two households are allowed to meet outside for exercise, but as we progress into the lower levels of restriction, having more accessible spaces would restrict contagion while still enabling people to share that all important drink or a meal together. Outdoor spaces for people to gather on a dry night and pass the time over a few drinks are not impossible to achieve either. One of the few spaces in Dublin where this has been made possible is by the Bord Gáis Theatre in Dublin’s Docklands. Under Level 3, this was another popular spot for people to meet, but by and large it never matched the large groups of people in very close proximity that we saw around Powerscourt and Fitzwilliam Street in general. This was because, something of a rarity in Dublin, there were spaces for people to sit and they were not forced to all pile on top of one another on some ill-fit stairs. If there were more spaces such as this one in the capital, one could be certain that better distanced gatherings could be facilitated. We would not fall into the trap of being demonised for wanting to enjoy a social drink together while still hoping to ensure relatively low social contact among people. In doing this, not only will we prevent the dense and uncontrolled gatherings that we’ve witnessed around Powerscourt, but we will also be providing essential improvements to the lives of those who are stuck in more restrained and isolated living conditions and who rely on going out to meet people as a crucial source of happiness and freedom.