I'm annoyed that they haven't had the unsweetened vanilla almond milk in quite awhile. They still have the "original," and they have the sweetened almond milk in vanilla. This happens to me all the time at Aldi - items I consistently buy just disappear and often never return. I found shelf-stable tofu a couple of years ago, but when it was gone, it never returned. Vegan Italian sausages have disappeared now too.
We do like the German-ground fair trade coffee and I hope that doesn't disappear from the shelves.
I find the opposite at my Aldi - I'm always looking for the unsweetened original almond milk - and they have anything but for weeks and weeks ... Anytime I see they have it, I pick up 2 or 3 of them to be safe.
Did your price go up? For a long time they were $1.99, but now they're $2.29
I won't do premade almond milk anymore, nor will I go through the trouble of making it from scratch, either. What's coming is not an Aldi tip, but useful tip for almond milk people none-the-less, such as
@coppertop and
@Lauran75 here.
What I do is buy some bulk Bob's Red Mill almond flour (not
meal, but blanched
flour) from Sam's Club using a
guest pass, and throw 1/8th of a cup of it and 8-16oz of water along with a pinch of salt into a cheap smoothie blender and run that for about 30 seconds, let it sit for a few minutes, and run it again for another 30 seconds.
Best almond milk ever, and it's literally made on demand - though you could probably do larger batches to refrigerate if you wanted. You can even control and add your own sweetener, a little oil, or flavors in small batches, too. No cheesecloth filtering, no soaking, just almond milk in a couple minutes. And if you want thicker almond milk, toss in a half teaspoon of unflavored fiber supplement at the same time. The psyllium does wonders to thicken.
Technically, 1/8c to 16oz gives you a similar calorie profile to unsweetened premade. At that ratio, even with the 10% premium for non-members,
$15.40+tax and that 3lb sack gives you around 12.25 gallons of shelf stable almond milk mix, or $1.26/gallon, or 63¢/half gallon. Even if you double the almond flour (which I do), it's still cheaper than the cheapest almond milk on the market - and far richer and tastier.
Walmart also has a 4lb. bag of almond flour from Nature's Eats for $20 (so less hassle than trying to get it from Sam's without the membership), but the quality of almond flour just isn't the same. The Bob's makes a far creamier and less stale tasting milk.
Last tip for a treat:
Almond Flour Chocolate Mint "Milkshake"
1.5 C water (cold)
1/4 C almond flour
1 tsp ground psyllium fiber
pinch salt
sweetener to taste (stevia, agave, honey, sugar, whatever)
1 rounded tbsp dutch cocoa
fresh mint leaves (or splash mint extract)
1 tbsp oil (grapeseed works well)
Blend for 30 seconds, let sit for 2-5 minutes or until the foam visibly rises to the top. Blend for 30 seconds again, let sit another 2-5 minutes. Much less foam should rise to the top this time. Blend another 30 seconds. Drink.
This recipe also makes a decent sorbet if you have a churn.
EDIT: I was trying to think of a way to loop this post back around on topic, and I think I've got it.
Don't have a blender to work this magic with? Don't bother with buying some fancy Vitamix or whatever. Aldi should still have in stock a personal smoothie blender for something like $16 with a three year warranty. You should see an ROI on your almond milk costs with this thing before the bottom of the first bag of almond flour, even at their own almond milk prices.
HA! HA! HA!
Cookies on dowels Back on topic!
