Is the Almond Cow Milk Maker cost effective?

4 Minutes

We’ve gotten this question a lot over the years, so let’s break it down. In general, people want to know if they buy a Milk Maker, will they end up spending less money on plant-based milk in the long run. The short answer? Yes! Let’s walk through it.

An Almond Cow Milk Maker costs $245. If we’re buying a 48 oz carton of refrigerated, non-organic almond milk at the store, it’ll cost about $3.45*. But the Almond Cow can make more than just almond milk! Let’s also factor in oat milk, the second most popular milk to make in the Almond Cow. Oat milk has an average cost of $4.63* for 48 oz. If you want organic milk, these prices on the shelf go even higher, to an average of $7.49* for 48 oz almond milk and $10.47* for oat milk.

*Average prices based on a US nationwide survey of refrigerated organic and nonorganic almond and oat milks

Now let’s milk some money!

Let’s purchase some Almond Cow brand Bee-Friendly Almonds (3lbs) for $22.95. Each 3lb bag has enough almonds to make 9 batches of milk, with up to 48 oz of milk per each batch (depending on how high you fill your water in the base). That’s $2.55 for an equivalent amount of almond milk that we can get from the store, but without the added sugars, gums, and fillers - making Almond Cow-made almond milk 90¢ less expensive than the grocery store, not bad! If we want to pile on even more cost savings, we can soak the almonds overnight before using them - the nuts will expand to about double their size, meaning we can fill the filter basket 18 times and get 18 batches of almond milk for just $22.95. That brings our almond milk price down to $1.28 per 48 oz, which is about a third of what it is at the store.

How about oats?

Almond Cow brand bulk Organic Whole Grain Oats (3lbs) cost $12.95 for a 3lb bag. This bag of oats can make 8 batches of oat milk, so each 48 oz batch in the Almond Cow comes out to cost only $1.62, versus $4.63 or more in stores. Plus, homemade oat milk is cleaner than most popular grocery store brands. You get to decide exactly what goes in it - no fillers, additives, and excess sugar.

But what about the cost of the machine?

How long until it pays for itself? Let’s say you, like many of our users, make almond milk in your Almond Cow 2 times every week, and you choose to soak your almonds. Doing some math where x = the number of weeks until a breakeven point,

2(1.28 * x) + 245 = 3.45 * 2

2.56x + 245 = 6.9x

245 = 4.34x

x = 56.5 weeks

We can see that the Almond Cow Milk Maker pays for itself in 56.5 weeks, or about 13 months.

If we did the same thing with oat milk—two 48 oz batches every week, using Almond Cow brand Organic Whole Grain Oats—we see that this payback period is even quicker. 40.7 weeks (aka 10 months!), as shown below.

2(1.62 * x) + 245 = 4.63 * 2

3.24x + 245 = 9.26x

245 = 6.02x

x = 40.7 weeks

So, you make the call. Let us know in the comments below if after reading this you think the Almond Cow Milk Maker is cost effective.