◼ BUSINESS Bloomberg Businessweek August 5, 201918
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRISTOPHER LEAMAN FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK (2)The spring of 2018 was a bad time for baristas
across the U.S. The year’s great oat milk shortage
had hit its nadir, sending caffeine addicts out the
door of their favorite cafes in search of any place
that could satisfy their fix.
The die-hards “are very particular,” says Naomi
Morales, manager of the Upper East Side loca-
tion of New York City chain Jack’s Stir Brew. They
like the creaminess of oat milk—made by blend-
ing oats with water, adding enzymes, cooking the
mix, then removing the fibers—and claim it has asimilar mouthfeel to cow’s milk, but without all
the animal welfare and environmental concerns.
Almond milk, too cloyingly sweet, wouldn’t cut it.
Soymilkwaspassé.
Fifteen months later, the dark dayshave
brightened—for baristas, coffee lovers, and espe-
cially Oatly AB. In April, the Swedish company
widely credited with creating the category opened
a $15 million processing plant in Millville, N.J.—
the first outside Europe. The factory produces
about 750,000 gallons of oat base—a thick, lightly● Oatly, a Swedish maker of a plant-based milk, wants you to rethink your morning coffeeGot Oats?
▼ Oatly’s plant
in New Jersey