The Oat Drink You Should Avoid At Trader Joe’s

Trader Joe’s does oat milk (or, as it calls it, Oat Beverage). Of COURSE it does. Most major supermarkets do their own oat milks, or an approximation of them, these days, and it’s not gonna miss a trick there, is it? In fact, it has two oat drinks: A refrigerated one and a shelf-stable one. And one of them is pretty good. 

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The other, though…is not. A recent thread on Reddit reminded us that, if customer sentiment is anything to go by, there’s a pretty distinct difference in quality and flavor between these two drinks, and you’re going to want to make sure you get the better one. Here’s the deal. 

The One To Avoid Is…

The shelf-stable version. Both versions of Trader Joe’s Non-Dairy Oat Beverage are called the same thing, but the shelf-stable version is A. slightly cheaper ($2.99 per carton, as opposed to $4.29), and B. has a different color scheme (it’s got turquoise lettering instead of the blue lettering the refrigerated version has). Oh, and C., it’s found on the shelf instead of in the refrigerated section. The shelf-stable Non-Dairy Oat Beverage also has a much shorter ingredients list: It’s made just of water and hydrolyzed oats, while the refrigerated option has stabilizers, sunflower oil, and sea salt. 

Now, we’d love to say that the simpler combination of oats and water gave customers a gloriously simple experience, one that shone with elegance, with straightforwardness, with a lack of adulteration. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. The Reddit thread we mentioned saw people saying that the shelf-stable version didn’t stand up to scrutiny, with one person saying they “cannot stand” it. 

So What Brand Should I Buy?

There are a couple of shelf-stable options out there that customers rate pretty highly. Oatly Barista Edition is consistently well-reviewed (and having used it for years when I was a barista, I can confirm that it’s great), as is Califia Farms Barista Blend and Minor Figures Barista Oat. It is worth mentioning that these options contain more than oats and water, and the added oils give them the creaminess that a lot of people cite as a positive – so you’re compromising simplicity for flavor here. 

Or you could just go for Trader Joe’s refrigerated version. Sure, it has its own critics, but when we tried it back in 2024, we rated it as one of the best oat milks out there. Not that you should let that influence you or anything.