RISE NITRO LATTE

Ah yes, the ever trendy oat milk latte. I have interesting thoughts on oat milk, primarily that it’s good with cereal and that’s sort of the only application. I am not lactose intolerant, I drink the milk of the cow with no objections in mind or spirit, but I totally respect anyone that doesn’t or can’t consume dairy products. Some of my best friends are lactose intolerant, I’m an ally! I bring up oat milk today because Rise not only proudly announces that it contains oat milk but actually tastes like it too. The drink tastes predominantly like oat milk, with a little bit of coffee in there.

Flavor wise unsweetened unflavored oat milk just tastes like, well like oats. Which checks out, and which is why it’s the king of cereal liquids, but on its own falls sort of flat. I don’t like vanilla flavor in oat milk, though, I feel like I’m drinking a milkshake. If it’s light enough than sure but, cows milk doesn’t taste like vanilla that sort of thing. Drinking this coffee feels like im just drinking oat milk with a bit of a coffee flavor, which is actually fairly pleasant if I’m in the mood for oat milk and not coffee.

This is our third drink from Earth Fare, though you can also find Rise in Harris Teeter and I believe Target? The cans claims of nitro infusion made me curious, our last nitrous drink (high brew, review one) had a widget in the bottom to release the nitrous when you opened the can, and this one did notably release some gas when opened (I’m tempted to say carbonation but thats categorically false.) This can didn’t have any instructions around tilting the can when you opened it to engage the widget, though, so I chugged the whole thing to see if one was present. Turns out there is, along with a small blob of sediment sitting on top of it. Guess I didn’t shake well enough. I also noticed that this coffee is distributed by a company in Connecticut but manufactured in the Netherlands, for reasons I’m not sure of. Is that just the cans or just the widgets or the whole thing? Their website offers no answers, so I assume the whole thing is put together in the Netherlands.

FLAVOR SCORE-5/8

VALUE SCORE-4/8, 2/8 without nitrous novelty