JOI Almond Milk Base, Unsweetened Plain Concentrate - 27 Servings, Paste, Butter, Blend with Water to Make Up To 7 Plant Milk Quarts - Vegan, Kosher, Shelf Stable, Keto-Friendly, Dairy Free, & Fat

UPDATE: Since leaving my 1st review, I have received a free 1 pound container of nut milk base. Along with a personal note and 2 tbsp scooper. I do like the taste of the milk, especially in smoothies and coffee. This was very thoughtful and kind of the company to reach out to me. Customer service at it's best! Will consider purchasing again! I like this product. It does taste better than ready made store bought almond milk. Its quick and easy to make also. However, the reason I'm giving 4 stars is because when it arrived, some of the almond base had leaked. Wasnt much, but enough to notice it seeping from the box. Also, I wish the price was a little cheaper. It's great in coffee, smoothies, or just alone. I probably wont purchase again tho. I can make my own almond milk at home for much cheaper and same great taste. I bought it because of the convenience mainly.

Joi is an amazing product. Its the best tasting almond milk in the market. its very easy to make and much more economic than buying gallon after gallon of traditional almond milk. I only drink plant based milk and this product has been a total savior. I also use it to cook with. I use to make whipped coffee, creamy avocado sauce for pasta, blondies, mushroom sauce etc. Its also great as a spread. The base mixes very easy and the consistency is delicious. You can find recipe inspiration at addjoi.com. Also, if you care about the environment this is the way to go. No need to buy carton after carton of milk. One single container of Joi will get you through the week.

I wanted to like this product, mostly because it seemed like a great way to keep lots of waxed cartons out of the landfill, given the typical almond milk packaging. I mixed up a quart to keep in the fridge. It did not blend completely and it did separate. However, I do not drink almond milk on its own, but add it to smoothies or coffee or use it in recipes, so the fact that it's not a perfectly homogenized mixture was an issue but not a show stopper. The label says there are "up to" 27 servings per 15 oz container, at one tablespoon per 1 cup water. (The instructions are not on the label. You have to go to the website to figure out the ratio. The company states: "Add 1-2 tablespoons of JOI to 1 cup of water in a blender and blend for 30 seconds on medium-high.") So, let's say, using 1 Tbl per 1 cup of water, that's 27 cups of almond milk. That is, to be exact, 8 oz (1 cup) shy of 7 quarts. But if you want something creamier, similar to pre-made almond milk, you will likely use 2 Tbl per cup of water. So the cost per quart is either a little over $3 or closer to $6. So comparative cost to pre-made is an issue. The flavor is okay. I found it tasted a little creamier in coffee than my favorite brand, Almond Breeze Original. In a smoothie, the flavor gets buried under the other ingredients, so neither the flavor nor the consistency was an issue. One of the features of pre-made almond milk I prize is its high calcium value. It's an added ingredient. So, I need to add calcium carbonate to JOI to get the same bang for my bones as with 1 cup of Almond Breeze - 4% versus 45%. The shelf-life feature of JOI is nice, always having it on hand. But many pre-made almond milks are shelf stable as well. The biggest issue I have is potential waste. The product is the consistency of tahini, which means it sticks to your scoop or your spoon. Getting the product from the JOI container into your blender requires a lot of finger scraping if you're frugal, or, if you just scoop a blob like they show in the video into your blender, you are wasting a lot of the product each time you make a batch. I may buy this again, mainly because of supply chain issues with my usual brand, but I can't recommend it without the above caveats.

For full disclosure, I am writing this review for the compensation of 20% off of an order off of the Joi website. That being said, I wouldn't be bothering if I didn't already like the product. 1) Taste The taste of Joi is about what you'd expect from a product that has almonds as its only ingredient - kind of bland and not ideal on its own, but easily blendable with other flavors. I think it tastes as best as it can given that caveat. 2) Texture/Blendability I blend up my Joi mixes in a regular blender, using the shake setting. The mix blends extremely well and it's a little magical how it turns from light brown to bright white as it blends. The blended texture is extremely smooth and mixes well with the other ingredients I add. The one caution I will make is that the top of it tends to froth a good bit if you do this, so just be aware if that's not something you want. 3) Value On the face of it, the items are pretty expensive for milk. However, given that it is literally just almonds, it's actually a very good price for how much you're getting. If you check the calories on a carton of "normal" almond milk and then this, you'll see the difference immediately - "regular" almond milk is mostly filler. In addition, if you get the new glass jars it comes in, you're essentially getting an extremely good quality small jar for "free" once you've used the mixture. Not everyone will want to keep and use them, but if you do it's an added bonus. For myself, I needed to research alternative milks with few ingredients as a result of some nasty GI disorders I've developed. I've become too sensitive to some of the ingredients in "regular" almond milk to be able to drink it anymore. It's also made it a lot more difficult to get calories. Finding Joi in these circumstances was extremely helpful to me - not only do I not need to worry about a bunch of "gum" this and "for flavor" that, but it packs a high-calorie punch and helps me keep from starving when my health is bad. It also means I can add in my own flavors in whatever type and proportion I want, which makes it more flexible. Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with this product and will be continuing to buy it for the foreseeable future.

The idea here is that dirtying a blender jar and using your own pitcher is going to save money (and maybe packaging/carbon) over buying prepared almond milk from the store. The idea seemed valid, but IMO, this product doesn't hit the mark. After you prepare it, almond solids start settling out, and foam forms on the top. The attached photo is after settling overnight. I then stirred it up and made my coffee with it, but as I was drinking my coffee I kept getting mouthfuls of almond crunchies. After this experience I was thinking of straining it in a nut milk bag, but that would decrease the convenience factor significantly. As for the taste, I don't think it tastes very similar to normal almond milk, it tastes more like diluted nut butter. The marketing materials say "not a butter" but as soon as I opened it and smelled it I became convinced that it is just almond butter in a custom package. You might find you prefer the flavor of diluted almond butter over a commercial almond milk (which has had the solids strained out), but just realize it will be different. Personally, I don't like it as much. And I don't think the money saving promise holds up. I paid $22 for one jar, and used the entire thing to make a half gallon of almond milk. Folks, I see half gallon cartons of Silk Almond here on Amazon for $2.99. I did use double the suggested concentration, so it was "creamier" than store-bought almond milk, but even if you were going to go with the recommended ratio that's still a 4-5x price diff. And regular almond butter seems to be available at half the price per ounce of this product. Rating at one star because I really can't see any redeeming features of this product. There are many positive reviews and the manufacturers appear to have worked very hard on it in good faith, but for me it is a total writeoff.