Last year when I shopped the aisles of Giant (a major fast-food chain in my area of the country), I was pretty amazed at how many soy milk options there were.

Now, though, my mind is blown. The refrigerated variety sells better, but the soy milk available in the aseptic packaging has the most variety. Get this: Giant now offers a store brand soy milk! It’s only about 10 cents cheaper than others, but nutritionally, it stacks up pretty well. Though it doesn’t have as much protein as Edensoy Extra (from what I’ve been told—thanks, Brant—this is one of the most nutrionally-dense soy milks on the market), it does offer 50% of the RDA for vitamin B12, the same as Edensoy Extra. Surprisingly, the store brand also uses organic soy beans (which now seems to be rule rather than the exception, thankfully).

One of Europe’s most popular soy milk producers, Belsoy, is now adorning the shelves of US markets. Unfortunately, at the Giant near me, they’ve cut back on the Edensoy selection in favor of Belsoy. I bought one of their original, unsweetened varieties to try with my cereal. Since it’s lacking in the B12 department, when I use it with my cereal, I sprinkle on a little Red Star Nutritional Yeast first. Tastewise, it’s nothing to write home about, but does the job in cereal.

But the variety of soy milks has also increased. Last Christmas, you may have seen Silk Nog, but did you know that Silk also makes Silk Creamer, Silk Mocha, Silk Soylatte, and Silk Chai? Another interesting variety that caught my eye was Vitasoy’s Green Tea Soymilk. I decided to give it a shot, and was pretty impressed. It definitely has that subtle green tea taste (they use Japanese Green Tea), but with a nice, milky consistency.

While I rarely drink soy milk (or cow’s milk, for that matter) by the glass, I use exclusively soy milk in my cereal. I’m also a fan of almond milk, but have yet to try the box of Rice Dream sitting in my fridge.

I’m thinking that sometime soon, I’d like to organize an “alternate milk” taste test with vegans, vegetarians, and meat-eaters to see how they stack up tastewise, and nutrionally. If you live in the Northern VA area and might be interested, drop me a line.