Trevor Reichman
DCL
I purchased a Soyajoy soy milk maker about 8 years ago for $100. Even though it was the most amount of money I have ever spent on a kitchen appliance, I did the math and figured that I would make my money back in a year. It turned out that it paid for itself in under a year and it is still running strong eight years later, just having to replace the blade once along the way. That same $100 investment would have only afforded me between 30 and 40 cartons of soymilk or other non-dairy milks, and I use it at least one a week.
Just a handful of organic soy beans, about 5 cents worth, is enough to produce a carton worth of soymilk, without the carton. Those cartons are recyclable in some areas, but are difficult to clean out well enough to make them recycle ready, I find. Add about a penny's worth of electricity on top of that to run the machine, and you have an extra $2 or $3 left over to put in the bank each time you make a batch of your own soymilk.
The process is simple: Soak a handful of soybeans overnight, or for at least 6 hours, fill the soymilk maker with purified water, place the soaked beans in the filter, push start, and wait 15 minutes.
The home made soymilk tastes a bit `beanier' than the soymilk sold in stores. Why? There is no added sugar or extra processing. Some say it takes a bit of getting used to. I say, "delicious!". You can sweeten the creamy liquid any way you like as well as use the same machine for rice milk and nut milks.
