What to consider when buying a soy milk maker

You can make your own soy or soya milk right at your home with normal kitchen tools if you know the necessary ingredients. You can add sweeteners or sugar, thickeners, salt and flavors with ground soybeans and cook it till it becomes milk ready to cool and drink. However, this process can take more of your time than just by simply using a soy milk maker, which is popular nowadays. With this machine, you simply put water with soaked soybeans and press start and voila, you have soy milk the same as the industrialized version. Not only that, you also save a lot of money by making your own milk right at the comfort of your home and even without the hassle of throwing away tetra packs or bottles, helping the environment along the way.

Brands and basic information

There are many kinds and brands of soy milk maker such as the SoyQuick and SoyaPower. However, before buying one, it is important to know what comprises a soy milk maker so that you know which one to pick up the next time you visit the home appliances section of your favorite department store. A soy milk maker has a heating element or a heating bottom plate submerged in liquid. It is the same as what you can see in a normal water boiler. It should also have a container, normally either plastic or stainless steel, which holds the soy milk and some air space in order to prevent overcooking. To hold the soy beans, it should have a filter cup and a surface consisting a screen to allow water or soy milk to pass through. A thin plate screen with very small round holes should do a very good job. Another function present in a soy milk maker is the sensor so that it can prevent overcooking the soy milk. A stainless steering blade motor to grind and mix the soya beans should also be there including a microprocessor that can control heating and mixing of the ingredients. Some of these machines have an option like a feeding window or an opening for adding beans or perhaps a kit in making tofu.

Some Soy Milk Makers

Proprietary features

Now, let us compare some features of a soy milk maker at least on some general ideas in order to have additional information before buying it. There are claimants that a few machines can make soy milk out of unsoaked soy beans but for sure, the taste will be different. Remember that soaked soybeans is usually easier on some stomachs than those made direct from dry soy. However, this can be beneficial if you are rushing or short on time preparation. In terms of filters, a few have a stainless steel filter basket while some uses mesh filter. A stainless steel filter basket can have high durability, easy cleaning, better filtering leaves for a smoother drink and there are no plastic part contacts with the soy milk specially when it’s hot as residues from the plastic maybe contaminated with the soy milk. On the other hand, most soya milk maker uses a mesh filter either from aluminum or stainless steel which are less durable and are tougher to clean, and sometimes they are usually damaged when beans are thrown against the filter itself. It is known that the filtering abilities of a stainless steel filter basket is not comparable to the benefits you get as comapared to a mesh filter. The latter sometimes are machines where the pitcher itself is seam welded and can easily invite corrosion, which in the end weakens whatever stainless structure within the machine it gets contact with. You may also check how the bottom heating elements are made since some have durable materials and can provide more heating because it uses the whole pitcher as a heating surface. It can be compared to some or most of soy milk machines where an L-shaped heating tubes are used which can burn out quickly thereby needing immediate replacement as well as it can make the machine’s head more difficult to get into and clean. There are also soy milk makers which have four blades and positioned at different angles for a finer quality while others have just two cutting blade surfaces. This can be important if you want a smoother soy milk which can be done also at a faster speed because four blades working compared to two can do more in a shorter time. Also, there is one function to check when buying these machines which is how the beans are placed or added on to the container. Some will have an opening where you just pour the beans before you start the machine while others need to be opened, have the filter basket taken out, the beans put in the basket, screwed back, and so on, thereby making you lose a lot of time by twisting and turning before you can come up with a proper soy milk, and then you become tired in the whole process. There is a function called preheating which can actually eliminate the powerful beany flavour from soy milk. Not all soy makers have this ability where the preheating can actually prevent an enzyme reaction which causes the beany flavor found in soymilk, so you may want to check this out. An intelligent microprocessor control in a soy milk maker can also give you security in that the machine can do the job perfectly well without any tinkering. Some machines do not have control over cycles and most of the time, the result is not satisfactory. The above functions and comparisons of different soy milk maker should give you a fair amount of information for your next shopping spree on this type of kitchen equipment.

Price

Of course price may go higher as you become more meticulous in buying but, it is a proven economic fact that the more expensive the machine, the more you can do with it and usually, branded machines comes with higher quality with unmatched support and service for customer satisfaction. Prices should be between $100 and $200 depending on features. Good luck!