Wild Harvest Organic Rice Milk, Vanilla

I was a little excited to find that rice milk is making it more mainstream with more inexpensive store brands. I still stay loyal to my more health oriented brand Imagine foods but I also like to show support to new comers on the market as well as the fact that sometimes my budget calls a little loudly. So, I picked up Wild Harvest Organic Rice Milk, vanilla flavor one day at my local Albertsons.

The taste is light, smooth and a little creamy, with a touch of vanilla flavor. Wild Harvest Organic Rice Milk does not have as rice of a taste as most rice milks do. It has a really good smooth taste I think those not use to rice milk, or have been turned off in the past, might like. I like it plain by the glass and made into chocolate milk and it taste great in my cereal.

Like the typical rice milks on the market it is enriched with calcium & vitamins A, D, E, B2 and B12. A serving gives you 30% of your daily recommended daily allowance of calcium, 30% vitamin D and 50% B12.

I always read ingredients and I must say I was taken aback when I discovered what this rice milk was made out of. Yes, it is still vegetarian and technically still rice but the "rice" ingredient that makes up this rice milk is brown rice syrup. Brown rice syrup is like corn syrup but from rice and a bit healthier but basically still sugar. I looked over the ingredients searching for another rice, real rice, ingredient. I found none. It is very disappointing because essentially Wild Harvest Organic Rice Milk is just rice sugar water. I has 18 grams of sugar per serving.

I don't have soy allergies but I would imagine that those with soy allergies would be disappointed to find out that Wild Harvest Organic Vanilla Rice Milk has soy in it. Soy lecithin to be exact. I think many who choose rice milk instead of soy usually have soy allergies. So, I don't know why they didn't look for an alternative to the soy ingredients.

All in all the taste is nice and it has a nice smooth mouth feel, probably from the added safflower oil ingredient. I like the taste but am really bothered by the fact that it is not really rice milk but brown rice syrup milk or equally named rice sugar water. I may or may not purchase this again but Wild Harvest will not be my first choice when my next purchase comes around, unless they decide to work on the poor ingredient choice of their rice milk.

Ingredients: Filtered water, Organice brown rice syrup, Organic high oleic safflower oil, Tricalcium phosphate, Soy lecithin, Natural Flavors, Organic vannilla extract, Xanthan gum, Sea salt, Vitamin A palminate, Vitamin D2, Vitamin E, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B12, Zinc sulfate