About Elmhurst 1925
Elmhurst 1925 traces back to a real dairy of the same name, founded in Queens, New York in 1925 by the Schwartz family and grown over the following decades into one of the largest dairies on the East Coast, at one point supplying a metropolitan area of roughly seven million people. When the company's last fluid-milk plant in New York City closed in 2016, second-generation owner Henry Schwartz rebranded the business as Elmhurst 1925 in 2017 and pivoted it entirely to plant-based milk, a switch the company still marks with the tagline "Established 1925. Founded 2017."
The brand's products are built on HydroRelease, a proprietary water-based process developed with food scientist Dr. Cheryl Mitchell that separates the natural components of a nut, oat, or seed and reassembles them into a beverage without added gums, oils, or emulsifiers. The result on our own shelf is the Unsweetened Almond Milk we tested: a two-ingredient label of filtered water and almonds, with 5 g of protein per serving coming directly from the almonds themselves rather than an added isolate. It's one of the shortest, cleanest labels of any liquid we tested for this list, and the higher almond concentration is what let it hold its shape under an espresso shot where thinner almond milks tend to collapse.
Brand website: elmhurst1925.com
What Elmhurst 1925 makes
Elmhurst 1925's range runs wider than the products we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
Milked Nuts (unsweetened)
two-ingredient almond, cashew, hazelnut, and walnut milks made with the HydroRelease process -- our tested pick for the cleanest label on this list — featured on Brew Gazette
Barista Series
higher-concentration almond, oat, and cashew milk formulated to steam and froth for espresso drinks
Milked Oats
whole-grain oat milk in original, barista, and unsweetened formulations
Coffee creamers
dairy-free creamers built on the brand's oat and nut milk bases
Plant-based protein shakes
ready-to-drink protein beverages using the same water-based extraction process
Why we recognized Elmhurst 1925
The Brew Gazette Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose products consistently stand out in our hands-on category reviews. Elmhurst 1925 earned it on the strength of the products below, evaluated the same way every product on this site is: bought, brewed with daily, and judged on what lands in the cup.
Elmhurst 1925 products we rated highly
Elmhurst 1925 Unsweetened Almond Milk, 32 Ounce (Pack of 6)
Filtered water and almonds are the only two ingredients on the label, the shortest panel of any liquid we tested for this list, which leaves a milk derivative nowhere to hide. It carries 5 g of protein per serving sourced from the almonds themselves rather than an added isolate, a result of the HydroRelease process milling the whole nut into the milk instead of pressing it and discarding the solids. It also tested with the highest almond concentration on the page, and reviewers single it out specifically for espresso, where thinner almond milks tend to collapse under a shot and this one holds its shape. With no gums, emulsifiers, added sugar, or carrageenan, nothing in the carton is doing flavor work except the almonds.
Read the 9 Best Non-Dairy Coffee Creamers of 2026 guide →What earned Elmhurst 1925 the recognition
- A top pick in Brew Gazette's non-dairy coffee creamer testing, chosen from nine tested products for the shortest, cleanest ingredient label on the page: filtered water and almonds.
- Protein that comes from the nut itself: 5 g per serving sourced directly from the almonds via the HydroRelease process, rather than an added protein isolate.
- Built for espresso specifically: the highest almond concentration we tested, which reviewers and our own testing credit for holding its shape under a shot where thinner almond milks tend to collapse.
- No gums, emulsifiers, added sugar, or carrageenan in the formulation, a structural answer to a page built around checking labels for hidden dairy and additives.
- A century-old dairy family business that rebuilt itself from the ground up for plant-based milk: founded as a New York City dairy in 1925 and refounded in 2017 by the same family under Henry Schwartz.