okja plant based

okja? OK, JA.

"okja" - it's a name that you can pronounce in any way you're comfortable.

Officially, it's supposed to sound like "OAK-JAH" but heck, it's totally OK with us if you say it like "OK, JA."

OK? JA.

The Future is Delicious.

It’s not enough to be sustainable. It’s not enough to be ethical. It’s not enough to be nutritious. The future of animal-free is delicious. 


Our job is to guide good people like you on an easy, smooth and delicious journey towards a more plant-based diet; helping you to be kinder to yourself, to others, and to our amazing planet.

A Tribute to the Barista.

Ritual  n.  a religious or solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order.

The first thing I do when I wake up every morning is go downstairs, switch on the espresso machine, drink a tall glass of water, then make a flat white for my wife and an espresso for myself. The whir of the grinder perfumes the kitchen air and, as the machine extracts the tawny elixir, my heart warms to the comfort of this daily ritual.

Damn, it’s good to be alive.

Almost 20 years ago, I owned a few coffee bars. I remember one Saturday in particular, working the espresso machine from 7am to 3pm, non-stop and without a break. That day we served over a thousand coffees in that little bar. It was hard but rewarding work. I miss it sometimes. It’s an addictive sensation watching a customer enjoy a drink you’ve prepared with diligence and dedication. It’s a gratifying responsibility to be part of someone’s daily ritual.

Barista  n.  from the Italian for "bartender” - a person, usually a coffeehouse employee, who prepares and serves espresso-based coffee drinks.

A barista blends art and science to serve you magic. A barista is sometimes the first person you talk to in the morning. A barista can make your day with a big smile and that perfect cuppa.

Our oat milk  is dedicated to all the hard working baristas out there, who spend their entire shift on their feet, making magic to start our days or gently wind them down.

Simple. Natural.

Plant-based milk is nothing new. Look around and you’ll see many.  Look more closely, and you’ll discover that some of them are better than others. You’ll see ingredients you don’t recognise, additives you can’t pronounce and gums you need to Google. It’s usually cheaper and easier to add that kind of stuff, but it’s just not our vibe. With our oat m*lk, you won’t need a Master’s Degree in Chemistry to understand what you’re putting in your body.

Our rich, creamy m*lk is great for adding to your cereal, perfect for blending with superfoods in smoothies and amazing for dunking your chocolate chip cookies into. My favourite is to foam it up for silky flat-whites in the morning or for fluffy hot chocolates in the evening.

WYPI=WYGO & WTFAQ

"What you put in is what you get out" is something my Dad always told me growing up. Another fatherly nugget was "Always do your best."

This wisdom is reflected in our approach to making our drinks. The best way we can. In fact, we're so thrilled with the result, we've listed the ingredients on the front of this pack, all proud-like.

Why Italy? Well Italy is the birthplace of espresso after all and world famous for it's crazy amazing food culture and agricultural heritage. It is in this wonderful epicurean land that we found a great partner to help us make the m*lk of our dreams using scrumptious local oats and ingredients.

Here's a little run-down of each ingredient and why it's in the m*lk you're drinking:

Italian Oats.

It's O-A-T milk, right? So we tried to pack in as much as possible at 16%. A whopping 60% more than the famous Swedes. That means a richer, creamier mouthfeel and a denser foam for your latte. Oh, and something very important for us, and in case you were wondering, there is NO glyphosate residue in our oats :)

Cold-pressed Sunflower Oil.

We use only a drop of unrefined, cold-pressed sunflower oil as a natural emulsifier. It keeps the water and oats blended together to help us achieve such a smooth, creamy texture.

Sea Salt.

Just a pinch to balance out the natural sweetness of the oats.

okja barista oat milk

The Golden Days

Cast your mind back to your heyday and you’ll probably start getting all warm and fuzzy. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you that things were waaay better back in the day. Nostalgia gets all of us hopped up when we banter about which era of music, movies or TV was the best. This fond trip down memory lane is known as “Golden Age Thinking”, a term coined by the 2011 film Midnight In Paris. Such reminiscing brings comfort and helps us cope with the challenges of the present.

Personally, I’ve always been a bigger fan of the present moment. If you love coffee there’s never been a better time to be alive than right-frikkin-now*. Third-wave roasters, coffee festivals, consumer education and a strong focus on sustainability have elevated the once-humble beverage to a lofty position in contemporary culture.

There is, however, a challenge for us contemporary coffee utopians. We don’t always have the time or the equipment for that perfect cuppa. And our supermarket shelves are lined with super convenient ‘coffee’ drinks full of sugar, unpronounceable additives, weird gums and, let’s face it, crappy coffee. Yuck.

“We’ve got higher standards now buddy,” you say to yourself, skipping the supermarket shelf science projects and picking up this Liter o’ Latte instead. "These are the Golden Days."

* Yes, the Great Lockdown of 2020 temporarily robbed us of our local coffee hangout and barista comrades, but it also made us appreciate them more :)

Liter

n. A metric unit of volume equal to approximately 1.056 liquid quarts, 0.908 dry quart, or 0.264 gallon.

n. The unit of capacity in the metric system, equal to 0.88036 imperial quart, or 1.056 United States quarts; the volume of one kilogram of water at its maximum density.

n. French for "gimme some frikkin latte!"

It's never too Latte


The coffee we’ve used in our one thousand milliliters of love (AKA Oat Latte) is a blend of medium-roasted certified organic Arabica beans from Peru.

Well-balanced and rich, the chocolatey notes blend perfectly with the velvety creaminess of our oat m*lk. More about those ingredients here and here.

Rainforest Alliance Certified means that our coffee meets rigorous environmental and social standards. From fighting deforestation and climate change to building economic opportunities and better working conditions for rural people, the Rainforest Alliance is working hard to help solve these challenges.

okja liter o latte

The Human Family

What’s the best-known food that nobody knows anything about? C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E. The word draws most of us a picture of a candy bar, a luscious slab, or a melty Easter bunny. Our brains rush with dopamine even at just the thought of eating it. Fact.

Here’s another fact. It was only in 1847 that Joseph Fry created the first modern chocolate bar in Bristol. That’s right, for about 96% of chocolate’s 5000 year history, it was a drink.

I’m not here to host a history lesson. There’s nothing I can teach you in a few lines that you can’t Google yourself. And you should, because it’s bloody fascinating.

This luscious beverage is dedicated to love. Not the sexy kind, although eating chocolate does make you feel a little naughty. I’m talking about the ‘love thy neighbour’ kind of love.

‍The simple truth is that chocolate transcends geographic, racial and cultural boundaries and is adored by billions across the globe. Chocolate binds us, while society is set on exaggerating our differences. Chocolate reminds us that we are all connected to each other and to our planet.

In her powerful poem "Human Family" Maya Angelou beautifully expresses that we are all one big family. Imagine the change we would see in the world if we all shared her grace and wisdom:

‍“I note the obvious differences
in the human family.
Some of us are serious,
some thrive on comedy.

Some declare their lives are lived
as true profundity,
and others claim they really live
the real reality.

The variety of our skin tones
can confuse, bemuse, delight,
brown and pink and beige and purple,
tan and blue and white.

I've sailed upon the seven seas
and stopped in every land,
I've seen the wonders of the world
not yet one common man.

I know ten thousand women
called Jane and Mary Jane,
but I've not seen any two
who really were the same.

Mirror twins are different
although their features jibe,
and lovers think quite different thoughts
while lying side by side.

We love and lose in China,
we weep on England's moors,
and laugh and moan in Guinea,
and thrive on Spanish shores.

We seek success in Finland,
are born and die in Maine.
In minor ways we differ,
in major we're the same.

I note the obvious differences
between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

‍
We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike."

You Sexy Thing

Fernando Pessoa had the right idea when he wrote,

"Look, there's no metaphysics on earth like chocolate."

Our approach to making this drink was simple but challenging: No shortcuts. No ingredients you don’t recognise, no additives you can’t pronounce or gums you need to Google. No added sugar or flavours.

Choosing a random cacao was never an option. For this liter of love, we selected Rainforest Alliance Certified beans from the Dominican Republic - balanced, but bursting with character.

Rainforest Alliance Certified cacao farms are audited against rigorous environmental, social, and economic criteria that protect biodiversity and foster a culture of respect for workers and local communities.

okja barista oat milk

Team okja.

This is us. We started okja together. We're very different but we share the same values.

Rui.

Rui's Mom is a great cook. He's a little fussy now with food because she spoiled him with so many good eats. He's pretty much here to make sure everything is made and tastes like it should.

David.

David AKA "Frank the Tank" makes sh*t happen. His first gig in the food game was dancing with birthday cakes on his head to entertain guests. Now that's commitment.

Sam.

Sam is the aesthetics geek who helps to make our creative dreams come true. The go-to woman on all things Mac related, we suspect she moonlights for Apple. She enters half marathons, sometimes she runs them.

Manny.

Manny likes systems and processes. Things should tick like clockwork. He's Rui's Dad. Also goes by the name "The Flying Pork."

Deano.

Dean stopped eating meat in 2011. So now instead he eats numbers for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He ran his first marathon at age 52.

“Only work with people you’d invite to your home for a meal.”
~ Garth Walker | Designer, Publisher, Photographer.

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