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Review of popular soy milk makers

Making your own soy milk with a soymilk maker is very easy, allows you to save a lot of money and you know exactly what the ingredients are. If needed, you can add extra ingredients such as sugar, sweeteners, flavours, thickeners and salt to make it taste more like industrial soy milk. Making soy milk with normal kitchen tools is also possible, but requires more time and results in a lower yield. Basically you have to add the soaked soybeans and water to the soy milk maker and press the start button. We have tested the following soy milk makers with filter cup: SoyQuick, Vegan Star, SoyaJoy, SoyaPower, SoyWonder and QT400, and two filterless soy milk makers: Premium SoyQuick and SoyaDirect. The SoyaDirect belongs to the newest generation of soy milk makers that use no filter cups or grinding cover, making cleaning and handling easier. You can order this machine from the UK based company Soyadirect. When ordering, please do not forget to mention our special promotion code SYBE09, which gives you an extra discount of 10% off product sale price.

Components of a soymilk maker

Most models are composed of the following parts:

• Heating element: this can be a heating element which is submerged in the liquid or a heating bottom plate. Both systems also exist with normal water boiler.
• A container which will hold the soy milk plus some extra air space to prevent overcooking. This container can be plastic or stainless steel.
• A filter cup which holds the soy beans. The surface consists of a screen which allows water or soy milk to pass through. There are two types of screens: a thin plate with very small round holes (Soyajoy, SoyaPower and Vegan Star) and a fine mesh screen (SoyWonder).
• Sensors to prevent the overcooking of the soymilk.
• Motor with stainless steel stirring blade to mix the soybeans.
• A microprocessors to control the process of heating and mixing.
• Some automatic soy milk makers have additional parts or options: a feeding window or opening which allows you to add the beans to the fully assembled soy milk maker (Soyajoys and SoyaPower) or a kit to make tofu.

Operation of an authomatic soy milk maker

The operation instructions differ slightly between the different brands but basically they work like this:

• Weigh or measure 80 to 100 grams of dry soybeans for each liter of soy milk. Normally a measuring cup is provided.
• Rinse the soybeans and soak for about 8 hours or overnight. Rinse the soaked soybeans again with water. Some manufacturers of soy milk makers claim that their machine can make soy milk directly from unsoaked soybeans. However, the taste will not be that good and yield will be lower.
• Put the soybeans in filter cup and mount it to the soy milk maker.
• Add cold water in the container of the soy milk maker. Normally the desired levels are marked on the inside or outside of the container.
• Plug the power cord in and press the start button. The soy milk maker will first heat the water to about 80 degree C (180 degree F) and then start to grind the soybeans.
• After about 15 minutes the soy milk maker will indicate that the cycle is completed and that you can pour the soy milk in another container. The pulp, or okara, which remains in the filter cup can be used as an healthy ingredient in bread or soups. This okara is very rich in fibre but will also contain other healthy ingredients such as soy protein, isoflavones, saponins and vitamins.