tl;dr: I recommend West Life unsweetened soymilk over other milks.

Which type of milk should I drink?

Soy. Soy has the most protein, least sugar, and the lowest environmental impact of all milks.

Infographic: Which (Plant) Milk Is the Most Sustainable? | Statista Thanks to Statista

Should I buy sweetened milk?

No.

Most “original” editions of plant milks are sweetened with added sugar. Find the ones which are unsweetened.

Cow’s milk doesn’t have added sugar but is fairly high in natural sugars (lactose I think - 12g per cup!); since many people don’t digest lactose well it’s probably worse health-wise than sweetened plant milks.

Don’t like unsweetened milk? Get used to it. No point in ingesting unnecessary carbs and this is a fairly easy adaptation to make.

Which brand of soy milk?

Soy milk usually has a fairly distinctive flavor. Some people like it, some don’t. The best way to sample this flavor is to go buy some fresh tofu. Places that make tofu sometimes also make fresh soy milk, so if you can find that, go for it. The best place I know of in the greater DC area for tofu and soymilk is Thanh Son Tofu in Eden Center.

Regardless, if you aren’t that into the soy flavor and you just want a plant milk that isn’t too intensely flavored, West Life (which used to be called Westsoy) makes my favorite unsweetened soymilk. It has a very clean flavor. It’s my go-to and tends to be available at most food stores, although sometimes they overcharge for it. It should cost about $3 per 32-oz carton, maybe a bit more shipped. It lasts for many months unrefrigerated so it’s ok to buy boxes of 12+ at a time. My partner and I seem to go through at least 2 boxes per week.

On that note, right now I’m upset: normally West Life is available on Amazon and Wal-mart, but as of this writing their official Amazon store is out of stock, and I have been seeing somewhat persistent stocking issues over the last 12 months at other sellers. In the last year or so I’ve been paying more and more finding the right place to order it (this month it was from Vitacost) at a reasonable price; I’m quite worried for the day that we cannot order it anymore.

What if I want vitamins?

Consider Edensoy Extra. This is a sweetened milk, but it has a bunch of added vitamins so you can fairly easily just replace cow’s milk with Edensoy and stop thinking about it. I don’t recommend it more widely because of the added sugar; it’s not too hard to get the vitamins through supplementation.