What’s the difference between your chilled vs. your ambient oat drink?

Hi Luke,

thanks for the feedback there - good point! 

We use the same heat treatment for pretty much all our products but the difference here lies in the packaging. The ambient drinks have an extra layer of aluminum as well as an inner seal underneath the lid. This allows a longer shelf life (unopened) whereas the chilled ones have just a regular lid with no inner seal. 

Hope this clarifies!

Love, 

Åsa at Oatly

So you are charging more for chilling the same product that doesn’t last as long…? This doesn’t make sense to me surely this is a waste of energy and money 🤔 

Hi Dawn,

thanks for your question!

Agree the pricing in store may seem confusing at times and as for energy, it's true the climate footprint is a tad higher for our chilled version; 0,31 kg CO2e vs 0,27 kg CO2e - this difference mainly has to do with storage and transportation.

For us, it's about offering a range including long life oat drinks (that's how we started way back!) as well as being visible and ready available in the chilled section right next to dairy for an easy shift to plant-based! Either way we hope you've found your favourite? 

Love,

Åsa at Oatly

​Hi @rachael_wallis!

That depends a little on which product you have in mind, in particular. We have multiple versions of both chilled and ambient oat drinks. But since the recipes for the ambient vs. the chilled drinks do vary slightly, it's of course possible that you may experience a difference in taste.  

Let me know if you had a specific oat drink in mind and I'll be sure to investigate further! 

Love,

Inez at Oatly

The barista blend, chilled vs ambient taste wise? 

Hi Tina, 

The taste should be the same as they use the same recipe. Do let us know if you have any other questions. 

Have an oatsome day!

Hi Morag,

Sorry for the late reply!

If you’ve specifically bought the chilled version of our oat drink, it must be refrigerated both before and after opening it (in comparison, our ambient packaging will remain happy in room temperature until you’ve opened it). Unfortunately, five days in the cupboard surely means it’s spoiled and should be tossed, but you’ll clearly notice if it has gone bad by both smell and taste. 

Please feel free to reach out again if you have any other questions or concerns!

All the best,

Rebecka at Oatly

Hey Verena,

that's such a brilliant question - happy to help here!

Instinctively, you would probably guess that the chilled version of your Barista Edition would have a larger climate footprint than the ambient one, right?! So yeah, our chilled drinks require an unbroken cold chain in transport and storage (which is not necessary for our ambient drinks). But since we include the entire life cycle of the products in our calculations, the final CO2e value additionally depends not only on the country in which you finally buy a product (maybe you noticed that the numbers differ within this comment section, that's because oat punks from different markets come together here) (so international) and on the length of the way it took to get there from the production facility, but also the conditions at the respective factory itself come into play: The mains reasons for the climate footprint of the Chilled Barista (bought in Austria) being lower in direct comparison to the ambient version are a) the product is produced in Landskrona where we use 100% renewable energy (yay!) and b) super local oats from Sweden. The ambient Barista Edition for the DACH market is produced in another facility where we don't use 100% renewable energy (yet), but these numbers might be adapted from time to time as we are always working towards even more sustainable ways to create our oat delicacies at each of our factories. Did you know that by 2029, all of the facilities that produce our products are intended to meet the so-called 'future factory' criteria?! I'd suggest you to keep on reading here if you want to know more what those criteria are about: https://www.oatly.com/de-de/oatly-who/sustainability-plan/set-the-example-as-a-future-company

Okay, the whole thing is a bit confusing - calling this a good question wasn't just a phrase, really! So feel free to reach out again if you your facial expression comes close to the confused-math-lady-meme right now.

Sending some oatlicious regards your way,
Marlene at Oatly

Hi Graham,

and thanks for checking in with us on this! 

It is in fact an ambient product, so you can go ahead and leave your valuable refrigerator space for something else. Please let me know if you have any further thoughts or questions.  

Over and oat,

Hello German,

If the oat drink has been frozen, you can heat it but we do recommend to do so in a pan and not while the oat drink is still in the unopened carton. 

Over and oat,

Karim at Oatly

Thanks Karim.

Hi Katie! 

That's an interesting question! I'm going to assume you are referring to our chilled and ambient versions of our Oat Drink Barista! If only our oat drinks could talk so they could give you an answer to this, as that is quite the mystery! On our end, there is no reason for there to be a difference, as they contain the same ingredients, such as the fat content which determines how well the oat drink would froth. Perhaps storage or how long the cartons are opened for might impact this! Nonetheless, we're happy to hear you have an option that froths and tastes dreamy! 

Love, 

Jas at Oatly 

Hi Virginia, 

Our packaging is within the most common streams for sorting and collection. We try to ensure that our packaging is technically possible to recycle everywhere. Though, there is still a lot of progress to be made to further enhance recycling, collection schemes, and recycling facilities globally. As for energy, our ambition is to source 100% renewable energy. We’re also constantly working on ways to use less of it overall. Do let us know if you have any other questions. 

Hi Ashley,

and thanks for reaching out to us about this, better to be safe than sorry, am I right or amirite?

Anyway, fret not! The chilled range is the only one that NEEDS to be kept cold, and as with any of our products regardless of if shelf stable or not, it is imperative that they are kept cold once opened.  Please let me know if you have any further thoughts or questions.  

Wishing you a t-Oatly great weekend, 

Hi Mi,

our chilled and longlife oat drinks are just the same - only different packaging! Hope this helps, please let us know if we can clarify anything about a specific oat drink or so?

All the best, 

Åsa at Oatly

Thank you for replying so quickly.  I read that longlife cow milk is less nutritious than fresh cow milk: "Nutritionally, UHT milk is slightly poorer than fresh pasteurised milk; it contains around a third less iodine, and the quality of protein degrades during storage." (source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27898-so-many-milks-but-do-their-health-claims-really-stack-up/).  I wonder if it is the same for longlife Oatly vs fresh Oatly?

Hi again Mi!

No, it's not. All our oat drinks undergo the same heat treatment and we do quality checks to ensure the nutritional values stated on the package correlate to the content - also over time.

For us offering both ambient and chilled oat drinks has to do with the fact we want to be available in the dairy section for an easy swap from cow's milk plant-based! Hope this makes sense!

All the best,

Åsa at Oatly