Coffee Chain Philz Stops Selling Two-Percent Dairy Milk as Vegan Oat Milk Sales Surge

San Francisco-based coffee chain Philz Coffee has eliminated all two-percent dairy milk from its 57 locations in California, Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, and Washington, DC. Last year, the chain began offering oat milk to meet customer demands, which proved so popular that Philz needed to remove lower-performing milks from its menu. “We decided to pilot oat milk in a few stores based on the high volume of customer requests we were receiving. The pilot proved that oat milk was really popular with our customers, so we rolled it out company-wide a couple months later,” Sarah Herringer, Director of Retail Products & Innovation at Philz Coffee, told VegNews. “Oat milk has become our most popular dairy-free alternative. Our stores have a limited amount of storage space, so we needed to remove something in order to make room for oat milk. Two-percent milk was our least popular milk choice.” Herringer revealed that approximately one-third of Philz customers opt for vegan milk with their coffee, adding “their popularity has been trending up over time, and we’re proud to offer our guests a choice.” Oat milk has been gaining traction at other coffee chains, including Starbucks (which added Oatly to 1,300 of its Midwest locations in January), Pret a Manger (which added organic oat milk to its United States locations in February), and Dunkin’ (which will be piloting an Oatmilk Latte nationwide this spring).