豆漿 and 豆奶 in English

[Kenny同志]

They're different drinks ^{1, 2}. But as both 漿 and 奶 can be 'milk' in English, I am curious to know how English differentiates them.

Thanks for your help in advance.

[Michaelyus]

I believe that it is not distinguished by default in the English language. The variants in English ("soya", "soya drink", "soya milk", "soya beverage", the whole "soy"/"soya"/"soybean" thing) are more closely linked to country of reference and type of packaging than anything else.

I believe "milk" is now non-official for soya in the UK (and in the EU), but it's still in the (华人) vernacular. For me, if I had to, I would tend to use "raw soya" or "unprocessed soya" for 豆浆 (as much of a misnomer that is) alongside "soy milk" for 豆奶, and probably "soy drink" for 有其它添加剂的豆奶产品 (apart from sweetener, which I would just call "sweetened soy milk"). But to be honest I don't recall using them much: "soy milk" is my default phrase. Maybe I've just prescribed myself a new rule [!].

[Kenny同志]

Many thanks for your comment, Michaelyus. It’s really quite tricky to distinguish them in English without explaining the difference a little bit. Some dictionaries simply give soya milk as the definition for both of the words; I don't think that's good.

[gato]

What ingredients are in 豆奶?

[skylee]

This reminds me of the story of the eskimos having a lot of different words for snow and ice, while such words are relatively few in other languages. If soy food products are not traditionally important in the diet of English speaking areas, it is quite reasonable that there are not a lot of words used for these foods and minute differences are not noted.

[陳德聰]

I think one of the reasons that English hasn't developed a concrete distinction is that the health craze for soy was relatively short-lived. People seem to have moved on to almond milk or coconut milk or whatever it is that they're drinking now. If I had to make the distinction in English, which I don't think I ever have had to, 豆浆 would be "soy milk" and 豆奶 would be "soy beverage/soy drink".

But seeing as I think different places apparently have different regulations on what you're allowed to call "milk", it all is just called "soy drink" or "soy beverage" or whatever other creative label marketing teams can come up with. It's politically correct, I believe, to call it all soy beverage, that way you won't anger the dairy industry.

I am pretty sure most people just say "soy milk" anyway though, because anybody who speaks English but doesn't know anything about Chinese has no idea what 豆浆 and 豆奶 are and it's all just one big spectrum of yellow-ish soy milk to white-ish soy milk.

[Kenny同志]

Thanks for your comment, 陳德聰.

@gato

The first quote can answer your question.

豆奶中并没有奶

很多人都存在一种认知的误区，认为豆奶=豆浆+牛奶，其实，纯豆奶的主料就只是大豆而已。它是将大豆粉碎后，萃取其中的水溶性成分，滤去不溶于水的杂质而 制成的。制作豆奶需要将大豆经浸泡、磨碎、过滤、调制、超高温加热、脱臭、高压均质、冷却等加工过程，制成均质、奶样、乳白色的液体，简单袋装的纯豆奶是 没有任何牛奶、奶粉成分的。不过在加工过程之中，也可以根据需要加入牛奶、咖啡、可可、椰奶等成分，以使豆奶的风味和口感更丰富。如今我们在市场上可以买 到的固体豆奶饮料（豆奶粉）以及各种罐装、瓶装的豆奶饮品，大多都有加入这类成分。因此可以说，真正的“豆奶”是不含奶的，但我们日常接触到的“豆奶饮 品”却或多或少含有“奶”，以及其他一些成分。

豆奶不等于豆浆

现在很多家庭都用小型的家用豆浆机自制豆浆，既方便快捷，品质也较有保障。那么，是否也可以利用一些设备在家中自制豆奶呢？要回答这个问题，我们必须先明 确豆奶和豆浆的本质区别在哪里。在豆奶的生产流程中，有一个非常关键的步骤叫做“均质”，均质在食品加工中指的是物料的料液在挤压、强冲击与失压膨胀的三 重作用下使物料细化，从而能更加均匀地相互混合。经过均质之后，豆奶中的脂肪颗粒会变得更小，整体更稳定，也更易被人体吸收。这些特质是豆浆所不具备的； 而且，“均质”这道工艺需要工业化生产的设备，一般家庭无法完成。另外，豆奶生产中还会有脱臭、脱腥等环节，这些也都是豆浆所没有的。

source: http://nb.people.com...4-17565625.html

龍香園豆奶粉配料表：

優質大豆、奶粉、白砂糖、麥芽糖、精煉植物油

[roddy]

Reminds me of my students back when I taught in Spain. "What is botifarra in English?" "sausage" "what about chorizo?" "sausage" "what about salchichon?" "Sausage" "You call this a language?"