Buttery, Sweet, and Orange: This Milk Alternative Has Deep North Carolina Roots

Made for coffee, cereal, and everyday uses, the milk is slightly sweet with an orange tinge and creamy texture.

Appalachian State University researchers, backed by a $1.82 million grant, have found a new use for sweet potatoes: sweet potato milk. It features a rich texture and sweet taste with a slight tint of the signature orange hue. Chase Reynolds/Appalachian State University/TNS

By Luke Bowles
The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)

RALEIGH, N.C.—The humble sweet potato, long considered a North Carolina staple, is at the center of innovation as it’s transformed into the latest plant-based milk.

Appalachian State University researchers, backed by a $1.82 million grant, have found a new use for the vegetable, and with good reason.

North Carolina grows more sweet potatoes than any other state, but due to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s strict grading policy, only the best sweet potatoes can be sold whole, while lower-quality potatoes are turned into other products.

​Many don’t make the cut at all. Approximately 63 million pounds of sweet potatoes are left to rot in North Carolina fields each year, according to Brett Taubman, director of the Fermentation Sciences Department at App State.

“Lower grades… are already being put into baby foods, or purees,” Taubman said. “Below that, you know, there’s not even enough demand for those sweet potatoes currently to justify harvesting millions and millions of pounds … so they’re just left in the ground right now to rot.”

Sweet potatoes used in the milk process have no cosmetic requirements, allowing these currently wasted sweet potatoes to be repurposed for plant-based milk.

Taubman’s company is called Rootsii, and he has big expansion plans to make sweet potato milk the next plant-based hit and boosting farmers’ business along the way.

From an Idea to a Business

Taubman came to App State after taking an interest in brewing and fermentation during a research stint in chemistry. He began using brewing to teach students abstract chemistry concepts.

During his research, he realized he was missing a major opportunity.

“We were working with sweet potatoes, we were working with plant-based milks … and it just kind of hit me, like, why is there no sweet potato milk yet?” Taubman said. “I did a quick search, and sure enough, there was no sweet potato milk. We decided to do a test run… and it turned out good enough the first time that we decided to roll with that.”

The project was still a long way from commercialization until NCInnovation stepped in.

NCInnovation, a nonprofit based in Research Triangle Park, connects public universities in North Carolina with private industry to turn academic research into commercial products and jobs.

“It essentially turned it from an interesting research project that we were working on into a full-scale, you know … company,” Taubman said.

A Product Focused on North Carolina

Agriculture is North Carolina’s most valuable industry, accounting for $111 billion in economic activity and employing over 600,000 people. For Triangle residents, where food innovation is a growing industry, the project presents a new example of how agricultural technology can benefit farmers, businesses and consumers.

“This is 100 percent a North Carolina product,” Taubman said.

Well, sort of. The milk is currently formulated with coconut oil, which cannot be sourced locally. Due to the lack of processing facilities in Eastern North Carolina, the potatoes also must first be shipped out of state for processing.

There are plans to switch to muscadine grape seed oil since the seeds are a common byproduct of North Carolina’s wine industry, but this path faces hurdles.

“There are some people who are already pressing those seeds to make muscadine grape seed oil, but not for food purposes,” Taubman said. “Our idea is to use another agricultural waste product and convert that into a value-added product … and further localize the whole production chain.”

The Road Ahead

Rootsii intends to make the milk available in Western North Carolina within the next year, with expansion statewide slated for year two. Made for coffee, cereal, and everyday uses, the milk is slightly sweet with an orange tinge and creamy texture.

“If you tried it on its own and didn’t know that it was derived from sweet potatoes, it would be difficult to pin down, which is what we want,” Taubman said.

The company is partnering with regional grocery stores to conduct consumer testing on different versions of the milk while also developing new products like creamers and yogurts. Roostii also plans to open a bulk processing facility in Eastern North Carolina to be closer to farmers and leverage its regional North Carolina branding.

“There’s nothing more North Carolina than a sweet potato,” Taubman said. “It’s something we definitely are very proud of, and something that we want to use and lean on.”

Copyright 2026 The News & Observer. Visit at newsobserver.com. Distributed at Tribune Content Agency, LLC.