Between oat milk and cow’s milk: Aussie brand Madame Tiger enters the alternative milk game

Sweet, creamy, just a little bit nutty, and goes really well with coffee. That’s how Madame Tiger’s founder describes the brand’s plant-based tiger nut milk that is poised to shake up Australia’s alternative milk sector.

Madame Tiger was founded by Mornington Peninsula entrepreneur Laura Hindson after she had to stop work when her twins were born prematurely at 27 weeks.

Hindson decided to start her own business creating an alternative nut milk with a little-known legume from Africa called tiger nut after her plans to return to work didn’t quite pan out.

Madame Tiger is manufactured in Melbourne with the brand sourcing tiger nuts from a women-led farming collective in Burkina Faso, West Africa, called Mousso Faso. 

Tiger nuts are often called “earth almonds”, but unlike water-hungry almonds, tiger nuts only require rainwater to grow and are also a safe option for people with allergies to nuts, gluten, dairy, or soy because they are allergen-free. 

Madame Tiger was introduced into the Australian market in January 2023 and has recently achieved FODMAP Friendly certification, the first tiger nut-based alternative milk to reach this accreditation.

Madame Tiger products are now stocked in more than 300 specialty grocery outlets, health food stores, and cafes across Australia, a number that is growing each week.

Hindson says introducing a brand and product that no one had heard of was an interesting challenge.  

“I’ve worked on some big brands in my career, but starting from a base of zero awareness, zero Instagram followers, and zero customers, it’s a massive thing to take on,” she told SmartCompany. 

“With our branding, we’ve tried to go really bold so that we really stand out. 

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“Part of my thinking on the packaging really early game was, ‘gosh if we don’t have a lot of money to spend on marketing, when we finally launch this packaging has to look so amazing and so intriguing that people will pick it up and go well, I should try it.’”

As well as flour and oil, the Madame Tiger range includes its Barista Tiger Nut Milk and Original Tiger Nut Milk. The company says its Original Tiger Nut Milk provides the same amount of protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals as full cream cow’s milk.

“Some people say it tastes somewhere in between oat milk and cow’s milk,” says Hindson. 

“So if you were to draw a line in between the two, it’s somewhere in the middle.”

The Madame Tiger team consists of Hindson and her brother Daniel working full-time on the business, as well as around five contractors and casual staff members.

Hindson says the big challenge for the brand is telling people what tiger nuts are and why they should drink tiger nut milk.

“We’ve been doing a lot of grassroots marketing, markets and expos festivals to try and introduce tiger nut milk to people,” she explains. 

“We do grassroots marketing to try and encourage people to try our milk. So people can have a conversation with us about it, try the milk, and then buy a coffee or buy a bottle to take home. That’s been really successful for us.

Providing samples to cafes, both for staff and customers, has proven to be a successful strategy for the brand, says Hindson. 

“We’ve just been growing month on month,” she says. 

“From August to September, our sales doubled from month to month. So we’re kind of on that crazy startup growth trajectory.”