why aren't there more flavored milks?

July 21, 2023 2:32 PM

I found a bottle of cherry-flavored kefir the other day, and it got me thinking. There are a lot of flavors of kefir. There are innumerable flavors of yogurt. There are even more flavors of ice cream. But when it comes to plain old milk, there's only really three: plain, chocolate, and strawberry. I've seen blueberry-flavored milk before, and banana-flavored milk, and up here in New England there's coffee milk, but that's roughly 7038 fewer flavors than any other dairy product? Why isn't there a cherry milk? Mint milk? Peach milk? We live in a time of unprecedented flavor. Why are we still drinking plain milk?
posted by kevinbelt to Food & Drink (34 answers total)

Response by poster: (I'm primarily referring to dairy milk, but as far as I'm aware, non-dairy milks like soy or oat milk aren't particularly flavored, either.)
posted by kevinbelt at 2:34 PM on July 21, 2023

Because you are a benighted soul living in durance vile, unlike the good people of Australia.

Oak
Nippy's
Dare
Farmers Union
Breaka

FB: Aussie Flavoured Milks
posted by zamboni at 2:42 PM on July 21, 2023 [23 favorites]

You can buy South Korean flavored milk on Amazon (and probably elsewhere on the internet). I believe their banana flavor is the most popular one, but they also have melon, lychee, peach, etc. I've also seen mango milk "in the wild" I think at an Asian grocery store.
posted by virve at 2:47 PM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]

There are a lot of flavored soy drinks like Vitasoy. They're just not American.

I suspect it's because milk is considered a traditional "health" drink for children, which pushes people away from any kind of "unhealthy" flavoring. Adults don't drink much milk, at that point it's a coffee additive / cooking ingredient.
posted by meowzilla at 2:53 PM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

when it comes to plain old milk, there's only really three: plain, chocolate, and strawberry.

Fairly certain when I was young, powdered Vanilla mix was also available, along with the Chocolate and Strawberry. Guessing not profitable enough, low sales because like the Strawberry, too sweet.

What I'm hoping this discussion delivers is a source for pale green, pistachio-flavored yogurt. Instant pudding is available in Pistachio, why not yogurt?
posted by Rash at 2:56 PM on July 21, 2023

Australia also has Sipahhs which are flavoured straws you can use to drink any kind of milk or presumably other liquids as well. They claim to have 24 flavours but only 13 are listed. Sadly for you, they do not ship to the US.
posted by Athanassiel at 3:02 PM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]

You don't see a lot of people in the U.S. going around drinking single-serving milk these days, and anything flavored of course would not be useful in most recipes that call for milk and so is harder to sell in gallon size. Just a guess.

Christina Tosi made a lot of money off the idea of turning "cereal milk" into soft-serve, though.
posted by praemunire at 3:11 PM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

Trader Joe's sells, among other things, lavender blueberry non-dairy milk. So there's at least one flavor!
posted by branca at 3:14 PM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

Australia also has Sipahhs which are flavored straws you can use to drink any kind of milk or presumably other liquids as well.... Sadly for you, they do not ship to the US.

We had a product like this in the US when I was a kid, forget the name but this one definitely came in Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla. The paper straws were white and color-coded with a brown, pink or blue stripe; and a straw-length string of flavoring material was inside.
posted by Rash at 3:25 PM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

You want mint doogh/ayran. Not exactly milk, but dairy and delicious.
posted by kingdead at 3:41 PM on July 21, 2023

We had a product like this in the US when I was a kid,

They have them now. In my grocery store. Less than a mile away. And also online.

Go nuts.
posted by phunniemee at 3:41 PM on July 21, 2023 [5 favorites]

Greetings also from the UK, which has fewer flavours than Australia, but still more than you have - Frijj has the most flavours. But the fact that many of theirs have a limited run is back to the main reason - there isn't the market for a constant supply of the wider variety of flavours.
posted by Vortisaur at 3:42 PM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

Fruit-flavored milk teas are ubiquitous at west coast boba joints (not sure about the rest of the country), and are frequently just milk in a variety of flavors.
posted by not just everyday big moggies at 4:12 PM on July 21, 2023

In the SF Bay Area I've seen creamsicle and rootbeer flavored milk for sale. The same company has a few other flavors for sale: https://rosabrothers.com/products/
posted by skwm at 4:18 PM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

Also in the SF Bay Area, Clover Sonoma sells “Moon Milks” in Golden (turmeric ginger), Blue (blueberry lavender), and Pink (cherry berry hibiscus) flavors as well as a line of Rainbow Milks including strawberry and vanilla.
posted by KatlaDragon at 4:52 PM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

One of my family members moved to Lancaster County PA, and while there weren’t a lot of places near the Indian Steps Museum, the small convenience store nearby had an array of flavored milks. I brought home orange, mint, and something else for my teens. We also will occasionally bring home banana milk from the nearby Asian market. It’s out there, maybe more available in dairy-centric locations?

My understanding is chocolate is a great flavoring for less-fresh milk. So the flavoring can overtake, or smooth some of the cultured taste.
posted by childofTethys at 6:15 PM on July 21, 2023

Lime milk was, for a time, available in Canberra.
posted by tinlids at 6:27 PM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

In Aotearoa|New Zealand you could enjoy Lewis Road Creamery flavoured milks. Flavours include Fresh Chocolate Raspberry, Caramel & Butterscotch, and Winter Spice (Horopito, ginger root, caramel notes, spices and earthy black pepper).
posted by The Patron Saint of Spices at 6:28 PM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

Another Australian. I think this assessment has some weight:

"I suspect it's because milk is considered a traditional "health" drink for children, which pushes people away from any kind of "unhealthy" flavoring. Adults don't drink much milk, at that point it's a coffee additive / cooking ingredient."

Over here it's really common for tradesmen to have like, a choccy milk and a meat pie for lunch from a conveniently placed gas station or 7-11, many will offer the two as a package deal. We just don't have the same hangup about it being juvenile I suspect.

It's still considered a healthier choice, though. Our carbonated drink ranges tend to be smaller and people consider it to be better for you to have a flavoured milk than it is to have a soft drink. So we wind up with lots of yummy choices that are for adults more than kids.

I've seen a lot of Chupa Chup flavoured milk popping up of late. I must stress that despite the labels they are not "choc vanilla" flavoured milk, they are absolutely choc vanilla lollipop flavoured milk. Like you've dissolved a few actual Chupa Chups into the carton.

It's a similar experience to the Zooper Dooper flavoured milks - including flavours like pineapple and bubblegum - modelled off our local icy pole iceblock. I think there're known as Otter Pops?

I also see lime milk from time to time around here, it's not a rarity at all in Queensland.

We also have a robust import industry for Asian beverages and the Japanese milk based teas inna tin have some amazing options too. I've also seen some amazing offerings from Thailand and the Philippines. Australia is a wonderland of flavoured milks.

I am lactose intolerant.
posted by Jilder at 7:00 PM on July 21, 2023 [10 favorites]

I just buy the powder but looks like whole food has a couple different kinds of ready to drink golden milk.

I hear ppl say it’s medicinal, but I love the taste.
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:02 PM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

In India you get flavored toned milk in all kinds of flavors - mango, pineapple, pistachio, saffron-almond, "ice cream" flavored (I think that's a bit like vanilla?), etc. Sadly I've never seen it being sold in any desi store in the US.
posted by MiraK at 9:34 PM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]

Maybe because there was such a plague of adulterated milk in the US in the 1800s, people rejected milk that had anything in it that could mask adulteration, and that established a tradition that still continues.
posted by jamjam at 9:49 PM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]

Unless I hallucinated it, I recall finding maple-flavored milk in grocery stores in Montreal.
posted by Nerd of the North at 12:03 AM on July 22, 2023

Not quite that range but Candy Up (French single serving milk brand from Candia) comes in Chocolate, Strawberry, Vanilla and Caramel. I sometimes get it from French supermarkets here as a nostalgic treat.

You can also make your own. I confused sparkling water and milk recently when trying to make Apfelschorle - turns out 1 part apple juice to 4 parts milk is delicious.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 2:49 AM on July 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: This is beautiful.
posted by kevinbelt at 5:17 AM on July 22, 2023 [4 favorites]

I’ve seen mint and root beer flavored milks for sale at my local gas station before. Maybe try checking places like that as well as regular supermarkets?
posted by music for skeletons at 7:42 AM on July 22, 2023

USDA: Fluid Milk Consumption Continues Downward Trend, Proving Difficult to Reverse

U.S. per capita fluid milk consumption has been trending downward for more than 70 years and fell at a faster rate during the 2010s than in each of the previous six decades.

From 2003 to 2018, U.S. consumers of all ages drank less milk as a beverage, the primary way in which fluid milk is consumed.

Plant-based milk alternatives explain only a small portion of the decline in U.S. fluid milk consumption.

posted by zamboni at 7:52 AM on July 22, 2023

In the US, I grew up with milk being thought of as wholesome, almost medicinal-grade healthy drink.

I never liked milk, and as a kid I remember it being a thing that my reluctance to drink it was like throwing a monkey wrench into society's gearbox. I always got the feeling that available flavored milks, like chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla, were partly created to market for parents of kids like me. But pre-made flavored milk tended to be a more expensive novelty, for stuff you could make yourself at home from regular milk and powders/syrups.

The things that make flavored milk appealing, the sugar and fat, have been falling increasingly out of favor since I was a kid, so I suspect the market for such beverages is similarly dropping off.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:10 AM on July 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Zamboni has a great point. Milk consumption in the U.S. is down from where it was 30 years ago, when large glasses of milk for children were aggressively pushed at every meal. Flavored milk was definitely more acceptable in the 80s because it was thought that children would grow up malnourished if they weren’t getting four servings a day and for those of us who find the taste of plain milk intolerable, chocolate milk was seen as a way of getting those nutrients into us.

Now, however, people know a lot more about nutrition and have far more choices in terms of ways to feed their families. The flip side of that is that there can be a tremendous amount of anxiety in some communities over dairy and sugar, so flavored milks might be a hard sell in the U.S. outside of Starbucks.

That said, some of these flavors sound delicious!
posted by corey flood at 9:15 AM on July 22, 2023

I used to buy apple-flavored milk every day in Taipei! That said, I can sometimes get orange creamsicle milk from, of all places, a local dairy here in semi-rural New York. So, given that I'm not answering your actual question anymore, check any local dairies, farm co-ops, large farmstands, etc.
posted by wintersweet at 9:33 AM on July 22, 2023

I'm in Taipei right now, and i drank some delicious freshly-made avocado milk and papaya milk this evening. There are stalls here making fresh fruit milks all over the place, basically any fruit you could imagine blended with milk—and convenience stores sell watermelon milk, green bean milk, mixed fruit juice milk, malt milk, mung bean milk.
posted by matkline at 10:37 AM on July 22, 2023 [3 favorites]

Besides what MiraK mentioned, rose milk was also common growing up in India.
posted by peacheater at 8:31 PM on July 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

Our local (KC Area) small dairy company (Shatto) sells several flavors on the regular outside of the common ones - orange (dreamsicle), root beer, banana, cotton candy, blueberry, coffee, egg nog, pumpkin spice, mint chocolate, cookies and cream, and also regularly does limited edition flavors (red velvet, salted caramel, and chocolate cherry are ones I can remember).
posted by jferg at 1:21 PM on July 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Several years ago I wrote to a company here in the US that sold individually packaged shelf stable milk in caramel to tell them how great that flavor was. A couple months later they discontinued it. :(

There was also a local company here in the Bay Area that used to sell root beer flavored milk in glass bottles- I had to be careful not to confuse it with chocolate. It wasn't Rosa Brothers though it seems like they've taken over the root-beer-milk space.
posted by oneirodynia at 1:34 PM on July 24, 2023