The Milk Test

Living in the dairy state, I feel that our milk here is pretty good. When traveling or living in other states, I have found the milk to be lacking. Recently though, I've become very curious of the different milks available- even here in Wisconsin. Most interesting to me has been the Organic milks. Our standard milk purchase is a one gallon plastic jug of 1% milk- usually store brand. That gallon of milk costs me about $2.00 right now. And we will go through a gallon of milk in 4 to 5 days, depending on whether or not I do any baking. As a comparison, Organic Valley 1% lowfat milk half gallon carton costs $3.86. So if I wanted a gallon of Organic Valley, we're talking about almost $8.00 for the same amount of milk. That's a huge difference.

Yesterday my curiosity got the better of me. In addition to our regular gallon of milk, I added a half gallon of Organic Valley, thinking that at the very least I need to try it. So this morning I very unscientifically poured myself two glasses of milk- one from each and proceeded to taste. The store brand mik was good, our usual milk. Then I tasted the Organic Valley. And I needed to double check the carton. Surely I had made a mistake and bought whole milk- or at the very least 2%. Nope. The carton was 1% lowfat milk. What a difference! There is this fantastic depth of flavor to the milk. I very happily finished that glass of milk.

Now it could be that the different forms of packaging had something to do with flavor...but I kind of doubt that. I really liked the flavor in the Organic Valley milk. I am seriously thinking of adding that to my regular purchases. I don't drink enough milk- I know that. But this stuff is tasty! I am planning that next week I will pick up a carton of the Skim milk and see how that stuff is. Less fat could always be better- but I usually can't stand the flavor (or lack of) in skim milk.

So is organic really better? That's totally up to you, but in this case, for myself and my milk drinking, I can tell you that Organic is better. Is it worth the extra money though? The jury is still deliberating. I have other milks to try from local dairies, so the testing isn't over. And I will share more as I learn more. If you're looking for some interesting reading, try www.organicvalley.com. I really enjoyed reading about their farmers- especially the local ones to me. Check it out- you may just learn something.