A New Product Worth Checking Out

I love Organic Valley milk. It really is the best tasting milk, and I also know that I am supporting local farmers when I buy it. Sadly, it's a bit pricey, and since we go through a lot of milk, it isn't very often that Organic Valley finds its way into our cart. Last week while shopping though, a new product caught my eye, and we just had to try it. I found single serve Organic Valley milk in shelf-stable aseptic packaging. My only experience with shelf-stable milk is that it tastes pretty bad, but this was Organic Valley! They have standards to meet, so I plucked two cartons of chocolate off the shelf and into the cart.

Later that day I placed them in front of my kids, and they instantly liked the fun packaging and expanding straw. But it was the taste that won them over. Abigail guzzled her milk down like you wouldn't believe, declaring it the best chocolate milk ever- and would I get more of it for her. Zander drank about half of his (8 oz. is a lot of milk for a little boy), so Mommy and Daddy tried his. Seriously, it was the best chocolate milk ever. It was rich and creamy and loaded with chocolate flavor. At $1.00 per serving, its on the pricey side- but it's shelf stable! It's perfect for tucking into a lunch or for taking camping or on a hike. This week I'll be picking up some of the 1% milk to see how plain milk fares in the aseptic packaging. According to their website, they also package strawberry milk, and if I can find that I'll get it for Abigail for her lunches next week.

Organic Valley states that the shelf stable milk has been Ultra-Pasteurized, and for those who think that means radiation, I thought I'd let you know that is not the case. Ultra-Pasteurization simply means that the milk has been heated to temperatures over 300ºF for a few seconds to eliminate bacteria and germs from the milk. Often times you can taste the difference, and the milks that have been ultra-pasteurized do have a "cooked milk" taste to them. But I can assure you that ultra-pasteurized milk (at least from Organic Valley) has not been irradiated with toxins. For more information on the pasteurization process, go check out the Organic Valley website- which is a neat site to check out anyway.

**Milk pictures courtesy Organic Valley website.