Quality difference between milk "brands"?
- Thread starter PandaBear
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Braum's in my favorite for taste and longevity. Great Value is the worst of both worlds. I can easily finish a gallon of Braum's before it starts to smell sour. I've yet to make my way through a gallon of Great Value in the last year before I detect sour. Aldi's milk has been a nice surprise as it performs a lot like Braum's. Borden from Kroger is hit-or-miss.
Don't look up 'milk cows mastitis.'
I buy milk in glass bottles. The other packaging affects the taste negatively.
I buy milk in glass bottles. The other packaging affects the taste negatively.
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Just posting to clarify a few things about cows and milk. First, cows no longer eat grass. Cows ate grass decades ago when every farmer had a few pigs for butchering and a few cows so the farmer could have some milk to drink every day. Back then, milking cows (cows are often "dry", a time when the cow doesn't give milk to prepare the animal to have a strong, healthy offspring), were penned up at night close to the milk barn and then milked once in the morning and once in the evening. During the day, they were put in the pasture to eat grass. Unless you currently buy your milk from some farmer who only has a couple of cows, now your milking cows are either in the barn getting milked, or they are in a "loafing" or a "free stall" barn where they eat, drink and sleep. The food is brought to them, which usually consists of silage (the complete corn stalk is chopped up for feed) and a little bit of roughage, such as hay or alfalfa. A very small amount of ground-up grain may also be given to them, which could be made from the seed of corn or milo.
When that cow is being milked, she doesn't know and couldn't care less if her milk goes to WalMart, Aldi or some other place where the milk is sold for twice the amount. Feed CAN affect the taste of milk, but most dairy farms feed the same feed 365 days a year. However, a sudden introduction of fresh feed or if the small farmer suddenly switches from fermented feed to fresh feed, can definitely change the taste of milk.
When you taste the difference of your milk between the brands, it's because of how the milk was treated or stored after the milk comes out of the cow. We have a local mom-and-pop grocery store that sells milk that will be good until the the date printed on the carton and not any later. Some other milk in my area sold by WM or Aldi's can taste good a week after that date.
Yes, I grew up on a dairy farm.
When that cow is being milked, she doesn't know and couldn't care less if her milk goes to WalMart, Aldi or some other place where the milk is sold for twice the amount. Feed CAN affect the taste of milk, but most dairy farms feed the same feed 365 days a year. However, a sudden introduction of fresh feed or if the small farmer suddenly switches from fermented feed to fresh feed, can definitely change the taste of milk.
When you taste the difference of your milk between the brands, it's because of how the milk was treated or stored after the milk comes out of the cow. We have a local mom-and-pop grocery store that sells milk that will be good until the the date printed on the carton and not any later. Some other milk in my area sold by WM or Aldi's can taste good a week after that date.
Yes, I grew up on a dairy farm.
this is the small local dairy I get milk from.(link to their FAQ page)
https://knuevencreamery.com/pages/faqs
I have a Subscription with them for a 1/2 gal each of Whole and Chocolate milk every 2 weeks. Costs me $7 every 2 weeks. Delivered. They would Deliver here, nearly to the edge of their delivery zone, but i feel bad asking them to come this far, and have it delivered to my sister's place, maybe 10 mi from their farm. (gives me an excuse to visit her and the kids every 2 weeks)
the whole is mostly used in Coffee/Tea. (I'm the only one in the family that's not Lactose Intolerant.) the Chocolate I drink straight from the jug, a slug or 2 a day, just like god intended.
the whole milk is mildly vat pasteurized, and Non- homogenized. you do need to shake it to get the cream back into suspension.
main reason i know of them is b/c my nephew's friend who works there, and brought my sisters fam all sorts of products back when they were in their test phase, before they were allowed to sell anything....
https://knuevencreamery.com/pages/faqs
I have a Subscription with them for a 1/2 gal each of Whole and Chocolate milk every 2 weeks. Costs me $7 every 2 weeks. Delivered. They would Deliver here, nearly to the edge of their delivery zone, but i feel bad asking them to come this far, and have it delivered to my sister's place, maybe 10 mi from their farm. (gives me an excuse to visit her and the kids every 2 weeks)
the whole is mostly used in Coffee/Tea. (I'm the only one in the family that's not Lactose Intolerant.) the Chocolate I drink straight from the jug, a slug or 2 a day, just like god intended.
the whole milk is mildly vat pasteurized, and Non- homogenized. you do need to shake it to get the cream back into suspension.
main reason i know of them is b/c my nephew's friend who works there, and brought my sisters fam all sorts of products back when they were in their test phase, before they were allowed to sell anything....
I don't know about your area, but I see dairy cows in the field eating grass. There are dairy cows in every county in the San Francisco Bay Area except for San Francisco. I live in the hills where there's actually cattle grazing a few miles away. I've gone hiking in some parks where the cattle were actually quite calm, even with calves.
I certainly understand that most of what dairy cows eat is some sort of feed, but I still see local ranches where they're wandering around the pasture before being brought back for milking.
The "organic" standard mandate a certain amount of pasture fed, I would not be surprised the cheapest milk in the store are fed commercial standard feed 365 days a year. Organic can be quite different depends on the area though.
Recently I stumbled upon organic milk from Sprouts. I tastes like the organic milk in the glass bottles that the local dairy delivers, and it's cheaper than horizon organic milk. That and organic valley are the cleanest tasting milk I've found. I agree with others Lucerne, and Walmart's great value have a definite odd aftertaste.
I drink lots of milk and don't notice any difference in taste from one brand to the next. Of course the milk that comes from brown cows tastes different (chocolate). We buy our milk at Dollar General since it's $1.75 a gallon vs. $3-4 almost everywhere else. Sometimes when we're at Aldi in a neighboring town we get milk there for $ .98 a gallon.
I don't like the ultra-pasteurized milk like Horizon. That gives it several months shelf life when refrigerated, but gives it a strange taste since the heat caramelizes the sugars. It's even more apparent in UHT treated milk in aseptic packaging.
I'm not sure if Lucerne is still in house as Safeway bought an actual dairy decades ago, but then again it's a national chain with multiple suppliers. Whatever Walmart gets is likely regional too. Just check the code and look it up on the FDA website.
Safeway(Albertsons) has their own dairy processing in San Leandro near Oakland International Airport. Crystal bought out a dairy plant in Fairfield from Super Store Industries(Save Mart/Lucky/FoodMaxx) a while ago. I believe Clover uses them but with their milk. Dean Foods went bankrupt and took Berkeley Farms with them - they used to have a dairy plant in Hayward.
I use Clover for milk almost exclusively. It’s not ultra pasteurized. Their heavy cream whips like a dream. The quality is consistent. Note, I don’t drink milk. I use it for cooking and there’s a big difference between pasteurized and ultra pasteurized/UHT dairy.
I use Clover for milk almost exclusively. It’s not ultra pasteurized. Their heavy cream whips like a dream. The quality is consistent. Note, I don’t drink milk. I use it for cooking and there’s a big difference between pasteurized and ultra pasteurized/UHT dairy.
Also, Starbucks in CA tends to use Lucerne dairy.
Prairie Farms is "farmer owned" and they don't use "artificial" growth hormones.
I really can't tell the taste difference...unless it's organic.
Berkeley Farms used to have a processing facility in Emeryville. It was right on San Pablo Ave. This article has the history up to the point where Dean Foods bought them in 1998.
Berkeley Farms' new start
Berkeley Farms is even older. It was founded by French emigre John A. Sabatte, who started the dairy processor as South Berkeley Creamery in 1910 on Adeline Street.
As the business grew, it moved to Emeryville, which became its headquarters. By 1932, the creamery became a 20-employee plant with 1 home delivery routes. Eight years later, the company had doubled its work force and delivery routes.
In 1956 the name Berkeley Farms was adopted and the company began selling to grocery stores as the home delivery trend started to wane.
Last March, the company opened its $50 million state-of-the-art processing plant in Hayward and also moved its headquarters there.
Berkeley Farms, which has an ice cream plant in South San Francisco, purchased Bud's Ice Cream in 1991.
I'm not quite sure when Clover-Stornetta changed the name to Clover Sonoma. OK - 4 years ago.
Our milk and cream comes in glass bottles delivered every Tuesday. When we run out, super market in plastic isn't as good
like eggs + meat from cows, if they eat better + not pumped with antibiotics it can be a better milk, BUT typical processing creates DEAD milk as vitamins are required to be added after processing kills the good stuff!! if you are lucky or buy direct REAL milk aka RAW is most nutritional + tastier IMO + cows vary by breed its said A-2 A-2 milk from specific cows is best. search REAL MILK to learn + find out just how "DIRTY" milk from "FACTORY FARMS" is!!!! in Pa a close health food store sells the REAL RAW milk i have been enjoying for many years since reading on Weston Price Foundation
Do you still have a milkman? If so that's great. I loved getting milk, cream, and eggs delivered to my doorstep when I was living in the UK.
I've never had a milkman (do they even exist any more?) but I do remember visiting a family in Asia for a week. They actually got a daily delivery of Asian-style yogurt. It's kind of thin and can be consumed with a straw, but it's not as thin as keffir. They had a delivery box similar to old style newspaper delivery boxes.
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