Taste Test: Organic vs. Regular Whole Milk
After my recent interview with Dr. David McCarron, I began to think of ways to increase my dairy intake. It occurred to me that I hadn’t had a glass of milk since I was a kid – sure I’d put milk on my breakfast cereal or add it to recipes, but I just never thought of it as a beverage for some reason. I bet many of you feel similarly.
So I went to the store to get some whole milk, and I was almost overwhelmed by the options. There were many different brands (from different dairies) as well as organic options. I wondered if there was a taste difference between them. Which might be the most delicious?
I purchased three different types of whole milk: one from a local dairy, one that was organic, and a generic store brand. I brought them home and asked my husband to participate in a blind taste test. I put samples of each milk in a white, paper cup and asked him which one tasted best.
After several rounds of sipping, my husband confessed that he couldn’t tell a difference between them.
Then an unexpected thing happened. My cat wanted in on the action and jumped up on the table to participate. She had a very clear preference – she chose cup #3, the generic, non-organic store brand. Way to go, kitty – no fancy milk for you!
What’s the lesson of this totally subjective, unscientific study of n=3? Milk is good for you, it’s the best nutritional value for the cost (25 cents/cup – compare that to soda), and there’s no real taste difference between brands. Milk is a legitimate beverage – I’m going to have some more regularly… if I can wrestle it away from my cat.
Love the cat’s endorsement!
Actually, it turns out that milk can give some cats diarrhea, so even though kitty loves it, watch out.
The taste test is interesting but I do think you need to make a conscious choice about which milk you use. Obviously organic is more expensive but you are also getting milk without the added chemical, so I’d say (especially since you can’t taste a difference) buy organic. But you have to be careful there too because many claim to be organic but don’t actually follow the guidelines. There was a study done about that recently:
http://www.cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html
My family drinks Heritage Organic Milk. It’s a local California family owned company. They treat their cows humanely and follow strict organic guidelines. Good for you, good for the planet , even good for the cows!
Curious… why did you pick whole milk as opposed to skim? Or even 2%?