Every time I head down south for a vacation, I have fun going to the grocery store near our winter place and seeing all the different things that Publix has versus the grocery stores here in Canada. Good tasting Corn Pops. BEER sold at the grocery store. An endless variety of snack foods and frozen pizzas.
And yet, for the life of me, milk from the states just doesn’t taste right at all! Maybe it’s just because it doesn’t come in bags… The milk fat is all different. I get 2% milk back home, and the 2% in Florida tastes somewhere between homogenized and table cream! This leads me to buy skim milk; don’t get me started on coffee cream!
Sort of a random, unprovoked mini-rant, but I’m wondering if anyone else noticed a similar taste/texture difference between U.S. And Canadian milk. Or perhaps between dairy from Florida and that from other states? I know I sure have!
I noticed the milk in China tasted different and it was never refrigerated before you got it home.
You can’t buy beer at grocery stores in Canada? In Michigan(your close neighbors here), we can buy liquor, wine, and beer at any grocery store. No limits or anything.
Depends on the province. In Newfoundland, and, IIRC, Quebec, you can (or at least could) buy beer in regular stores. Ontario, only at Beer Stores. No idea about other provinces.
Alcohol in grocery stores varies state-by-state. Some places, you can’t get anything alcoholic at all at a grocery store, some you can get low-percentage things like beer but not wine or anything distilled, some you can get it at the grocery store but it has to be a segregated portion of the store that can be closed off from the rest, and what you can’t get at a grocery store, you sometimes get at a privately-owned liquor store, sometimes only at state-run stores, and sometimes you can’t get it at all without going to the next county or even state over.
In states like Tennessee, where I live, it’s county by county. I live in a county that only allows beer to be sold in stores (though you can buy mixed drinks in restaurants as of 2004); work in the next county over, which allows liquor – up to and including full strength Everclear – to be sold in liquor stores; and am less than an hour from Moore County, where Jack Daniels whiskey is distilled but can only be sold in the gift shop through a tax loophole and cannot be legally purchased anywhere else in the county.
My guess is all the pus and mucus from the cows’ near constant mastitis and other infections.
Oh, wait, I don’t know if any of that is actually true, but I get about half a dozen emails a week assuring me it’s so. :rolleyes:
I moved to Florida (Publix, Win-Dixie) in 2004 from the Washington, D. C., area (Giant, Safeway) and use the 2%. We haven’t noticed any difference, but then we (spouse and I) don’t drink milk as a beverage, but use it occasionally on cereal and in cooking. My family (from D. C., Maryland, and Virginia) didn’t seem to care much about milk; mostly we drank unsweetened iced tea (yes, I know most southerners prefer sweetened iced tea); and in the evening, coca-cola (before Coke changed its recipe); but occasionally we drank whole milk with bakery products, especially at breakfast on weekends – donuts,cakes, cookies, pies, etc. I go along with those who question why humans are the only species that consume the milk of another species. (But then, what the heck would we use on our cereal and in cooking?)
Interesting thing. Just recently I saw my first real Milkbank sign at a Hospital (where’s the cellcam when you need it?). Not only do we take the milk of other mammals, but when we talk about our own human “dairys” we euphemize and sterilize it scientifically. No Milk Banks for Bessie.
But really lots and lots of milk from lots and lots of different cows and farmers is all blended together… well homogenized, it would seem like it would obliterate any regional distinctions- although I can taste differences between local dairies and different store brands, but I think it has more to do with their pasteurizing and processing techniques more than anything to do with the provenance of the milk…
Yes, it does. I was going to post that the difference is probably a difference in what the cows are fed. A speculation, but American cows are probably fed a lot more corn than Canadian cows - corn’s not a natural feed for cattle but American farmers use it because it’s heavily subsidized by the government.
I’ve seen lots of Dairy and Beef Cows grazing on plenty of grass pastures in Florida. There area lot of ranches and I’m sure the cows are grazing more in Florida year round than in the Midwest or more northern climes. Their diets might be supplemented, but I’m sure plenty are grassfed.
Definitely. Grazing on specific plants can change both taste and texture. You can tell from the milk if a cow has been eating bitterweed (Helenium amarum), for example. The milk tastes bitter and takes on sort of a slimy texture. The smell and taste of garlic is also known to carry over into milk.
However, as devilsknew pointed out, commercial dairy production involves mixing and homogenizing milk from many different cows. Any major difference in the final product would almost have to be the result of a systematic difference somewhere along the line–either in general feeding practices or in the processing of the milk.
Milk in FL (and especially Publix milk) is mediocre. There’s a huge difference between organic milk (Horizon, Organic Valley) and the regular stuff. If you see cows grassfeeding in Florida it’s probably an organic farm.
However, upstate NY has great milk and I’ll happily buy the regular stuff.
The milk fat is all different. I get 2% milk back home, and the 2% in Florida tastes somewhere between homogenized and table cream! This leads me to buy skim milk; don’t get me started on coffee cream!
