I don’t even know if it’s legal to possess this stuff in the state of Wisconsin. It’s a small box of what claims to be milk. OK, yes, I know it really is milk. But the fact it requires no refrigeration until opened is a little disconcerting. It says UHT, which I discovered means ultra high temperature. Whatever that means. (I suspect some sort of government mind-control experiment. I mentioned the stuff needs no refrigeration, right? C’mon, what does that tell you?)
Anyway, I’m sure someone here has had this stuff. Does it taste like my regular red-capped moo juice? I’m pretty open to new foods but not when it comes to non-alcoholic liquids. Oh, and if your one of those people that says soy milk tastes the same as regular please say so. I need some sort of filter.
It’s pretty much all we ever drink in France (can’t vouch for the rest of europe). Before reading this board, I had no idea it was odd to keep milk outside of the fridge if unopened. We go through 6 liters of 2% UHT milk a week.
I rarely if ever drunk milk that has only been pasteurised, so I can’t tell you a thing about a difference in taste.
Yes, it’s real milk, packages in a manner that does not require refrigeration. Apparently, it’s been common in Europe and some other places for some time.
Ultra-pasteurized, or shelf-stable milk is kinda different-tasting, in my opinion. It doesn’t taste exactly like fresh milk. It’s got a slightly stale, slightly bitter aftertaste, that’s not really very noticeable unless you’re looking for it. It’s certainly slight enough that you could choose to overlook it, and I’m sure that if you drank it frequently you wouldn’t be bothered by it.
One place I’ve come across shelf-stable milk in heavy use is on cruise ships. I suppose space in the fridge is at a premium. Anyway, I noticed that my morning cornflakes tasted slightly different, and then one day they actually brought me a small box of milk to pour myself, and I read the package. It makes sense, I suppose…
They used it for all kinds of things; cooking, making lattes, cereal… as far as I know they didn’t bother bringing “regular” milk aboard.
UHT milk is perfectly safe to drink. Of course, you want to chill it before you drink it just because warm milk tastes gross (unless you’re putting it in a hot beverage of course). IMO the plain milk does have a tiny bit of an off taste compared to standard pasteurized milk, but it can be rather convenient. (the chocolate tastes basically the same)
OK, after allowing it sufficient time to chill I poured a small glass. You can tell it’s milk, but it has a funny/weird follow-up. Not necessarily a bad taste, just odd. Good in a pinch (got it from a food pantry so maybe I’m being more generous than if I bought it), but it won’t find permanent residence in my fridge.
Given the tighter living quarters leading to generally smaller appliances and such, especially in eastern Europe, I can see why they’d be popular.
It’s just milk. They pasteurize it the same way they do those tiny packets of half&half you see in some convenience stores and fast-food coffee counters.
There is absolutely nothing sinister or out of the ordinary at all. There is no connection whatsoever in any rumored incidents in northern Maine, that probably didn’t happen anyway.
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Note that it DOES need to be refrigerated after opening! Though only in the way any milk does, not due to zombism, which it absolutely does not cause.
It tastes different because the Ultra High Temperature is high enough that the milk retains the heat for a while, and thus actually cooks a bit.
And, yes, while it tastes different, usually it’s not that different mixed into stuff (like chocolate milk), and it good for cooking, of course.
There was a big push at one time to make shelf-stable milk by pressurization, which would not involve cooking the milk, but I don’t know what happened there.
It’s all they have in Spain. Nava disabused me of the popular myth that Spaniards only drink shelf-stable milk because of U.S. Aid delivering it in the 50’s, which leaves me with no reasonable explanation as to why the whole country drinks this stuff, because it is GROSS. Acceptable in coffee, but you’d want to avoid it otherwise.
I’ve had boxed irradiated milk and it was okay. I put it in tea. I didn’t care for it on cereal because it was served at room-temperature. Having been brought up in dairy country, I prefer my milk icy cold. When I get the warm stuff, I assume it came straight from one of my uncle’s cows.
We buy a load of this stuff and use it for camping and a back up if we run out of real milk. I remember mum and dad using it in the 1970’s when we went camping. It does taste a bit funny buit you get used to it. It is all my mum uses as the closest supermarket is 200kms from her house, as a treat she might by a litre of real milk when it is shopping day.
The chocolate and strawberry milk boxes that we give the Firebug have all been treated with UHT sterilization, which Wikipedia describes as “the sterilization of food by heating it for a short time, around 1–2 seconds, at a temperature exceeding 135°C (275°F), which is the temperature required to kill spores in milk.”
I’d been wondering why I couldn’t get regular milk that way, but it turns out that some grocery chains (e.g. Harris Teeter) sell UHT milk. But the nearest Harris Teeter is clear the other side of the DC area from me, so it may be awhile before I can buy regular milk in a box.
We use this every summer in our lake cabin, where we can’t go grocery shopping very often and refridgerator space is at a premium. We buy a bunch of boxes of UHT milk and drink it most of the summer. I’ve never really noticed any difference from regular milk, but I usually just have it over cereal and not often (but occasionally) in a glass. It’s certainly not a bad taste. If you gave it to someone who didn’t know where it came from, they might not be able to tell (as long as you chilled it first).
Beats the hell out of the powdered milk we used to use.
