# Saw an ad in a local paper for "white milk". What does that term mean to you?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 29, 2022, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565 "2022-08-29T21:59:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/1 "2022-08-29T21:59:24Z")
Our local community advertising newsletter recently ran a local grocery store’s ad for “white milk”. Being of the area, I knew immediately it meant either whole, 2%, 1%, or skim milk. Yet this descriptive term is falling out of use locally. It used to be quite prevalent back in the 1960’s though. Is this a term you would immediately recognize? Was/is it used in your area?
I’d planned to create a poll, but I just realized I have no idea how to make one since the board upgrade. Tellwiddit.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/2 "2022-08-29T22:01:39Z")
Chicago, grew up in the 80s, and for school lunches, we called it “white milk” and “chocolate milk.” I think “white milk” was typically whole milk, but I can’t say for sure. I know we had skim milk, too, which came in a small single-serving cardboard carton with light blue accents. Chocolate milk was brown accents, of course. And regular “white” was either red or dark blue – can’t remember for sure.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/3 "2022-08-29T22:03:16Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#):
>
> Being of the area, I knew immediately it meant either whole, 2%, 1%, or skim milk.
What other kinds are there? Aside from ones that (IMO) always come with a qualifier, like buttermilk, almond milk, etc.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/4 "2022-08-29T22:03:56Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> Chicago, grew up in the 80s, and for school lunches, we called it “white milk” and “chocolate milk.”
I would recognize it, from a similar sort of grade-school context in the '70s, in contrast with “…or chocolate milk.”
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/5 "2022-08-29T22:05:09Z")
Those of you who knew it from school (as I did), would you see the term in printed ads?
Here I recall ads for both white and chocolate milk.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/6 "2022-08-29T22:06:07Z")
Yeah, in a non-school (or similar) lunch context, I can’t think of the need for the distinction. I can’t for the life of me remember anyone having pre-made chocolate milk at home. I’m pretty sure they sell it, but I’ve never seen it at anyone’s house. “Milk” was understood to be unadulterated milk, typically whole or 2%.
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/7 "2022-08-29T22:06:31Z")
Never heard it. Mid-Atlantic, New England, Cascadia.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/8 "2022-08-29T22:06:54Z")
Not that I can remember. Only on the lunch form.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/9 "2022-08-29T22:07:56Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#):
>
> Those of you who knew it from school (as I did), would you see the term in printed ads?
Not that I remember. (And, this would have been Illinois, and Wisconsin, in the '70s.)
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### Author:  [@omenran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omenran)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/10 "2022-08-29T22:11:13Z")
I wouldn’t recognize it, unless by context.
I do know about the blue milk scandals.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/11 "2022-08-29T22:13:17Z")
Our milkman carried chocolate milk too, so we got it delivered back in the good old days, if I could talk mom into it.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/12 "2022-08-29T22:13:23Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> Chicago, grew up in the 80s, and for school lunches, we called it “white milk” and “chocolate milk.” I think “white milk” was typically whole milk, but I can’t say for sure.
That’s me, if you replace “Chicago” with “Central Illinois,” “80s” with “70s,” and “whole” with “2%.”
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/13 "2022-08-29T22:22:30Z")
WTF is a “milkman”? 😉
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/14 "2022-08-29T22:27:57Z")
“White milkman” seems problematic, too.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/15 "2022-08-29T22:28:49Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> > [@pulykamell](#):
> >
> > Chicago, grew up in the 80s, and for school lunches, we called it “white milk” and “chocolate milk.”
>
> I would recognize it, from a similar sort of grade-school context in the '70s, in contrast with “…or chocolate milk.”
Yes, this is the only circumstance in which that usage would have made sense to me.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/16 "2022-08-29T22:30:22Z")
I’ve never heard the term ‘white milk’. SoCal native.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/17 "2022-08-29T22:34:54Z")
In my class of about 35 (depending on the year), I’m pretty sure it was always every kid opted for chocolate milk, except for the one kid allergic to chocolate.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/18 "2022-08-29T22:36:57Z")
Is…is it not called white milk anymore?
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>
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ETA, I never thought of it as being a regional thing and I didn’t notice the OP is QtM, so we’d be in the same region (Kenobi too).
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### Author:  [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/19 "2022-08-29T22:37:05Z")
I would recognize “white milk” from any context where a kid had to choose either a half pint of white or chocolate milk- school, summer camp, a museum cafeteria ,McDonald’s. I may have heard kids say “white milk” (but probably not) at the dairy, which is where we bought milk when I was a kid. But I definitely never saw it in ads.
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### Author:  [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2022, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-an-ad-in-a-local-paper-for-white-milk-what-does-that-term-mean-to-you/970565/20 "2022-08-29T22:40:53Z")
I don’t remember using/hearing the term and I volunteered to hand out the milks in grade school.
It let me get out of class a little early. I also volunteered to be an altar server at the church our school was attached to which also let me out of class, maybe for a whole hour if it was for a funeral. You’ll never guess who volunteered to clap chalkboard erasers and raise and lower the flag at either end of the school day.
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