I’m a big drinker of milk when I’m stateside. During my teen years I used to go through a gallon a day; nowadays it’s around a half-gallon. I’ve lived in several states over the years and milk has always had a consistent taste to it.
When I’ve traveled abroad I’ve noticed milk also tastes consistent–consistently weird. I’ve sampled milk in Brazil, Europe, Thailand, and Japan, a fairly broad range, and they’ve all had unpleasant aftertastes to them, like they’ve been feeding their cows a diet of nothing but garlic and burnt onions. This taste carries over into their other dairy products–ice cream in Japan also tasted this way for me.
So what is it that makes American milk so different?