My Milk Addiction is Now #MilkUnleashed #sp

One of my favorite parts of working on a campaign is being more than pleasantly surprised at how much I end up liking the product I was asked to try out thanks to TheMotherhood.com. Let’s just say from the get-go that I love milk. I would die a happy woman if I owned a dairy farm.

Growing up, I knew there was powdered milk and unrefrigerated milk, but I have to tell you, that stuff was SO nasty! Ugh, I still shiver at the thought of it. I have to admit, I’m somewhat of a milk snob. I always have skim milk and the stuff has to be strikingly cold. We probably go through 3 gallons a week, just myself and my boys.

Now I find out shelf safe milk is making a comeback and with some bigger, well known milk companies. Color me a skeptic. I figured if anyone was going to say if this stuff was ligit and something that others would like, I’d be the perfect person!

Woo Hoo found at Costco!

To start off with, I was able to be part of a great webinar with three people from Tetra Pak, the ladies from TheMotherhood and a great group of bloggers. We learned a lot about the packaging process and how safe the milk is.

Shelf safe milk is processed at a higher temperature and then cooled down very quickly.  We made sure to ask if there were any nutrients lost in the process and we were assured that nothing nutritional was lost. Dairies don’t have to add preservatives either! That’s obviously good to know! After the milk has been processed, it’s put into a Tetra Pak container that is opaque, which is how milk should be packaged! It also lasts 6-9 months, so obviously much longer than refrigerated milk!

The packages are also able to be recycled. “Paperboard, made from wood from selectively harvested, regrown trees, is used to make the package stable, yet lightweight. Thin layers of polyethylene - a common plastic - are added to seal in the liquid and protect it from external moisture. A thin layer of aluminum foil protects products from oxygen, flavors and light.”

So, I figured Doodle and I would be the ones to try out the chocolate milk 6 pack I brought home. I’ll admit, I went with chocolate because I figured if we didn’t like it very much, the chocolate would cover up the bad taste. I wasn’t a believer yet, I was still remembering what this milk was like 25 yrs ago! Thankfully, the brands that are making the shelf safe milk are well known brands and ones I’d find trustworthy!

I decided to do an experiment. They promote shelf safe milk saying it’s just fine right off the shelf. mmmhmmm so they say! I put one milk in the fridge overnight and left the other sitting on the counter. The next night Doodle and I tried our milk. He wasn’t much of a fan of the cold one, but liked the room temperature one and I actually liked both of them! I was shocked!

We were told by Giovanna that it should taste similar to refrigerated milk that we get from the store, but until I tried it, I didn’t believe it! She was obviously right. I couldn’t tell the difference at all between the regular milk we get from the store from the Tetra Pak milk we were drinking.

Thinking about future uses of shelf safe milk has me wanting to stock up on it. First, I have a tendency to run out of milk before I can get to the store. This happens on a regular basis. heh heh heh Just having some that I can toss in the fridge to feed my addiction is a plus. Second, it’s really great to use in recipes. Third, when we go on road trips or to an amusement park, we can bring these with us instead of pop, juice boxes, or sports drinks! The boys play basketball and baseball so chocolate milk will be the perfect recovery drink to have on hand!

With school having started in some areas and many getting ready to gear up, Milk Unleashed has a great calendar to help you get ready for the school year and get your lunch box ready!

*This post is in partnership with TheMotherhood.com and Milk Unleashed. The opinions expressed are my own.