Monday, August 17, 2009

Milk

Milk is just different over here. First of all, it is not pasteurized. The milk is labeled UHT for ultra-high temperature processing.
American milk is banned in Europe because most U.S. farmers inject dairy cows with rBGH to increase milk production. So milk here is more natural.

Milk is sold here in liters...so no gallons. Besides, who would have room in the fridge for a big gallon of milk?

Here milk is sold in either plastic bottles or in wax/cardboard containers. But, only the bottles are refrigerated before opening. It is so weird buying milk that is not refrigerated. The cartons normally have at least a one-month shelf life before you should open them. Once opened, the milk is good for about a week in the fridge.

Acidophilus milk seems to be very popular here. But so is kefírové mléko (sour milk) and this stuff is foul! I bought some kefírové milk here by mistake when I first got here. It looked like milk and tasted like sour cream. Yuck!!


Whole milk is around 4% and I've had the 1,5%. But the good news is...I finally found skim milk!!! Odstředěné mléko is skim milk. Well, it's actually 0,5%. Once the milk gets cold in the fridge it is fine. I really could not tell a difference between this and what I used to drink in the U.S. And I kind of like drinking milk that is not genetically-modified.

4 comments:

  1. Yea! I couldn't have survive without skim milk. And you have more guts than me for trying the unrefrigerated stuff.

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  2. Old people drink sour milk believing it is healthy:) And Kefirove mleko is a great thing - if you buy the one with strawberry or peach taste:) Most people add fresh fruits and sugar into it:)

    Skim milk is what we call "white water" and most czech wouldnt drink it:) We prefer 1,5% milk or better Biomleko (biomilk) which is 3,5%+ and tastes nearly like fresh milk.

    Refrigerated milk? Hey... but you are killing the milky taste!:) I prefer milk at room temperature. But the fact is that we usually dont store opened milk over there -you open it and use it the same day or the next one at worst:)

    Interesting that there are differences even in milk consummation:)

    Petr

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  3. Hi Christopher, this is so cool! It is just like in Brazil! We also sell milk in plastic bags, refrigerated, of course, and they last for a week in the fridge. Yes, it is more natural than the stuff we get here!

    Your blog is awesome! I guess I will have to go visit you soon!

    Take care,

    Izabel

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  4. Christopher, you should know that UHT milk is like a milk in a can. It's better for you to buy and drink milk with max of 10-14 day 'lifetime' :) At least it tastes much better.

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