4 ms·

Impact of modern packaging on the taste itself has been proven to be neglible in double blind studies. However, the taste of milk varies wildly based on the ani

Impact of modern packaging on the taste itself has been proven to be neglible in double blind studies. However, the taste of milk varies wildly based on the animal (food, location, roaming, season etc.) and also of course the process applied to sterilize the milk (pasteurization/UHT, skimming, filtering). Same milk from from same cow will taste very different when raw vs UHT. I am very much a UHT person, but for some weird reason my country (UK) considers UHT second grade so it's not always easy to find them - or they are shunned to "baking" aisles.

justsomehnguy 5y ago
> modern packaging But the packaging itself matters, eg soda in a Al can and a glass bottle is perceived quite differently. If the milk came in a plastic bottle I have no problem drinking directly from the bottle, if it came in TetraPak... If I bothered to cut it with scissors I would probably be fine drinking milk directly, but if I just ripped the corner by the perforation then I would definitely drink from the mug, because I hate the feeling of the paper fibers on my lips. Also there is a thing with Americans, they just buy milk. I can't buy "just" milk. I can buy 1%, 1.5%, 3.5% and (my preferred) ~3.5-4% fat milk. I don't like 1%, it is just a water with a bit of milk taste for me. Even reading Wikipedia article on skimmed milk makes me wonder how it even can be called a milk. I read many stories of Americans who didn't like milk since their childhood, only to discover in their adult life what what they drunk back then wasn't even a milk per se and sometimes their parents not only gave them skimmed milk but further diluted it with water. Urgh!
- martyvis 5y ago
  Just an FYI, but aluminium cans are lined with a plastic lacquer - so what you are tasting isn't from metal.
  - justsomehnguy 5y ago
    I know, hence "perceived". Still, my lips are on the can and if I fill the glass from the said can it tastes more "glassy" than "metallic". As a sibling comment says - it's all in our heads *shrug_emoji*
- stephencanon 5y ago
  > Also there is a thing with Americans, they just buy milk. I can't buy "just" milk. I can buy 1%, 1.5%, 3.5% and (my preferred) ~3.5-4% fat milk. Huh? A pretty typical US grocery store has skim, 1%, 2%, and whole (3.5%), each conventional or organic, and in a fancier grocery there’s generally a higher-fat organic option as well.
  - justsomehnguy 5y ago
    Of course it has a wide selection, but my point is what some part of Americans (who as beforementioned "didn't like milk", not every one, of course) don't even understand what milk comes in a different fat content selection. If that was a just a random encounter on my own I wouldn't even bother with making any conclusions, but I've seen it many times, incidentally some of them was after tasting milk in some other country, like in th GP comment. It is interesting thing on its own, why there is a such phenomen and as I understand part of it is attributed to the plain old povetry (hence skimmed milk diluted with water) but tgere was an overall change in the mindset about how and how many milk should be consumed somewere around the middle of 20 th c. in the USA. I could made the part about "some Americans" clearer, as evident by downvotes, but ehat is done...
    - MisterBastahrd 5y ago
      Huh? There are no Americans like this that I know of. You become acquainted with it in elementary school because you get your selection of milks in the lunch line and you will rue the day you choose skim milk over whole if you aren't familiar with the terms.
- alistairSH 5y ago
  Have you been to Iceland? When I visited a few years back, the grocer had a massive wall of “milk”. All the usually skim, low-fat, whole, etc. And also a massive selection of sour milks and milk-yogurt-cream things. As I don’t speak Icelandic, I grabbed a sour milk by mistake. It was horrific. Into the trash it went. And back to the store I went.
  - justsomehnguy 5y ago
    Well, my native cuisine has a lot of milk products of... different sourness. I couldn't make such mistake because I know the difference of the viscosity and how the bottle handles by the guts. *smile*
- JKCalhoun 5y ago
  > But the packaging itself matters, eg soda in a Al can and a glass bottle is perceived quite differently. I agree with that. When container-touches-mouth I think there surely must be some electrochemistry involved that makes the drink from the aluminum can taste ... metallic. Or it's all in my head. (But that too is important.)
  - brimble 5y ago
    With carbonated beverages, canned seems the most strongly-carbonated to me, followed closely by plastic bottles, then glass which seems much milder. Maybe the caps on glass leak more CO2. ... of course that could all be in my head.

justsomehnguy 5y ago

> modern packaging But the packaging itself matters, eg soda in a Al can and a glass bottle is perceived quite differently. If the milk came in a plastic bottle I have no problem drinking directly from the bottle, if it came in TetraPak... If I bothered to cut it with scissors I would probably be fine drinking milk directly, but if I just ripped the corner by the perforation then I would definitely drink from the mug, because I hate the feeling of the paper fibers on my lips. Also there is a thing with Americans, they just buy milk. I can't buy "just" milk. I can buy 1%, 1.5%, 3.5% and (my preferred) ~3.5-4% fat milk. I don't like 1%, it is just a water with a bit of milk taste for me. Even reading Wikipedia article on skimmed milk makes me wonder how it even can be called a milk. I read many stories of Americans who didn't like milk since their childhood, only to discover in their adult life what what they drunk back then wasn't even a milk per se and sometimes their parents not only gave them skimmed milk but further diluted it with water. Urgh!

martyvis 5y ago
Just an FYI, but aluminium cans are lined with a plastic lacquer - so what you are tasting isn't from metal.
- justsomehnguy 5y ago
  I know, hence "perceived". Still, my lips are on the can and if I fill the glass from the said can it tastes more "glassy" than "metallic". As a sibling comment says - it's all in our heads *shrug_emoji*
stephencanon 5y ago
> Also there is a thing with Americans, they just buy milk. I can't buy "just" milk. I can buy 1%, 1.5%, 3.5% and (my preferred) ~3.5-4% fat milk. Huh? A pretty typical US grocery store has skim, 1%, 2%, and whole (3.5%), each conventional or organic, and in a fancier grocery there’s generally a higher-fat organic option as well.
- justsomehnguy 5y ago
  Of course it has a wide selection, but my point is what some part of Americans (who as beforementioned "didn't like milk", not every one, of course) don't even understand what milk comes in a different fat content selection. If that was a just a random encounter on my own I wouldn't even bother with making any conclusions, but I've seen it many times, incidentally some of them was after tasting milk in some other country, like in th GP comment. It is interesting thing on its own, why there is a such phenomen and as I understand part of it is attributed to the plain old povetry (hence skimmed milk diluted with water) but tgere was an overall change in the mindset about how and how many milk should be consumed somewere around the middle of 20 th c. in the USA. I could made the part about "some Americans" clearer, as evident by downvotes, but ehat is done...
  - MisterBastahrd 5y ago
    Huh? There are no Americans like this that I know of. You become acquainted with it in elementary school because you get your selection of milks in the lunch line and you will rue the day you choose skim milk over whole if you aren't familiar with the terms.
alistairSH 5y ago
Have you been to Iceland? When I visited a few years back, the grocer had a massive wall of “milk”. All the usually skim, low-fat, whole, etc. And also a massive selection of sour milks and milk-yogurt-cream things. As I don’t speak Icelandic, I grabbed a sour milk by mistake. It was horrific. Into the trash it went. And back to the store I went.
- justsomehnguy 5y ago
  Well, my native cuisine has a lot of milk products of... different sourness. I couldn't make such mistake because I know the difference of the viscosity and how the bottle handles by the guts. *smile*
JKCalhoun 5y ago
> But the packaging itself matters, eg soda in a Al can and a glass bottle is perceived quite differently. I agree with that. When container-touches-mouth I think there surely must be some electrochemistry involved that makes the drink from the aluminum can taste ... metallic. Or it's all in my head. (But that too is important.)
- brimble 5y ago
  With carbonated beverages, canned seems the most strongly-carbonated to me, followed closely by plastic bottles, then glass which seems much milder. Maybe the caps on glass leak more CO2. ... of course that could all be in my head.