Sweet, milky, and under-chocolaty, but rather pleasant, and decently natural feeling for a shelf-stable, boxed item. It won’t light your tastebuds on fire, but it also won’t be the last thing you reach for in the fridge (or even off the shelf).
All tagged 5.5
DVF Dairy Farm Chocolate Water Buffalo Milk
Very unique— not only because it’s the first Kalabaw (Filipino water buffalo) milk I’ve had— but there’s a flavor to it that I've yet to experience in over 1,000 previous chocolate milks. It’s ‘spicy’— not in the traditional ‘hot’ sense, but it’s reminiscent of spices like cinnamon and perhaps tamarind (not a spice, I know) more so than chocolate. Pleasant, nonetheless, and worth a try if visiting Manila.
Meadow Fresh Choco Choc
Smooth, silky texture that carries above average cream and sweetness, and a rather muted chocolate flavor. In its place is a subtle but noticeable sourness— definitely not to a fermented extent— but approaching that (purposely, I presume). It’s a nitpick— this same flavor profile is fairly common, and overall it's a pleasure to drink.
Dutch Lady Pure Farm Chocolate Milk (UHT box)
Chocolaty, noticeably chalky, and carries a very mild sourness that registers as unique and somewhat interesting— though the flavor washes out a bit quicker than you’d hope.
Superior Quality Dutch Chocolate Milk
Delicious cocoa flavor is the sole focus— and the thin texture delivers the flavor quickly but lacks a bit of staying power— an issue that is promptly remedied by taking another sip as you will want to do. It drinks 'faster' than its rich cocoa taste should allow, but it's still a worthwhile pursuit.
HEB Low Fat Chocolate Milk
Feels artificially thick— 1% milk fat doesn’t do this on its own. Aside from the slightly inauthentic texture, the flavor is pleasantly sweet and box-checkingly average on the cocoa side of things. Some might appreciate the thickened viscosity— it’s not egregious, but noticeable if you’re afflicted with a similar sensitivity.
Shur Fine Chocolate Milk
Fairly flatly malty, with a (somehow) creamy yet chalky feel. There’s little chocolate to be had, but the fat content helps to maintain a hint of richness in an otherwise mundane experience.
Dairy Queen Natrel Low Fat Chocolate Milk
A dialed-back sweetness works in its favor as it helps to keep chocolate as the main focus. There is a tiny hit of a ‘menthol-ish’ quality, sort of in the same sense that the paste we used in grade school had a ‘mintyness’. It doesn’t detract much, it’s just noticeable enough to comment. Don’t act like you didn’t at least try eating paste as a child.
Great Value Ultra-Pasteurized Low Fat Chocolate Milk
Smooth and fairly malty— a notch ‘milkier’ and better than the standard gallon jug 1% chocolate milk. It’s pale color sets up the expectation of weak cocoa flavor, which turns out not to be as egregious as it looks.
Whole Foods 365 Chocolate Milk
Interesting combination of strongly sweet and slightly earthy— it doesn’t lack flavor, that’s for sure. It’s aesthetically gorgeous, decently chocolaty, and a bit thinner viscosity than you might expect. The sweetness is overpowering and does ‘candify’ the chocolate flavor to a disappointing degree.
Snowville Creamery Low Fat Chocolate Milk
Strong cocoa hit in the early part of the sip, but lacks a creaminess that would really add some punch and staying power to the flavor. It’s very thin and there’s no trace (taste-wise) of its ‘high protein’ claim. Very unique and memorable.
Schnucks Low Fat Chocolate Milk
Mostly average, however has a strong saltiness that interacts well with the other flavors, giving the impression (illusion?) of a slightly more creamy and malty tasting product. Not bad.
Sealtest Partly Skimmed Chocolate Milk
Slightly bolder cocoa flavor than average, and a thin viscosity / smooth texture doesn't get in the way of its delivery. It would benefit from a stronger cream presence, but you can only do so much with 1% milk fat.
Altea Leche Chocolate
From the intriguing light-brownish-but-somehow-more-grayish color, to the non-chocolaty-but-surprisingly-creamy flavor and peanut-buttery finish— I must say it’s refreshing in its uniqueness, somewhat reminiscent of Enfagrow 4 (Thailand).
Borden Leche Chocolate
Smooth, sweet, and creamy— this has all the makings of a delicious chocolate milk, but where’s the chocolate? I bet that 9 out of 10 people would taste this (blindfolded) and identify this as a vanilla milk or milkshake— not because it tastes strongly of vanilla, but because it’s sweet and devoid of any other notable flavor.
Sport Shake Chocolate
Lots of flavor— especially salty/sweet, which provides a ‘malted milkshake’ like taste that, while amped up pretty high, doesn’t offend or feel terribly out of place. It does have a weighty feel to it, but overall it’s reminiscent of a very sweet milkshake.
Lactel Max Chocolat UHT
Thick and dense, especially for a boxed drink, but also sweet and plenty chocolaty. It’s creamy, but not overly ‘milky’— it feels a little heavy for milk, and the flavor is akin to chocolate candy, albeit good chocolate candy.
Moo Milk Choc Fudge Flavoured Milk
Pleasantly sweet, and a unique chocolate flavor that you think will be fruity but it goes in a different direction when the salt kicks in— it’s intriguing. It does candify the cocoa slightly, but the balance works surprisingly well. Hard one to review— it’s memorable, but not outstanding, and not terrible—the uniqueness puts it just over 5.0.
Vitalac ChocoVit Sport Energy
Noticeably thicker (though still less so than average) and a fair bit more flavorful than the glass bottle version— thanks mostly to a maltiness that pervades the experience. A uniquely-flavored drink that is more malt than cocoa, but makes that formula work.
Biorganica Bio Schoko-Milch
Excellent look and texture, amply creamy considering the thinness, and definitely has a grassy note that I've not noticed in other chocolate milks. It's not earthy, and not overly chocolaty, but a tasty, unique drinking experience overall.