When shopping for milk, I usually go for the Creamfields product as it tends to be a lot cheaper - we do our shopping either in Tesco or Co-Op usually, and they both have the range of products. However, they don't always have them in stock, in fact the Co-Op seems to run out of products without restocking them quite regularly so if there's none of the milk we usually get I'm not surprised. On one such occasion, we were forced to choose the Cravendale.

I'd seen the ads with the cats with opposable thumbs and thought it very clever, and was kind of looking for an excuse to try some of it to see what the fuss was all about. The price wasn't much more expensive than other varieties of milk, and with the added promise of the milk lasting for longer I was convinced that I was at least getting quality for my money.

We didn't notice any difference when using the milk for hot drinks such as tea and coffee, nor was there much of a difference with cereal. I tend to have porridge, so the milk ends up getting heated anyway. Visually, it does look a bit creamier and even whiter, if that's at all possible, than ordinary milk. The taste does differ when you have a glass of milk, although whether this is because you're thinking it's purer because of the filtration process or not I don't know.

Cravendale milk is treated differently to other milk in that it has a more rigorous filtration process before the pasteurisation takes place. This apparently removes more bacteria than pasteurisation alone and ensures a longer shelf life for the milk as well as continued freshness for longer once it has been opened. They boast this can last for 7 days once opened, and although we didn't test this as it didn't last for long, it certainly lasted for the few days we had it open for, maintaining its freshness.

Would I consider this a good way to spend the extra pennies you may or may not have? Well, the price difference is just that, a matter of pence, but when you're doing your weekly shop it all adds up. We use a lot of milk and so aren't really bothered by the length of freshness. The calcium content is good, a 100ml glass offering you 15% of your RDA for calcium, and overall it is a very good product. However, we'll still continue with the cheaper milk we use. It's still good for you and has calcium, plus it tastes ncie and lasts as long as we need it to. If Cravendale were there again and wasn't too much more expensive, we may still go for it again, but only if our usual milk wasn't available.