Milk as Milk Should Be (Tesco Finest Channel Island Milk)

Member Name: MagdaDH

Product:	Tesco Finest Channel Island Milk
Date:	14/05/09 (37 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: delicious

Disadvantages: more expensive, slightly more calories

I have gone back to buying this milk recently, not as the main milk, as it's too expensive for that, but as a nicer extra.

It's a full fat milk and it comes from Guersney and Jersey cows, what is sometimes referred to in ck books as gold-top milk. It's either non-homogenised or less homogenised which allows the cream to come up to the top.

It's creamy rather than completely white in colour and it comes in 1l transparent bottles with a gold coloured screw top.

This is milk as milk should be: it looks very enticing (so much that I checked the bottle for a hint of colourant added but have not found any), it smells of milky, slightly grassy smell (or is it just me imagining things) and it tastes lovely: creamy, sweet and rich.

The biggest disadvanatge is the price, as it costs 95p for a 1 litre bottle as opposed to for example £1.50 for 4l (2x 2l) bottles of Tesco Pure (own-brand Cravendale equivalent) filtered milk which I normally buy.

The biggest advantage is the taste. I find that gold top milk is too creamy to put in in my tea or coffee but great on cereals, and for pudding making purposes.

What about the health though? One of the dooyoo reviews is titled "die happy". Is Channel Island Milk as bad for you as it sometimes is declared?

Gold top milk has more fat than a standard full milk - 5.2g per 100ml instead of 3.6g (semi-skimmed has 1.6g, and I won't even mention skimmed, because it's such a dishwater than it's not even worth talking about). It's still only about 5% fat, though which is pretty low fat as far as food in general is concerned.

Due to the higher fat content, it has more clories: 161kcal in 200ml in comparison to 126kcal in whole milk and 90kcal in semi skimmed. If you are conecenred about your calorie intake and assuming you would use as much as that on your cereal (I certainly use less), it's still only a difference of 70kcal even if comparing it with a semi-skimmed: you can easily save that amount by simply using less, or NOT eating half a small chocolate bar, half a packet of crisps, or a small banana.

I believe in quality over quantity, and on that score the gold top wins hands down. It's better to have less of a lovely thing than more of an indifferent one, and it makes you more satisfied and thus probably eating less overall.

As everybody should know, no food, unless gone off, is bad for you in itslef. Ocean racers live on chocolate with nuts and mountaineers swear by Kendal Mint Cake (pure sugar). It's all a question of proportion.

Summary: It's better to have less of a lovely thing than more of an indifferent one