Cheap UHT milk/cream & Coffee

[MacGyverRI]

Anyone else like the UHT? It's shelf stable, needs no fridge until opened and good for 1+ year before use.

I've been buying the UHT Whole milk at the "Dollar Tree" stores and it's great tasting, I don't like the 1 or 2% though.

Now they also started carrying "8 oz. UHT Half and Half" that's also really good tasting.

Coffee (Reg., Colombian and Hazelnut) is also avail. there in 7 oz. foil packs (easy to store) for $1

[jackdale]

I am a fan of UHT milk. Great on my cereal.

[aeventyr60]

We use it mostly in baking. In Asia we can buy it in 250 Ml boxes. Cream as well. Have not seen any "low fat", "Skim" or any of the so called healthy versions.....Funny thing it was way cheaper up river in Borneo...

[MARC2012]

Glad to hear it is good.Bought some but been afraid to try it.Thanks.marc

[Minnewaska]

I've seen and used everything from 1%, 2% and whole milk from Parmalat on cereal or to cook. Haven't seen half and half yet. It is just as good, but more expensive. We have it as a pantry backup at home and on the boat.

On a related note, fat free half and half has a refrigerated shelf life of many months. Lord knows what its made of, but I'm told you can't taste the difference. I don't use milk in my coffee.

[wingNwing]

We use the 250 ml/8 oz boxes for everything, usually whole or 2%. Outside of the US, you can get powdered full-fat milk; here for some reason the only powdered milk is skim. (Powdered milk is great for bread baking, but I don't care for the taste in cereal. As for coffee, if mine doesn't taste good enough to drink black, I don't drink it at all)

[SVAuspicious]

You can usually find the 8oz boxes in the same section of the grocery as the other sippy box drinks for kids.

Mini-Moo creamer is UHT half-and-half and is available in all kinds of different sized boxes of the small plastic single-serving creamers.

[Allanbc]

Originally Posted by wingNwing

We use the 250 ml/8 oz boxes for everything, usually whole or 2%. Outside of the US, you can get powdered full-fat milk; here for some reason the only powdered milk is skim. (Powdered milk is great for bread baking, but I don't care for the taste in cereal. As for coffee, if mine doesn't taste good enough to drink black, I don't drink it at all)

One trick to better tasting powered milk is to mix it up and refrigerate overnight. It seems to help.

[Hartley18]

I assume you guys all know that UHT Milk (ie. Ultra Heat Treated Milk) is, crudely speaking, powdered milk with tap water added back in.

For those that don't, the manufacturing process is something like this:
1. Fresh cow's milk is sprayed into a spin dryer at several hundred degC, causing the water in the milk to flash off into steam and go out a smoke stack.
2. The resulting milk solids fall out the bottom and are then either (a) mixed with filtered local tap (mains) water and packaged as UHT milk or (b) further processed to take out some of the fats and proteins that would cause the milk to go off if left in it's dry state and add stabilisers, etc. before being packaged as Milk Powder.

Why do this at all, you ask?? Bacteria cannot survive at the temperatures the spray driers operate at, giving the resulting instantly-pasteurised milk product a longer shelf life than fresh milk.

The only reason I mention this is:
1. This is why there is a label on the carton telling you to "shake well before opening" - the milk solids may have separated out if the carton's been still for a while and I'm sure no-one likes water with their cereal.
2. If in a foreign country, find out where the UHT Milk you buy was made.. You are drinking tap water from that city - not a processed white liquid from a cow!
3. Powdered Milk is a slightly more processed version of the same stuff, takes up a lot less space on a boat and at least you have control over the quality of the water you make it up with.

I hope this helps.

[tdw]

I'm trying to find the link without success but we have been using a long life milk that is not UHT. In Oz its marketed under the Devondale brand.

In the past I have found that apart from the taste UHT milk's life span is variable at best. It does not last once opened and the I've lost count of the number of times it has bee off when first opened. I gave up on the stuff a couple of years back.

This new stuff though, has an unopened shelf life in excess of six months and once opened is good for a week or so. We are not big milk users, I do like a drop of hot milk in my morning coffee and with tea but thats about all so a carton lasts us a goodly time. Further, while I would not choose to drink a glass of UHT or use it on cereal this stuff tastes just like the normal milk. It is available in Lo Fat and Skim varieties as well as full cream.