Product Reviews: Magic Milk Flavouring Straw

The advertisers of the 'Got Milk?' Campaign have introduced a recently new product in North America (while to the rest of the world, it's really old). This is aimed at those who need 'motivator' to drink milk by changing the flavour of it. So the question is: does it work? Let's find out.

 A-moo-zing? Or just a gi-moo-ck? I'll stop there.

So I was first introduced by this product when I saw a video online - oh, how infomercials get to me, especially from Vat19:

My first thoughts were: wow! That would be a nice change to my daily glass in the morning. But not being the biggest fan with online shopping, I did some research and to my surprise, it was being sold in stores across the States. So when that faithful day when we went on a border shopping trip, I knew I had to get them.

They come in a variety of flavours, but I opted for Strawberry & Chocolate. And for this review, I stuck with Strawberry. Now in the video, it claims that it can change the flavour of ANY milk (such as Soy, Almond, Rice, etcetera). Intrigued, I selected Skim Milk & Almond Milk for this test.

Test #1: Almond Milk

Pretty good on its own, so this was interesting

Close-Up of what the straw looks like

There are these flavour beads that dissolve when sipping, which triggers the change of taste in the milk. But when I took the first sip, I noticed no change in it. I took a few sips more, and still nothing. By the end of the drink, I only tasted that almond goodness provided in that cup. The straw initially did nothing for me.

The residue left over

So basically, you are adding sugar to the drink. Not surprising, but I didn't expect it to be the whole thing. Since I didn't taste much of anything, I thought it would be a better idea to try it with the real thing... Well, kind of.

Test #2: Skim Milk

The carton looks familiar?

Not sure if the percentage of fat in the milk affects the flavour in the straw, but I don't think it does. And one more photo of the milk with the straw:

Beautiful, isn't it?

So I didn't expect anything from it - then the first sip came in. Oh, there was a nice hidden taste behind the milk, and it wasn't too strong. It turned out to be delightful, and full of tasty goodness. Although the taste did diminish (the beads dissolved), the experience wasn't too bad.

Quite impressive, and I think it would work if one were to use it to encourage another to drink their milk. But coming out at about $0.50 per straw, I think there are better ways to drink milk. For example, the remains from the cereal bowl, leaving that yummy residue, or even incorporating it into baking? Or, simply learning to drink up a cup a day doesn't hurt so much. Consider these straws as a build-up for falling in love with milk. Again, I think this was made solely for cow's milk, but feel free to experiment yourself.

Rating: 3 out of 5