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Fresh Look - Straus Milk, Yogurt, Ice Cream
May 22, 2007

The glass bottle caught my eyes first. Straus is about the only milk on the market that comes in glass bottles, at least in the bay area. Bought their milk first, then went onto their yogurt and butter, and now am a convert to Straus ice cream. With the modern day complex and perplexing food supply chain, it is nearly impossible for individual consumers to trace where their food comes from. This is also true for organic food as it has slowly become a business with higher margin for many large companies. I have learned a while ago that not all organic milks are the same, some come from local small dairy farms where fewer than 100 cows graze the pasture and some are sourced from large industrialized dairy farms where organic standard is barely observed.

Straus Family began with 23 cows in 1941, 60 miles north of San Francisco. You can find specific statistics on their dairy cows: “270 cows in our milking herd. We also get milk from three other family farms near us. One has about 600 cows (with over 1,000 acres of pastureland), the other has about 40 milking cows on 150 acres and the third is just getting started with about 20 cows on 75 acres.” To say that they know their cows is not a stretch. For Straus cows, about 80% of their intake comes from grasses, as cows have evolved to do so. I love the fact that the color of their butter varies depending on the season. In the spring, cows graze on green pasture which has higher concentration of beta-carotene. In turn the butter has a deeper yellow. And in the winter, the cows spend most time inside and the butter “becomes a paler shade.” Isn’t this a beautiful reflection of eating with the season?

Straus milk is smooth and creamy. I don’t drink much milk, but my kids tell me that “it is so yummy.” Call me crazy, but I actually did a blind test with my kids. I gave 3 different organic milk brands (all 4%) side by side on several occasions. Consistently they pick Straus milk as the best and a store brand as the worst. Okay, people may argue that perhaps they are used to the taste. Maybe, but the fact they told me that the store brand “tasted blah” says to me there is a difference in milk taste.

I eat quite a lot of yogurt and really enjoy Straus plain whole milk yogurt. I can’t cook to save my life, but I love to tinker with yogurt flavors. Some days, I just add a tablespoonful of honey or jam to 1 cup of plain yogurt. Other days, I throw in chopped fresh fruit, bits of cookies, even nuts. A few of my kids’ favorites are:

-1 cup Straus plain whole milk yogurt
-1 tablespoon organic strawberry preserve
-1 handful of wild frozen blueberries or fresh blueberries

or

-1 cup Straus plain whole milk yogurt
-1 tablespoon honey (you can get various flavored honey in your local farmer’s market)
-1 handful of diced ripe peaches

or

- 1 cup Straus plain whole milk yogurt
- 1 tablespoon raw sugar (it adds to the texture)
- 1 handful of diced strawberries

You get the drift. Basically anything works. The combination is endless depending what you have in your fruit bowl. Melons don’t taste too well in yogurt. Neither do apples and oranges. In the winter, we even put in canned fruit. Occasionally I let the kids experiment with the yogurt flavor of the day and what they create can be remarkably interesting and tasty, except we can never repeat the flavors. For people who are concerned with caloric intake, using non-fat Straus yogurt can cut down some calories. For people who prefer consistent flavors than random flavors of the day, Strauss also has Maple and Vanilla flavors for both whole and non-fat yogurt.

Straus vanilla and Dutch chocolate ice-creams are so good that it can definitely compete with the premium ice-cream brands such as Ben & Jerry and Haagendarz just in terms of flavor. When you throw in the sustainable aspect, Straus is hands down the best choice. The mint-chocolate ice-cream needs some refinement. The chocolate chips tend to collect at the bottom of the pint and they are a little too brittle in texture. I am yet to try the coffee and raspberry variety.

Milk, yogurt, ice cream, or butter, I love buying Straus not only because they are all organic and almost local, mostly because they are just so yummy.

Oh yeah, the glass bottles. I seem to have trouble remembering to bring the bottles back to the store for a refund, until eventually they occupy too much of my kitchen counter. They get reused instead of recycled like plastic jugs and disposed like the paper cartons. Using the glass bottles in itself is a great practice.

See more Fresh Look entries

CindyW

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