LIFE LIST UPDATE: No. 156 – Drink goat’s milk

I scratched another item off my “life list” on Friday when I drank goat’s milk for the first time. I put this item on my list last year because it was an unusual food item that I’d never tried. While passing through the dairy aisle of our local Wal-Mart, I spotted a quart carton of goat milk and seized the opportunity to cross off another life list item.

While researching the subject of goat milk, I learned that it’s been consumed by humans since ancient times, going all the way back to Neolithic times. Nowadays, it’s widely consumed especially in places like India and Bangladesh. All total, goats produce about two percent of the world’s total supply of milk. While goat milk is considered healthy, it’s recommended that you don’t feed it to infants because it doesn’t contain the right amounts of nutrients for growing infants.

When it comes to adults, a number of sources claim that goat milk is better for you thank cow milk. Supposedly, when compared to cow milk, goat milk is easier to digest, is less allergenic, is naturally homogenized, rarely caused lactose intolerance and is more suited for human consumption. Plus, many goat milk producers, like Meyenberg, claim that their milk contains no growth hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, chemicals or preservatives. I don’t care who you are, but it’s hard not to like the sound of that.

The goat milk I bought at Wal-Mart was produced by a family-owned, California company called Meyenberg and was labeled as Grade A, ultra-pasteurized, Vitamin D goat milk. They claimed that their product was gluten free and easy to digest for people sensitive to cow milk or soy products. One quart contains about four servings of goat milk, which contains about 140 calories per serving. One quart also contains eight grams of protein and 30 percent of your recommended daily dose of calcium.

Once home, I poured myself a tall glass of goats milk and consumed it slowly while watching television. As you might have imagined, goat milk tastes a lot like cow milk, but I would say that the goat milk is thicker and creamier. While goat milk doesn’t taste like chocolate, it did leave an aftertaste that had a slight, chocolate tone to it. One thing that I feel certain about is that goat milk and cow milk are so similar that I don’t know if I’d be able to tell them apart in a blind taste test.

If you’re interested in trying goat milk for yourself, you can buy it by the quart at the Wal-Mart Super Center in Monroeville, Ala. The quart I bought on Friday was very fresh and wasn’t scheduled to go out of date until April 9. If memory serves correct, that one carton was about $3.50.

In the end, how many of you have ever tried goat milk? What did you think about it? Did you like it? Let us know in the comments section below.