There is no question that milk is considered an essential food and is found on breakfast tables every day across the UK.
But while milk is readily available at seemingly every store, not all brands are of equal quality.
To find the best Kent Live Reporter Sam Honey decided to test supermarket own-brand semi-skimmed milk.
Sam says: “I visited four major supermarkets to try out their range of milks and to answer the question of where to find the best milk once and for all.
“Our competitors here are Island, Marks and Spencer, Tesco and Aldi, each one I skimmed halfway through and started comparing.”
Iceland
Sam decided to visit Iceland frozen food chain first.
He said: “While I looked for 2 pints in every shop as I would argue that is the most common size bought for a weekly shop, my local Island only had single pints.
“Obviously this won’t affect the taste in any way, only the price – however a quick trip to their online shop tells me the going price for two pints semi-skimmed is 89p, a fair price if there ever was one has .
“Now for the taste, and I have to say I was quite impressed.
“One of the main things that can go wrong with semi-skimmed varieties is getting the balance right, not too watery or too full, and Island nailed the balance perfectly.
“A quick taste test and it really reminded me of the flavors of Cravendale, not exactly exactly but definitely similar, so we’re off to a great start here.”
Aldi
Next on Sam’s list was a trip to the budget supermarket Aldi.
He said: “To be honest my experience with Aldi has been very successful over the years
“Sometimes they absolutely hit the park and deliver really surprising quality at a great price – sometimes I feel like I should have just paid that little bit more for better quality elsewhere.”
“In terms of price, there’s a recurring theme here, as all of these options cost about the same, with Aldi also costing 89p.
“However, when it came to the taste, this was a little disappointing – this time the milk bordered on the watery side of things.
“It wasn’t bad by any means, but not exactly what I was looking for for my personal taste.
“If you look at the price, it would be hard to justify buying this for exactly the same amount of money versus what Iceland is offering.”
tesco
Then it was time for Sam to visit one of the “Big Four” supermarkets, in this case Tesco.
He said: “No price change on this one at 89p, it’s down to taste to set this one apart.
“It was a significant improvement over Aldi’s and almost identical to Iceland’s, perfectly balancing flavors and maintaining optimal texture.
“These two are now neck and neck so it’s up to our final pick of the day to see who will come out on top.”
Marks and Spencer
Finally, Sam visited premium retailer M&S to get a unified view.
He said: “M&S almost certainly comes to mind, the supermarket giant is known for it, both for its advertising and for its ability to supply it.
“The downside, however, is that you usually pay a little more, and that theory ringed true.
“But don’t worry as the markup was literally 1p, with two pints of semi-skimmed milk costing me 90p, hardly one that would break the bank.
“The question now is, does the taste outperform the other two or are we left with a tie for first place?
“Put simply, M&S blew the other two out of the water and tastes almost identical to Cravendale.
“This really was a delicious glass of milk and would be perfect for everything from cereal to tea.
“It’s safe to say that an extra 1p really made all the difference.”
The judgment
After doing his research, Sam came to a conclusion.
He said: ‘I leave you here knowing you don’t have to pay big branded prices for quality milk.
“M&S absolutely has you covered on that front and Island and Tesco aren’t too far behind either.
“However Aldi may be a little disappointed this time but there is always something great in every aisle of the budget supermarket so I’m sure I’ll be back very soon.”
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