The Hands-Down Best Strawberry Milk Brand Is Free Of Artificial Colors

For me, the idea of strawberry milk summons somewhat forgotten memories of watching Saturday morning cartoons with ads for a neon-pink elixir that was foreign yet delightful. While many strawberry milk iterations lean overly sweet and cloying, and are clearly aimed at kids, there are some that lean more refined. Chowhound taste tested and ranked nine strawberry milk brands to determine the best product in this quirky category, and the definitive winner was a concoction that surprisingly doesn't contain any artificial colors: Promised Land Dairy Very Berry Strawberry Whole Milk.

Our ranking took into consideration color, smell, consistency, fat content, sugar content, and flavor. And, in each category, Promised Land Dairy's strawberry milk delivered, beating out household names like Nesquik, Fairlife, and Yoo-hoo. Rather than containing a slew of artificial ingredients, the winner relies on strawberry juice concentrate for its pleasant flavors. This natural angle calls to mind the super popular ichigo (strawberry) milk that is seemingly ubiquitous in Japan, which uses gently stewed real strawberries as its base. And while this product doesn't boast the signature pink hue you might expect from strawberry milk, we think the lack of artificial colors is something to celebrate. As enjoyable as it can be, you may be wondering how strawberry milk arrived on the dairy scene anyways, and how you might use Promised Land Dairy's version (apart from just having a glass).

The story goes that an Irish man was given cocoa to drink on a trip to Jamaica in the 1700s. The beverage upset his stomach, so he mixed it with milk to make it more palatable and the idea for flavored milk was born. In terms of the fruity variety, Americans were introduced to a mass-market version of strawberry milk in 1960 when Nesquik launched its bright pink strawberry powder for milk. While kids have largely been sold on the idea since then, a lot of strawberry milk brands lean artificial in both color and flavor, and taste almost like liquid candy. In fact, you may need a drink of water to provide some relief from all of that palate-coating intensity.

Thankfully, Promised Land Dairy's Very Berry Strawberry Whole Milk is much more balanced and elevated, making it more appealing to drink and an ideal vehicle for enjoying strawberry milk in a variety of ways. For instance, you could use it as a welcome anchor for a fruitier smoothie or an enticing and mildly sweet addition to tame the bitterness of light or medium-roast coffee. If you'd like to get fancy, you could even use a whipped cream dispenser to create the silkiest strawberry matcha latte around. You may think of strawberry milk as a niche product, but the flavored milk market is an almost $9 billion dollar and growing enterprise. That's a lot of strawberry milk, so you may as well reach for the best one on the shelf.