Chocolate Milk Straw

I have a confession to make, I really don't like drinking milk that much.  I'm pretty much like your average little kid that would rather drink a soft drink or some juice over a glass of milk any day.  I do suffer a little bit from a lactose intolerance, but it's no excuse since I won't really drink a glass of lactose free milk either.  The only way, as is with little kids, to get me to drink a glass of milk is to make is chocolaty.  That's why when I saw these "Quick Milk magic sippers" I knew I had to try them out.

The first thing that I wondered was how these things worked.  Just from the package I figured out that it was a straw filled with little chocolate beads.  The beads would act almost like a filter, although instead of cleaning the milk it would in fact add chocolate.  Until I unpacked them, I couldn't figure out how the beads would stay in the straw.  Each end of the straw is crimped shut with little holes that allow a bit of milk to go through but the beads stay inside, it's pretty clever.

I decided for this test that I would allow a small friend of mine, Justin, to give me a kids perspective first.  He wasn't very impressed with them at first.  Two problems came up right off the bat.  First of all one of the straws broke, so milk was not making its way up the straw.  This really is more of a packaging issue but not really a big deal.  We got him another straw and instantly the milk made its way through the straw.  The second problem however was a lot bigger.  These beads don't dissolve instantly, I'm sure it's to allow the whole glass of milk to get a little bit of chocolate.  The problem is that it takes a while before you really get any chocolate flavour at all.  From a kids point of view, this doesn't work.

So Justin didn't mind the drink after a few minutes of drinking to allow the beads to dissolve a little bit.  When I tried my own I decided to suck up some milk and let is sit in the straw for a few minutes before really tasting it.  The plan worked fairly well, although even after a few sips the chocolate taste would die down a bit.  So if you're really thirsty, these straws won't really do you any good at all.  The chocolate taste is OK, however it's not the same at all as chocolate milk mix.  It's a fun novelty, but I don't think at this point it can replace the syrup or powder mix option.

CC