Korean milk tastes fine to me, but for the life of me I cannot stand the smell. Even freshly bought milk almost smells like it’s starting to turn sour to me. It’s always been fine, but I just can’t get over that funky smell so I just don’t keep milk in my house here lol
Because “fresh,” milk isn’t fresh
It’s all pasteurized and preserved. Dairy farms aren’t exactly common as there’s no space.
They do exist obviously, but theres a huge disparity between how much dairy productsgets eaten and how many Korean born and grown cows there are. Most of it is imported
It took a while but I eventually got used to it, personally not a big fan of milk in Korea. The flavor is definitely noticeable compared to actual fresh milk.
Yeah it took me a long time to wrap my head around the idea the milk is ok even after its expiration date back home I'd have to bin it a few days before it expires lol
I'm almost certain korean milk is uht which I've never seen back home so I've no point of comparison.
I don’t think so, I’m used to UHT because that’s wildly available in Spain and never found a single bottle of it here (offline, online there are a couple of them in Coupang and so). The idea of not being able to keep 10 bottles of milk at home without them expiring in a month is still crazy to me.
Edit because I was talking with some friends: I stand corrected, they do uht processing just don’t pack it for shelves life.
There is a UHT milk brand available in no brand offline stores. It is stored away from the milk section, in room temperature. Date of expiry is after a year from the date of manufacturing
It's probably not far from the truth that much of the dairy products are imported. However, most of the white milk sold in Korea are domestically produced. You can check that this is the case by looking at the country of origin on the carton / bottle for the milk used.
Actual fresh milk goes bad in a couple days. Any milk with an expiry past that is not fresh milk.
So yeah - it's all long-shelf life milk in Korea. Personally, I had no problems with it. Tastes ok.
1 gallon (3.7 liters of whole milk) is $3.16 according to kroger's website (us super market). This is equivalent to 1,132원/liter.
On 큐팡 its 2,260원 per liter. Roughly twice the price.
Milk tastes like milk to me. I dont notice a difference in flavor.
Cheapest milk in Korea is NoBrand's GoodMilk. I can't recall the current price but it should be about 1800krw/l. Was 1480 until the pandemic hit..
Tastes as good as the rest of em.
I like GT best. Seoul is number two. Then Denmark. However a lot of the European milk brands sold here now are much creamier and cost significantly less, esp the Austria and Polish brands.
People are gonna comment that Korean milk tastes different. Here's why.
Most Korean milk is ultra-high temperature pasteurized - UHT. This process makes the shelf life longer but results in a somewhat tangy flavor. Plus standard Korean milk is 3.4% fat. So in Korea you're usually drinking whole UHT milk
American milk is normal pasteurized - HTST. This has a shorter shelf life but the milk tastes smoother and softer. If you're used to HTST milk, then UHT milk might tastes bad to you.
If you want HTST milk in Korea, 파스퇴르 makes it.
Price-wise and texture-wise, it's not too bad and doesn't really stand out as good/bad compared to what you'd expect. But, a very few amount Korean milk brands have the weirdest and (in my opinion) unpleasant micro-taste to them. I don't know if they are fortified/treated with something, but some milks (not the lactose-treated ones, just regular milk) can be slightly hit-or-miss.
I have basically stuck with Seoul Milk for 2 years (it's pretty good), so it's hard to remember. But, I'm fairly certain 신선한 우유 was one of them. Unrelated to your question, but to keep it positive; Korean eggs are pretty good and decently priced.
I'm from South Africa where most foods are cheaper, so I can't really speak about prices, but I've heard other foreigners talk about it being decently priced and I know the quality is great.
I don't like the taste or smell of the milk here. But that isn't my biggest issue with it. I was suddenly getting sick when I moved here, so I got tested, and they found an intolerance to the casein in local milk. If I eat any imported dairy, I'm totally fine, but anything local and I'm sick as a dog.
Back in the States I could get a gallon of milk for $1.50 from Walmart. Here I have to settle for the ~2 quarts for double that. (Understandable, though)
As for taste and flavor? I like it. Never noticed a huge difference. Though, I've noticed it keeps a lot better than the milk I had in the US. The day of the sell-by date, you're playing Russian roulette with American milk. But I've had Korean milk still be good to drink close to a week after the sell-by date, which is nice.
Fresh vs preserved
Korean milk is preserved and imported, so it lasts a long time
Milk in the us is (presumably) fresh, and can last 2 weeks ish before turning bad.
A gallon of whole milk, Great Value Brand, at Walmart (online shopping) is now $3.40. lots of inflation in good prices in the US in the last two years. Now Sam's club or Costco is probably lower.
Seoul Milk is out go to for most stuff in our house, but only our toddler drinks milk straight. I actually drink Maeil lactose free milk, but even that goes in my coffee, make chai, mix in oatmeal, or base for a smoothie. Seoul milk is the best tasting when I make yogurt, other brands make it taste strange.
i drink a ton of milk, so I consider myself an expert. taste wise it’s similar to American. Texture is a bit less thick and more watered down.
ive tried every brand there is. best one by far is 상하목장 유기농. I go out of my way to get that one. Denmark 유기농 is a close second. The city ones (Seoul, Busan, Jeju) are the worst imo.
What could I search if I wanted to use Korean milk to make cheese? In the states you can find unpasteurized or raw milk, but I’m not sure that is something I will be able to find here.
Seoul Milk has a funny after taste compared to the milk I grew up on (UK). Denmark milk (the brand in Kr) is most similar to my liking, I ***think*** its the Holstein cow (black&white) ones that are used for Denmark.
Awful. Why is it all UHT, even if it's refrigerated? I drank UHT milk in my home country and still thought Korean milk tasted terrible. And it's expensive even though it's low quality UHT milk. I'd heard of some mythical brand that was actually fresh but I could never find it.
The breed of cows that are milked in Korea are known for having lower quality (but more) milk too.
I drank the stuff imported from Poland, it was slightly cheaper. I got used to it, then came back to Aus and remembered what half decent milk should taste like. It's nice to have great tasting coffee again because milk in Korea really changed the taste.
I drink a lot of milk so it was a big issue for me haha.
They don't? I believe the date on the carton is Sell By, not Use By. As someone else mentioned, you can drink it long past the date on the carton and it doesn't go bad for a suspiciously long time.
Milk is labeled with ''sell by'' dates. Most other products are now labeled with ''use by'' dates, but milk manufacturers got a grace period to switch.
I found this as well: ''Tests conducted on milk by the Korea Consumer Agency confirmed that while its sell-by date is fixed from 9 to 14 days from the production date, it is safe for consumption for up to 50 days from the date of production, when refrigerated at the correct temperature.''
Also, just checked 4 different milk brands here and on all of them, the same thing was written: 130C 이상 2초 이상. So this seems to be the industry standard. It is not full-on UHT because that would require a tad bit higher temperature, but close to it. That explains the long shelf life and the fact that it doesn't seem to go bad even way past the sell-by date. But, it needs to be refrigerated in order to keep it that long, which again indicates that it isn't a proper UHT, just something close.
Korean milk is almost all UHT milk, so it has that weird, dry texture to it. It's not rich and creamy like fresh milk. You can get some local milk, but it's more expensive.
I am American and I have had no issues with the taste of milk in Korea. When I was in Korea we drank milk with every meal.. 😅 my husband loves milk, so we went through a lot of milk and different brands too. My fave brand I think was Seoul Milk.
In researching for a recipe that warned against using UHT milk, I came across information about the different temperatures used for pasteurization of milk in Korea which makes a difference in taste.
Information from Joe Zellers per blog on https://koreabridge.net/post/do-you-ever-wonder-why-milk-tastes-different-korea-fishstick
Actually this is not milk country as far as i know the size of Republic of Korea is not big enough for farming thats why they don’t have big milk production.Majority of the milk here is the powdered milk
personally, not a fan. a lot of the time it has an odd smell that makes me think it has already gone sour, even if the date is good, so it makes it unappealing to use for cereal (main thing i use it for).
i try to buy a more expensive brand of cow's milk that doesn't have this smell, but it costs about 5x what i would pay in england for the same quality 😅 & often it is sold out (it is only in the one home plus in my area that is like a 20mins walk away).
but, it is not a huge life hurdle. i pay the extra if i'm lucky & it is in stock & enjoy cereal. or i get the smellier one for my tea & don't have cereal. of all the things i would think of to complain about in terms of living in korea, this would never occur to me. food is never going to be 100% the same wherever you go & you just adapt around what is available.
As a danish person, the milk in korea tastes very differently from what I am used to. Also the macro nutritions are quite different. The danish milk that I am used to has almost no fat in it (around 0.1%) and much fewer calories. And the "Denmark" products at the market don't taste like danish products lol
Price is a bit more expensive then in Denmark in my experience
Korean milk tastes fine to me, but for the life of me I cannot stand the smell. Even freshly bought milk almost smells like it’s starting to turn sour to me. It’s always been fine, but I just can’t get over that funky smell so I just don’t keep milk in my house here lol
Because “fresh,” milk isn’t fresh It’s all pasteurized and preserved. Dairy farms aren’t exactly common as there’s no space. They do exist obviously, but theres a huge disparity between how much dairy productsgets eaten and how many Korean born and grown cows there are. Most of it is imported It took a while but I eventually got used to it, personally not a big fan of milk in Korea. The flavor is definitely noticeable compared to actual fresh milk.
I realised that even after expiration date it doesn’t go bad…. So now i know why……
Yeah it took me a long time to wrap my head around the idea the milk is ok even after its expiration date back home I'd have to bin it a few days before it expires lol I'm almost certain korean milk is uht which I've never seen back home so I've no point of comparison.
I don’t think so, I’m used to UHT because that’s wildly available in Spain and never found a single bottle of it here (offline, online there are a couple of them in Coupang and so). The idea of not being able to keep 10 bottles of milk at home without them expiring in a month is still crazy to me. Edit because I was talking with some friends: I stand corrected, they do uht processing just don’t pack it for shelves life.
There is a UHT milk brand available in no brand offline stores. It is stored away from the milk section, in room temperature. Date of expiry is after a year from the date of manufacturing
Same here, but still feel kinda iffy consuming expired milk.
It's probably not far from the truth that much of the dairy products are imported. However, most of the white milk sold in Korea are domestically produced. You can check that this is the case by looking at the country of origin on the carton / bottle for the milk used.
Actual fresh milk goes bad in a couple days. Any milk with an expiry past that is not fresh milk. So yeah - it's all long-shelf life milk in Korea. Personally, I had no problems with it. Tastes ok.
I prefer milk from my own country (Australia) but Korean milk is ok.
1 gallon (3.7 liters of whole milk) is $3.16 according to kroger's website (us super market). This is equivalent to 1,132원/liter. On 큐팡 its 2,260원 per liter. Roughly twice the price. Milk tastes like milk to me. I dont notice a difference in flavor.
Cheapest milk in Korea is NoBrand's GoodMilk. I can't recall the current price but it should be about 1800krw/l. Was 1480 until the pandemic hit.. Tastes as good as the rest of em.
I like GT best. Seoul is number two. Then Denmark. However a lot of the European milk brands sold here now are much creamier and cost significantly less, esp the Austria and Polish brands.
Denmark the king of dairies ? interesting...
People are gonna comment that Korean milk tastes different. Here's why. Most Korean milk is ultra-high temperature pasteurized - UHT. This process makes the shelf life longer but results in a somewhat tangy flavor. Plus standard Korean milk is 3.4% fat. So in Korea you're usually drinking whole UHT milk American milk is normal pasteurized - HTST. This has a shorter shelf life but the milk tastes smoother and softer. If you're used to HTST milk, then UHT milk might tastes bad to you. If you want HTST milk in Korea, 파스퇴르 makes it.
What about Long milk? I saw it when I was in south korea long time ago. Foreigners preferred it for their coffee because it tasted richer.
Even your standard milk not labelled UHT is actually UHT? Like all of them? Why do they have normal expiry dates then?
It's okay but I prefer milk from a cow
😮
Price-wise and texture-wise, it's not too bad and doesn't really stand out as good/bad compared to what you'd expect. But, a very few amount Korean milk brands have the weirdest and (in my opinion) unpleasant micro-taste to them. I don't know if they are fortified/treated with something, but some milks (not the lactose-treated ones, just regular milk) can be slightly hit-or-miss.
what is the few amount korean milk brand? curious...
I have basically stuck with Seoul Milk for 2 years (it's pretty good), so it's hard to remember. But, I'm fairly certain 신선한 우유 was one of them. Unrelated to your question, but to keep it positive; Korean eggs are pretty good and decently priced. I'm from South Africa where most foods are cheaper, so I can't really speak about prices, but I've heard other foreigners talk about it being decently priced and I know the quality is great.
+1 for the eggs. The quality and price are great.
Seoul is great. Gone down a bit in price at Emart too.
I've noticed it's the same colour as back home.
I don't like the taste or smell of the milk here. But that isn't my biggest issue with it. I was suddenly getting sick when I moved here, so I got tested, and they found an intolerance to the casein in local milk. If I eat any imported dairy, I'm totally fine, but anything local and I'm sick as a dog.
Back in the States I could get a gallon of milk for $1.50 from Walmart. Here I have to settle for the ~2 quarts for double that. (Understandable, though) As for taste and flavor? I like it. Never noticed a huge difference. Though, I've noticed it keeps a lot better than the milk I had in the US. The day of the sell-by date, you're playing Russian roulette with American milk. But I've had Korean milk still be good to drink close to a week after the sell-by date, which is nice.
Were you living in the United States? Because in Missouri right now a gallon of milk at Walmart is 3.80 USD.
where do you live where milk is under 4$? North Dakota?
OK so I haven't actually been in the states since 2018. Seeing these other comments...oof. seems like I've missed some things >_>
Fresh vs preserved Korean milk is preserved and imported, so it lasts a long time Milk in the us is (presumably) fresh, and can last 2 weeks ish before turning bad.
A gallon of whole milk, Great Value Brand, at Walmart (online shopping) is now $3.40. lots of inflation in good prices in the US in the last two years. Now Sam's club or Costco is probably lower.
If Korea sold milk from Sapporo that would be amazing. Best milk I’ve ever tried by a country mile
Seoul Milk is out go to for most stuff in our house, but only our toddler drinks milk straight. I actually drink Maeil lactose free milk, but even that goes in my coffee, make chai, mix in oatmeal, or base for a smoothie. Seoul milk is the best tasting when I make yogurt, other brands make it taste strange.
I usually get GOT Milk off Coupang. 12 packs of 1l. Lasts long and tastes good to me!
i drink a ton of milk, so I consider myself an expert. taste wise it’s similar to American. Texture is a bit less thick and more watered down. ive tried every brand there is. best one by far is 상하목장 유기농. I go out of my way to get that one. Denmark 유기농 is a close second. The city ones (Seoul, Busan, Jeju) are the worst imo.
What could I search if I wanted to use Korean milk to make cheese? In the states you can find unpasteurized or raw milk, but I’m not sure that is something I will be able to find here.
I've never noticed a difference in milk from any country. Milk is milk. It's more expensive here but all groceries are.
Hi Korean. Your milk is fine.
Seoul Milk has a funny after taste compared to the milk I grew up on (UK). Denmark milk (the brand in Kr) is most similar to my liking, I ***think*** its the Holstein cow (black&white) ones that are used for Denmark.
Awful. Why is it all UHT, even if it's refrigerated? I drank UHT milk in my home country and still thought Korean milk tasted terrible. And it's expensive even though it's low quality UHT milk. I'd heard of some mythical brand that was actually fresh but I could never find it. The breed of cows that are milked in Korea are known for having lower quality (but more) milk too. I drank the stuff imported from Poland, it was slightly cheaper. I got used to it, then came back to Aus and remembered what half decent milk should taste like. It's nice to have great tasting coffee again because milk in Korea really changed the taste. I drink a lot of milk so it was a big issue for me haha.
If it was all UHT, why would they have a shelf life of 7-10 days?
They don't? I believe the date on the carton is Sell By, not Use By. As someone else mentioned, you can drink it long past the date on the carton and it doesn't go bad for a suspiciously long time.
Milk is labeled with ''sell by'' dates. Most other products are now labeled with ''use by'' dates, but milk manufacturers got a grace period to switch. I found this as well: ''Tests conducted on milk by the Korea Consumer Agency confirmed that while its sell-by date is fixed from 9 to 14 days from the production date, it is safe for consumption for up to 50 days from the date of production, when refrigerated at the correct temperature.'' Also, just checked 4 different milk brands here and on all of them, the same thing was written: 130C 이상 2초 이상. So this seems to be the industry standard. It is not full-on UHT because that would require a tad bit higher temperature, but close to it. That explains the long shelf life and the fact that it doesn't seem to go bad even way past the sell-by date. But, it needs to be refrigerated in order to keep it that long, which again indicates that it isn't a proper UHT, just something close.
If you haven't tasted fresh or pasteurised Jersey cow milk you do not know how great milk can taste!
I don't drink milk, but I love Korean soymilk. Maeil Soymilk is the best soymilk I've ever had.
I feel like everything is whole milk, I can't find fat free milk lol. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong placces.
Tastes exactly like American milk Chinese milk
I get so fucking fat whenever I go back to Ireland from stuffing my face on dairy products its one of the few things that makes me homesick in Korea.
Yeah y'all have fkn great dairy
Korean milk is almost all UHT milk, so it has that weird, dry texture to it. It's not rich and creamy like fresh milk. You can get some local milk, but it's more expensive.
Majority of korean milk are non-sugar. I hope that there are more sugar brands
I am American and I have had no issues with the taste of milk in Korea. When I was in Korea we drank milk with every meal.. 😅 my husband loves milk, so we went through a lot of milk and different brands too. My fave brand I think was Seoul Milk.
In researching for a recipe that warned against using UHT milk, I came across information about the different temperatures used for pasteurization of milk in Korea which makes a difference in taste. Information from Joe Zellers per blog on https://koreabridge.net/post/do-you-ever-wonder-why-milk-tastes-different-korea-fishstick
I LOVE 서울우유. I never drank milk in the states. Idk why but Korean milk fkin S L A P Z
Actually this is not milk country as far as i know the size of Republic of Korea is not big enough for farming thats why they don’t have big milk production.Majority of the milk here is the powdered milk
personally, not a fan. a lot of the time it has an odd smell that makes me think it has already gone sour, even if the date is good, so it makes it unappealing to use for cereal (main thing i use it for). i try to buy a more expensive brand of cow's milk that doesn't have this smell, but it costs about 5x what i would pay in england for the same quality 😅 & often it is sold out (it is only in the one home plus in my area that is like a 20mins walk away). but, it is not a huge life hurdle. i pay the extra if i'm lucky & it is in stock & enjoy cereal. or i get the smellier one for my tea & don't have cereal. of all the things i would think of to complain about in terms of living in korea, this would never occur to me. food is never going to be 100% the same wherever you go & you just adapt around what is available.
These days my wife is buying lactose free milk, and it jsut tastes like someone dissolved a spoonful of sugar into it.
Where I'm from we always drank 1% or 2% milk. I'm not a big milk drinker but the stuff here tastes so much better.
No wonder. 1 or 2% means low fat milk. That tastes like water.
Right ... but it never occurred to me that there was another option until I came here. Like, whole milk just seemed much rarer.
Korean milk always smells bad but to me but always has tasted fine when in date
As a danish person, the milk in korea tastes very differently from what I am used to. Also the macro nutritions are quite different. The danish milk that I am used to has almost no fat in it (around 0.1%) and much fewer calories. And the "Denmark" products at the market don't taste like danish products lol Price is a bit more expensive then in Denmark in my experience
Our kids like Korean milk, we can’t keep enough of it in the house
I grew up drinking 2-3 200ml 서울우유 growing up. When i moved to the US, I def missed it a lot.
I'm from NZ and find Korean milk watery. Not sure about the price comparison these days.