Augason Farms Morning Moo's Low Fat Milk Alternative 56 oz #10 Can by Augason Farms

Excellent product and good Seller

Years ago, during a period in my childhood, my parents were struggling financially and one of the ways my mom would stretch the family food budget would be to serve milk made with "instant nonfat dried milk powder". It was awful! It tasted so bad that I'd often prefer to just drink water during meals. These days, I can afford to buy "real" fresh milk, but more often than not, part of it will wind up spoiled before I can use it all. My milk consumption is sporadic, sometimes I'll be in the mood for it, or need it for cooking. I have been considering switching to a more shelf-stable milk alternative, but my early childhood experience with "instant nonfat dried milk" made me reluctant to try such alternatives. Having bought (and used with satisfaction) other Auguson Farms food products, I decided to give their Morning Moo product a try. I figured that this being Auguson's flagship product that has been around almost as long as I have deserved a shot. And when I did try it, I was quite pleasantly surprised as to how close this stuff came to tasting like fresh lowfat milk. It's not -quite- as good as "the real thing", it does have just a little bit of that powdered milk aftertaste, but it's damn close. I've also found that this product, when reconstituted according to the directions provided on the can label, has a bit more "body" and "richness" than fresh lowfat (2%) milk. I'm also finding that using this instead of regular milk is more economical, as I can make it up in the quantity I need on-demand, so very little of it goes to waste due to spoilage. At the time I wrote this review, it was on sale for a very attractive price, and given that it has an extremely long unopened-can shelf life, I'm going to buy several cans now. Tip: If you want to have a larger quantity of cold milk available quickly, prepare this according to the on-can directions (mix powder with 25% of desired final volume of warm water first), but substitute water + ice cubes (or better yet, crushed ice) for remaining 75% of volume, and blend with an immersible hand mixer to crush and blend the ice in. Here's a quick pros-and-cons summary: Pros: - Good flavor for a milk substitute product. - Very long unopened-can shelf life (25 years), and 1 year open-can shelf life is not bad either. - Mixes well when prepared according to directions on can Cons: - Flavor degrades somewhat when warm. - Reconstituted shelf life is SHORTER than "real" milk - about 5-7 days when refrigerated around 40 degrees F / 4 degrees C - Prep time - It does not take all that long, but it's still longer than fresh milk! - Does not always work as well as "real" milk for some cooked/baked goods.

I live in rural Alaska, where heavy = expensive, so real milk is really a luxury. I have tried several brands that tend to have a stale or cardboard taste. This one is much better. Warm, it is still clearly powdered milk, but cold, it is much closer. If you didn't know, I think you could still tell it was a bit different, but not enough to say anything and not like its bad or anything. It really is pretty close to the real deal. It mixes well and doesn't leave clumps, and you need much less powder per gallon than other brands, meaning that the can goes further.

So, I got this product at about $13 back in July. I've been trying out different milk alternatives for my son, who's reacted badly to regular milk, every toddler milk and just about every formula you can think of, goat milk, nut and fruit milks, and so on. Even if a milk doesn't give him intense diarrhea, it'll still upset his stomach and force him to use the bathroom about 20 minutes after. This was the first drink we've tried that haven't caused problems for him, even in the smallest sense. He hasn't had GI issues due to it at all. We've tried figuring out what part of all of these drinks is causing the issue, but for now, it seems to be mystery. Even if this isn't the healthiest option, I'm just glad to have found something for him. I'm also increasingly intolerant now, so this doesn't typically hurt my stomach, either. The taste is decent, though I like to mix mine in a bottle of cold water with some banana Nesquik (man, I really wish I didn't have to import that!). It does take a while to mix up and dissolve, especially the colder the water is. This is precisely why I use disposable water bottles to dump the mix into with the water already provided, close the cap, and shake for a few minutes. You can even just wash and reuse these bottles until they collapse completely, if you wanted to. We already buy bottled water due to poor tap water quality in my area, so it's a win. Otherwise, a simple frother/coffee hand-mixer works perfectly. Now for the gripes. The can...this can is the absolute worse. It took two grown men with a cheap can opener ten minutes to try to open this. Finally, I just had my husband cut the top as best he could with the can opener while I used a utensil to pry the lid up and back as he got toward the end. Even being careful, bits of metal and paper fell into the powder. This is a health hazard. When we actually got the point of opening the can, things were going pretty smoothly. I didn't even begin to pry the lid until the end of the process. There should be absolutely no reason why opening this can allows pieces of metal and paper to into the mixture through normal opening processes. I would HIGHLY suggest the company reconsider how they do this aspect. They're opening themselves up to complaints (and even possible legal trouble) by making it almost impossible to keep those debris out during correct and regular opening processes. I fully understand that these products are meant for a long storage life and that's appreciated. However, if you trade extended shelf life for you and your kids drinking bits of metal and whatnot, and think that's acceptable,...then, I'm not sure what to say about that. You shouldn't expect your customers to swallow this without complaint, either (no pun intended). So, overall, decent enough taste, somewhat easy mixability, horrible can and its process of opening. Seriously, please reconsider the can and its opening properties. There are MANY complaints about it just on this listing alone. It's hazardous, obnoxiously difficult, and unnecessary. We have decent ways of storing foods for long periods these days without needing straight up nukes to open cans (and I'm not even sure THOSE could do the job, which is both a good and bad thing, I guess). As a final note that didn't really fit elsewhere: the price is ridiculous. I'm not sure if that's just the economy on this site specifically, but even in 2023, it's always listed as "on sale" off and on from a price of like $40. That's insanity. Now, $13 is amazing. It's currently listed at about $19, which is kind of fair, but a tad expensive. But, $30 and $40 is way too much. We may try another canister once we are actually almost out and if it get cheaper again.

Tastes Better than whole milk😋. Easy to mix.

Super for long-term storage of milk to be used in any way you would use milk...cooking, baking or drinking. Tastes better than any other powdered milk I have tried. The seal on the can insures nothing will get in there - bug or water. It dissolves easily in water and the milk has the same mouth-feel of fresh milk. Great value for the money on this large can of milk. Essential for any emergency food storage.