What’s the best-tasting chocolate milk?
Many runners consume chocolate milk after a race or a hard workout because of studies that have touted it as an ideal drink for recovery. As this post from RunnersConnect reports, the studies claim that chocolate milk has the perfect ratio of carb to protein (a range of 3:1 to 4:1). We have taken a look at the studies, and we feel the science is good on the subject of chocolate milk. However, the anecdotal evidence and personal experience is even better: After a long run, chocolate milk tastes really good. For some of us, downing 12 ounces soon after finishing a run starts the recovery time and allows us to get showered and cleaned up and then eating a proper recovery meal.
However, we’re not here to argue the merits of chocolate milk itself since we think most runners would agree about the benefits. The real issue today is what is the best-tasting chocolate milk? That is a whole other issue, entirely subjective.
The issue arose last fall during the cross country season. Elizabethtown Middle School XC coach Jeff McCloud had arranged for parents to bring chocolate milk for the team to drink after they raced. After the first meet in late August, when the kids polished off 2 gallons, he put the word out that parents might want to bring 3 gallons. Then about mid way through the season, one of the young runners told her mom not to buy TruMoo chocolate milk. She was insistent that it was of far lesser quality than other brands. Other kids said the same thing. Coach McCloud was shocked because 1. it’s chocolate milk and 2. it was a donation from parents. He also contends that the best chocolate milk is the one that’s in front of you at any given time.
The conversation with Coach’s own kids continued through the fall and into the winter, until he decided to take it upon himself to conduct a taste test of chocolate milk available in the Elizabethtown area with his 15-year-old and 11-year-old sons. Dubbed the 2016 Team McCloud Chocolate Milk Challenge, it featured 9 different chocolate milks: Nesquik, Turkey Hill, Shamrock Farms, TruMoo, homemade with skim milk and Hershey’s syrup, Giant brand, Kreider’s, Hershey’s and Galliker’s (this was the order in which they were served during the challenge). All are readily available at grocery and convenience stores in the Elizabethtown area. Coach McCloud said he would have loved to include every craft chocolate milk producer in the region, but time and resources prevented that.
This is how the challenge worked: It was a blind test. Although they were aware of the brands purchased, they didn’t know what brands they were tasting. Each received a few ounces in a juice glass and scored them on the following criteria: Overall, Chocolatiness, Flavor, Creaminess and Drinking Experience. The Overall score was weighted on a scale of 1 to 10. The others were a scale of 1 to 5. The glasses were between each sample with tap water, and the boys cleared their palates with water. (The boys were remarkable in their ability to identify the milks. They got Hershey’s, Nesquik and the homemade.)
To get the final scores, Coach McCloud tallied the scores from each sample, added the two scores from each of my kids, and averaged them.
So, without further adieu, here are the results:
1. Galliker’s (available at Sheetz), 25.5
2. Hershey’s (purchased at Giant Food Store), 24
3. Turkey Hill (available at Turkey Hill Minit Markets and Darrenkamp’s Markets), 23.5
4. Nesquik, (available at Giant), 19.5
5. Kreider’s (available at Darrenkamp’s), 15.5
6. Giant brand, 15
7. TruMoo (available at Giant), 15
8. Homemade, 10.5
9. Shamrock Farms* (available at Giant), 7
* Negative reaction to Shamrock Farms was immediate. Comment from one taste tester: “Flavor was awful. Didn’t make sense. Didn’t recognize.”
Coach McCloud notes that he has been in the Elizabethtown Area High School this spring recruiting for the track season, and despite the reaction (and results from the taste test) kids are not shying away from TruMoo chocolate milk during lunch. Which he says furthers his point that the best chocolate milk is the one you have right now.