Trader Joe's Chocolate Whole Milk

The pros: Trader Joe’s Chocolate Whole Milk fills a gap in the dairy section.

The cons: It is much pricier than buying regular milk and doing it yourself.

The verdict: I remember being a kid in the lunchroom. When I did get school lunch, the drink options were as follows: milk, low fat milk, and chocolate milk. I just don’t remember there being any other options in elementary school. I’m pretty sure everyone was reaching for the chocolate milk first. It just tasted better. It wasn’t until high school where we had the added option of a vending machine.

Fast forward some years to adulthood. I still from time to time I still reach for chocolate milk. There is just something about the consistency of it that is so vastly different from the non chocolate variety. Now, when I do most of my shopping at Trader Joe’s, getting chocolate milk wasn’t an option.

Only recently did a product called Organic Midnight Moo make a return to shelves. The I could just DIY all the chocolate milk I could handle. But now, they’ve done it for you. At a price. You see a half gallon of whole milk in New York cost me $2.29 on my most recent trip. This half gallon is $3.99. That’s darn close to doubling the price.

Now, I understand it is made with Fair Trade Cocoa, but looking at the ingredients there is quite a bit of sugar thrown into this. It’s a good chocolate milk, but it is pretty high in calories for a single cup. Now, as far as the taste. It reminds me of the taste of a melted chocolate Easter bunny. In fact, it reminds me quite a bit of Stew Leonard’s Chocolate Bunny Milk.

I’m not saying that is good or bad, but it has more of a sweetened taste than a chocolate taste. I’m sure kids will love this. If you have concerns about the choice of using whole milk here, then Time recently ran an article about the issue of whole milk vs. low fat diary. Feel free to make your own decisions about that.

Overall, it was good. I’m sure kids will like it. As for me, I probably wouldn’t pick this up again. I liked it, but it would not be a repeat purchase. For the price, I’m happy to make my own.

Here is the visual run down of what you get if you buy this product:

The half gallon of Trader Joe’s Chocolate Whole Milk: