Smug milk.....who is it appealing to?

[GameOfJones]

I saw this in my local Tesco. Cow's milk mixed with oat milk. I actually thought it was a vegan milk alternative as it was next to the Free From section.

I must be missing something, but who is buying this? Obviously if you're vegan or have a dairy intolerance you can't drink it, but if you're a dairy milk drinker what would be the appeal? I saw it was marketed as "30% less fat than semi skimmed milk" but it still has more fat than standard skimmed milk.

From the ingredients it's just semi skimmed milk with a bunch of random crap added to it and 1.5% oats. But I'm genuinely curious who their target audience are.

Probably for people like me (i.e. mugs) who like the taste of cows milk but feel a bit guilty about our dairy intake. So would buy this to feel like they were doing something to reduce their environmental impact and for fewer cows to suffer.

So people can buy into feeling a bit better but without giving up on the taste of milk. Like having a hybrid car I guess...

I haven't tried it but probably will now I've heard about it. And, yes, as mentioned above I do know I'm a mug.

Leave the cows alone, just give me the oat milk!!!!!

More sustainable?
That you want to move toward being vegan? Those are my guesses.

Oatly semi skimmed has 48cals per 100ml compared to 47 for cow’s milk so if you replaced like for like that has nothing to do with your weight loss.

As someone who makes porridge with semi skimmed milk for breakfast every day, I also thought WTF when I saw that advert. I can't see that being around for long.

Haha it definitely seems like it! The name is absolutely dreadful.

A lot of oat milk has palm oil (or another type of oil) in it to make it creamy. There are some brands that are just oats, water etc but they are obviously thin and watery. Most of the "barista" style milk alternatives for making milk etc are full of oil, so it could have been that?

That is a fair point and I could understand using it in those circumstances......but as you say that seems extremely niche 🤣

Could this maybe be for tea?

Still haven't found an oat milk that's decent in tea, many are fine in coffee but still have cows milk in tea!

I wondered this, too. Must have been stood for just over a minute staring at it and wondering who the target market is.

I thought it looked like a weird product that someone on The Apprentice had dreamed up for a challenge.

I looked at their IG and I think a mix is meant to be better for the environment. Or something? Anyway, definitely doesn’t appeal to me!

Word on the agricultural street is one of the big names built a massive oat milk factory. But sales have dropped massively so they had to come up with this awful thing!

They are collecting the milk from a million porridge bowls.

I don't like cow's milk, so no appeal here, don't like oat milk either 😆. I've no idea who this would appeal to. If you are blending milks for the perfect foam, then just buy a barista version of a single milk.
I can only think it is trying to con people into thinking it's healthier or more eco.

I guess it's for people who want to reduce their dairy but don't need/want to stop completely? I'm mildly lactose intolerant and did try going dairy free for a while, but couldn't stand dairy free cheese. A reduced dairy cheese could suit me, so maybe other people feel the same about milk.

It's definitely a weird product with a very niche market though. It seems I am their target market and it just wouldn't occur to me that their product exists. I definitely wouldn't pay a premium for it, when I can just eat less "real" cheese for a similar effect.

That’s what I was thinking too. Skimmed milk is pretty awful imo, personally I don’t even like semi skimmed.
Oat milk has a creamy consistency, yet less fat than cow’s milk. Cow’s milk contains calcium.
Maybe that’s the reason to mix the two?
As for the name if the product - it definitely gets people talking!

I use oat milk in tea and coffee. It definitely doesn’t taste of porridge. I couldn’t drink it if it did. However I haven’t tried it by itself.

Too much dairy gives me stomach ache but I do like the taste of milk, so I would actually buy this to have in coffee. However, I'm surprised there is a big enough market for it!

If you're lactose intolerant then you could try lactose free milk rather than a substitute. the lactofree brand has just been treated with lactase enzyme, which is what we are lacking.

Try finding a dairy replacement that isn't fortified with calcium to the same level as moo juice..

I tried finding a low calcium dairy alternative a few years ago (calcium interferes with uptake of a medication I'm on) and gave up because they're all exactly the same in terms of minimum calcium content.

Skimmed milk is basically fat free. It has between 0.1 and 0.3% fat.

I think they've mangled the name, it should be Mugs milk.

Even full fat milk is less than 4% fat - if everything in your diet was 4% fat or less, you would be on a very lean diet, so I find the whole skimmed milk etc a bit pointless.
Not to mention that a lot of the nutrition content is fat soluble, so as soon as you skim/semi skim the milk you lose a lot of it's valuable nutrients also.
There are other types of dietary fats that you could lose that would make a healthier difference.

Appreciate some people just prefer the taste of skimmed / semi skimmed. I'm only talking about my opinion on the health benefits.

So for me it's either drink milk that's not been messed about or don't bother at all.

Even full fat milk is less than 4% fat - if everything in your diet was 4% fat or less, you would be on a very lean diet, so I find the whole skimmed milk etc a bit pointless.

Yes but it's a lot more than 4% of the solid weight... everything in our diet isn't mostly water. However, roughly equal amounts of fat, protein and a tad more carbohydrates is pretty balanced I guess.

@ErrolTheDragon interesting way to look at it.
You've got me thinking now.
For comparison, are there any other foods you would state percentages as a % of solids weight rather than total weight .. do we state the fat content of soup this way for instance? So we even do this for pies and curries...
And water will also fill you up, so if you consume liquid food it will displace consumption of other foods with less water content, so the water content shouldn't be dismissed as irrelevant.

And is weight the best measurement, what about volume given the relative of mass of components will vary?

Anyway, as you were.