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February 21, 2011

Rice, Soy, Almond "Milk" or "Drink"?

I just arrived home from Lake Tahoe, sat down on the couch to relax and picked up the Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer and on the back page an ad for Rice Drink is being advertised. 

It reads:

Tader Joe's Organic Rice Drink is one of those "milk" drinks that aren't actually made with dairy products, so, technically, we can't call them milk.  But let's be honest; while we call it Rice Drink, you probably call it rice "milk".



















Do you have an opinion on these questions?:
Do you think a product labeled as "milk" should be labeled as such only if it comes from a mammal?
Do you think liquid pressed from these plant based products; soy, almond, rice drinks should be called "milk" or "drink"?






15 comments:

  1. If it is not from a mammal, can it really be called milk?

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  2. Hmm . . . that's a toughy. I mean, people have been calling the juice from a coconut "milk" long before soy milk was a household name. I gotta say that technically it should be called a juice - everything else squeezed from a plant is called a juice.

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  3. MilkMaid09 makes a great point. Coconut milk has been coconut milk my whole life. And you use it in dishes the way you would milk. I have to wonder whether it makes a difference that coconuts make that milky substance naturally. Break a young one open and it's there without work. I have never seen soybeans simultaneously or almonds yield milk.

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  4. I'm with Leah - if you've got to press it or squeeze it- I think it's juice - but it's not milk

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  5. If it isn't milk, then it shouldn't be called milk!

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  6. @Milkmaid09 & JPLovesCotton, really good point on coconut, I hadn't thought about it's 'juice' or 'milk' being made naturally and existing within the coconut. Hmmmm....

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  7. I would see it in the stores and wondered why they call it milk. Misleading?

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  8. Now that you bottle and drink it in the place of "actual milk" it is kind of weird to consider it soy/almond/rice milk.

    However, before I knew those variations of milk existed (grew up on strictly fresh cow milk) I would still call the substance pressed from almonds/soybeans/rice a "milky substance" because that is what it is.

    Some thing with the coconut - we still call it milk...

    Although I would rather drink something called "rice milk" than "rice drink" - it just sounds more edible.

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  9. I'm with Leah on this one. It's not from a mammal so it's not milk. But can't marketing do a better job than "drink"?
    Coconut JUICE is also what I'm going with from now on.
    Katie
    http://pinkepost.blogspot.com

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  10. Definition of MILK

    1
    a : a fluid secreted by the mammary glands of females for the nourishment of their young; especially : cow's milk used as a food by humans
    b : lactation
    2
    : a liquid resembling milk in appearance: as
    a : the latex of a plant
    b : the juice of a coconut composed of liquid endosperm
    c : the contents of an unripe kernel of grain

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  11. I don't have a problem with them calling it rice milk. I know soy milk and eggs aren't dairy. What about butter and cheese? There are vegan butters and cheeses--should they be called something else? What would we call them?
    Also, coconut water is different from coconut milk. The water is found in the hollow of young coconuts, the milk comes from squeezing the mature coconut meat. Some people call the coconut water coconut juice.

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  12. I believe it can be called milk, even if it isn't the 'real' milk that we're all familiar with.

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  13. @Milkmaid09 & @JPLovesCotton I think when westerners first came across coconuts they named it after a product they were familiar with... Milk, real milk.

    But I don't think they ever thought that people would ever think that coconut milk is real milk, but unfortunatly many people today fail to recognize the nutritional difference. They substitute real milk with a juice assuming it has all the nutritional benifits of real milk since its called milk. And thats were the real problem is!

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  14. Well at least I can have something with my oatmeal in the morning - that's right Rice Milk. I don't think it's MILK though b'c it would be udder(ly) (hee hee) ridiculous IF they really had mammary glands - well that's the only way I can say that and not be deleted. :) LOL!

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