It’s been a good long while since I’ve allowed myself to enjoy chocolate milk. I love the stuff. When I was a kid, as early as second grade I required an extra seven cents per day so I could buy an extra milk at lunch time. I would buy one half pint of white milk and a half pint of chocolate milk. Aside from the year the school budget failed and we went on “austerity budget”, the milk at our school was purchased from a Central New York company called Byrne Dairy. They had, and continue to have, convenience stores all over the region.
Once in a while we’d get a quart or half gallon of chocolate milk for home. It was a luxury afforded by Mom and the grocery shopping exercises, but it didn’t happen very often. We’d bring home a half gallon of chocolate milk in a glass bottle and it would be a delight. My sister would finish it off in less than a day.
I’ve always considered Byrne Dairy Chocolate Milk the gold standard of chocolate milk experiences.
My husband and I were at Safeway today and I discovered that while we don’t have Byrne Dairy anywhere near Arizona, chocolate milk is available in half gallon glass bottles. I was a little shocked at the price ($4.99 plus $2.00 bottle deposit), but we took out a second mortgage on the house and I brought home some chocolate milk.
It is very good chocolate milk. It’s not quite the same as Byrne Dairy’s chocolate milk. Though, I ponder to think that Byrne Dairy’s chocolate milk today probably isn’t the same as I remember as a kid. High fructose corn syrup, mass production, and all that.
I still recommend a chocolate milk experience once in a while.
