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Big Dairy is trying to get teens hooked on lattes to boost milk sales
Amid decades-long souring of milk sales in the United States, big dairy groups have now turned to sponsoring coffee bars in high schools to help skim profits from the trendy—and milk-heavy—latte drinks popular with teens, according to a report by the Associated Press.
A $5,000 dairy grant to a high school in North Dakota helped buy an espresso machine that makes 150-calorie latte drinks containing 8 ounces of milk, for instance. The school went through 530 gallons of milk just for the lattes this school year, according to the food-service director for the school district.
Likewise, a Florida dairy group offers schools grants worth $6,000 to outfit their coffee bars. The campaign is called "moo-lah for schools," which refers to lattes as "moo brew." The group says the coffee bars are an opportunity to "serve 8 oz. of milk with 2 oz. of coffee and added flavorings that fit into your school wellness policy." One of the explicit goals of the grant program is to get students who "might not normally select milk with their school meals to consume milk."
It's unclear how popular the dairy-sponsored coffee bars will be nationwide—or how successful they'll be at hooking a new generation of dairy drinkers. But it's the latest attempt by the industry to get a grip on its dwindling market. Milk consumption has declined by 40 percent since 1975.
[...] Not everyone is happy with the coffee-bar sponsorship. The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages children from caffeine consumption, citing blood pressure and heart-rate effects as well as sleep problems and headaches.
Pediatricians have apparently never heard of decaf.
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday July 07 2019, @09:16AM (14 children)
if people get hooked on lattes, it's Big Sugar...
(Score: 4, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday July 07 2019, @12:54PM (12 children)
Uh, why?
I haven't put sugar in a latte in decades. The natural lactose and creaminess of the milk is plenty sweet for me. Same thing with a cappuccino. And adding sugar disrupts the foam too much.
Oh, are you talking about those abominations people order at Starbucks that are mostly sugar? They have about as much in common with a traditional latte as a frapuccino has with a cappuccino (i.e. not much).
I mean, to each his own. People can drink what they like. But a latte doesn't necessarily contain any sugar other than what's in the milk naturally. And unless these drink machines are deliberately injecting extra sugar, kids who have to add sugar to a latte are probably going to add less than the amount of added sugars in other typical teen drinks (like soda).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 07 2019, @02:42PM (7 children)
I lived with a girl who was lactose intolerant for a while, so we never bought milk. Been adding a bit of milk to my morning coffee/tea the past week, and I forgot how good those two go together. (Not hipster enough to own a cappuccino machine. Just hipster enough for a Chemex and loose-leaf tea.) Good to be living the incel life again!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 07 2019, @04:14PM (6 children)
I bought my first espresso machine in 1988, way before any hipsters existed. Back then it was a closed system that ran on pressure from heating water and you'd have to judge how much extra water to put in to have enough steam left over to foam the milk and yet not over extract the coffee.
The pump systems have made it much easier by separating the coffee and steam streams, and can be had for the price of Keureg (sp?? who cares?) except with an espresso maker, there is no plastic waste. If you want a regular coffee, make a double shot, add hot water, add cream (and sugar) and you have a wonderful americano. No need to be a hipster about it -- they're regular coffee makers at this point.
Or get one of those stove stop makers -- I had a prof in college from Brazil who said "coffee should be sweet as sex, black as night, and hot as hell." This is what you need for that, and again, ancient tech, not expensive enough to be hipster ($14): https://www.amazon.com/Primula-Stovetop-Espresso-Coffee-Maker/dp/B001J1L59E?ref_=bl_dp_s_web_2598946011 [amazon.com] Wannabe hipsters might get the stainless version ($25): https://www.amazon.com/Primula-Stainless-Steel-Espresso-Maker/dp/B00263JWD0?ref_=bl_dp_s_web_2598946011 [amazon.com] I've had an aluminum pot like the $14 version since the early 1990s -- still works flawlessly.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 08 2019, @04:05AM (5 children)
I needed to change mine like 2-3 times over the course of life.
By the time the rubber gasket goes to belly-up (it will after some years) I usually can't find a replacement to fit the stove-top espresso I had.
Actually, I now realize, I can't even recall if I saw replacement gaskets when the espressoes were new!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Informative) by deimtee on Monday July 08 2019, @04:33AM (4 children)
I was given a stainless steel one of these many years ago. Makes great coffee. When the gasket went tits up I bought a cheap silicone cake pan for $3 and cut a new one out of it. You might have to use two layers because the pan is thinner, but it works great. Food grade, high temp silicone and it's still in excellent condition years later.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 08 2019, @04:49AM (3 children)
Given that the aluminium ones I bought in the past were in the $15 price range, I'm highly skeptical I'm gonna try it for espressoes. Unless you forget the espresso on the stove until the lower side gets red hot, it takes 4-5 years to reach the gasket titsup stage - mainly due to mechanical wear.
For other things that may require silicon gaskets though, thanks for the suggestion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by deimtee on Monday July 08 2019, @05:02AM (2 children)
The silicone gasket has now lasted much longer than the original rubber one. At least six years, and still looks perfect. I also didn't really notice until the new gasket went in, but the rubber was starting to taint the coffee slightly. The first cup was like "whooh, that's much better".
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 08 2019, @05:29AM (1 child)
The last one I have came with a "native" silicone gasket. 3 years and still going well.
Can't remember what type was the previous one, highly likely a vulcanized rubber.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday July 08 2019, @01:50PM
Considering that most appliances are now made in China, and how poorly Chinese rubber is vulcanized (this seems to be why tires now flake and crack at the tender age of 5 years, rather than lasting indefinitely... conversely I've seen US-made tires over 50 years old and still 100% intact) I'm not sure I'd want it anywhere near my food and drink anyway.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday July 07 2019, @04:28PM (3 children)
It seems to me that the amount of syrup being put into lattes has increased in the last several years. I now make it a point to ask for half the amount of flavoring usual, but may favorite is actually a 12 oz double latte with 1 packet of sugar. Dissolve the sugar in the espresso and there is no effect on the foam.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday July 07 2019, @06:56PM (2 children)
Agreed, though as I noted, when I order a latte, there should be no syrup. When did syrup even become a default thing in lattes? I recall when the flavored lattes were a novelty drink in Starbucks 20 years ago or so -- something a kid would order or someone who wanted an especially decadent treat. I notice now that there are all these "flavor shot" options too -- it seems no one can get a coffee or iced coffee or whatever without some sweet thing squirted in it.
I'll admit sometimes I add a little sugar to a coffee or iced coffee, depending on my mood and whether the coffee needs it. (If the coffee is actually good coffee, it doesn't need it. Good coffee is coffee that's good enough to drink black.) Regardless, I add a small amount -- always less than the default if you ask for, say, an iced coffee with cream and sugar.
Years ago when Starbucks started really taking over the coffee shop scene across the U.S., I made it a point to try several of the wacky new drinks just out of curiosity. They were mostly sweet oddities, but I rarely ever ordered any of those drinks twice.
A few months back, I pulled over at a rest stop and saw a Dunkin Donuts. I saw the advertisements for "signature lattes," which looked crazy, but I had never ordered a latte of any sort at DD, and in the spirit of my younger self who used to try crazy drinks, I ordered one.
I took literally three sips and threw it immediately in the trash. I expected it to be so full of random flavors that it wouldn't taste anything like a plain latte; I was just being a bit "adventurous" in trying some wacky drink. But the sugar was simply overpowering. And it was topped with whipped cream, which had some sugary mixture even sprinkled on top of the whipped cream. Insane.
Again, if someone likes that drink, let them have it. I'm not judging anyone else's tastes. But I do think the default sweetness level has risen over the decades.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday July 07 2019, @08:09PM
I think syrups first entered my conciousness in the very early 90s. Torani has apparently been around since 1925 ( https://www.torani.com/our-story [torani.com] ) and given that it was started by an Italian immigrant bringing old world syrups to the US, probably even longer. It's just the excessive "would you like some coffee with your syrup" proportions that are likely new.
Anyway, I have always taken cream and sugar in my coffee, but things have gotten out of hand lately.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday July 16 2019, @11:10AM
However, nowadays, I'm noticing the syrup gimmick invade beers (fruit juice, lactose, and even maple syrup in imperial stouts, for example), and as I like beer, it's starting to piss me off, as I can't find a beer that's made of beer any more.
Yet another reason why 100th-term abortions should be not just legal, but compulsory, for hipsters.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday July 08 2019, @02:03PM
Consider how little milk is actually in a latte. If kids drank 'em all day long, it still would be perhaps half as much as if they drank whole milk. If this is going to save "big dairy", they need to hire a different economist.
If people are drinking less milk... consider how milk tastes today compared to how it did back when "whole milk" was approximately what we now call "half and half" -- around 5% butterfat, instead of the current 3.5% (down from 4% some years back) as the legal minimum for "whole milk". They've finally gotten the ultra-pastuerization to where it doesn't make day-old milk smell like dirty socks, but it still tastes too sweet, less rich, and just not as good, plus we've been pushing low-fat or no-fat milk, when kids' growing brains and fairly good food instincts (if not tempted by the artificial) tell them they need more fat. Kids used to willingly drink milk by the gallon; now we have to coax 'em and disguise it to get 'em to drink half a cup.
And if you want kids to consume fewer calories as sugar, and do something to stem childhood obesity -- they need that animal fat, to satisfy their growing brains.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.