Chocolate milk is the taste of nostalgia for many of us — whether we made it ourselves in a mess of powder and syrup in the kitchen or we were lucky enough to have a caregiver bring the good stuff home from the store. It’s sweet, slightly bitter, and rich enough to satisfy any cocoa cravings. But some of us might’ve been missing out on the chocolate milk jackpot, left with a watery chocolate drink in our youth. Let’s leave the Yoo-Hoo on the shelf for a better brand with a more refreshing, dessert-like flavor.
According to Chowhound’s taste-tested ranking of 16 store-bought chocolate milk brands, Promised Land Midnight Chocolate Whole Milk was the clear winner. It had a pleasant mouthfeel for its creamy consistency, leaving behind traces of itself in the glass. This sort of smoothness is precisely what chocolate milk should have. It had a premium chocolate flavor that blew its competition out of the water (or milk, rather). “Promised Land Midnight Chocolate Whole Milk is by far the best brand on the market,” wrote our taste tester.
The makings of a great chocolate milk
Promised Land has always been a dairy-centered company at its core since launching in 1987. While it’s had stunts in ice cream and regular whole milk, tasty flavored milks have been enough to sustain the Promised Land brand. It’s currently owned by LALA, the brand behind popular Mexican yogurt and crema products. It only makes sense that Promised Land Midnight Chocolate Whole Milk has an ingredient list just the way we like it: short and sweet.
The main ingredients for this flavored chocolate milk are whole milk, nonfat milk, sugar, salt, and alkalized cocoa, with guar gum and carrageenan as texture stabilizers. Part of what makes some store-bought chocolate milk better than homemade is that its recipe and manufacturing are boiled down to a science. The whole milk and cocoa are the real stars here.
Whole milk has a higher milkfat percentage than low-fat alternatives, so you’re getting the whole range of flavor and thickness. This is why it’s used as the base for foods like ice cream and French toast. Alkalized cocoa is a cocoa powder that is balanced with an alkali solution, making it less acidic. Promised Land’s chocolate milk gets its sweetness and fat from natural sources, so there’s no strange artificial aftertaste like some other flavored milks. You can find a quart at a middle-range price of around $5 per carton at a store near you.
