The Food and Nutrition Services Team in Plainville, CT wanted to increase the consumption of milk in school and also make it exciting for kids. New school regulations limit the amount of added sugar for milk in schools to less than 10g per 8oz serving. So we developed six cold and warm flavored milk DIY (Do-It-Yourself) flavored milk recipes using fat-free and 1% milk with 10 grams or less to be appropriate for K-12 students.
Recipe Development
We found a variety of different powders, syrups, and flavor pastes that were easy to order online through Amazon. I calculated the most amount of flavoring that could be added to ensure less than 10 grams of added sugar per 8 oz cup. I wanted to add enough flavor for the milk to taste good, but not be too sweet in order for kids to not crave overly sweet beverages.
There was a lot of trial and error to get the flavors right. Some flavors didn’t work, some were too sweet or not sweet enough, and some only worked with warm milk, but not cold. Once the experimenting was done, we had 12 delicious recipes created for both fat free and 1% milk including:
- Raspberry
- Coffee
- Chocolate
- Strawberry
- Salted Caramel
- Cookies and Cream
- Vanilla
- White Chocolate
Find the standardized recipes for all flavors and milk types here
Taste Tests
The students at the Middle School tried four recipes: two cold (coffee and strawberry) and two warm (white chocolate and cookies and cream). We created four stations and the students were given cow printed beads to vote with.
Students were educated on the benefits of milk and why they should take it at lunch. They were able to taste the recipe samples, and then vote for their favorite by putting their bead in a jar. They even had suggestions for other flavors. The winner of our initial taste test was… Cookies and Cream!
Testing Flavored Milk on the Menu
We served Cookies and Cream and White Chocolate flavors on the middle school breakfast menu and again asked students to tell us what they thought.
To make the larger quantities, I put four gallons of milk into two pots, added the required amount of powder, and heated the mixture slowly until it was the correct temperature. The milk was then poured into an insulated beverage dispenser to be served. The process took around 40 minutes for one person to make the warm milk.
Once we had served it for one day, students were excited to see it brought back the next day. We saw the consumption of milk increase. The students asked if we would be serving the flavored milks everyday and were even requesting seconds.
We asked students to vote again on their favorites and after serving the two flavors of milk at breakfast, the winner still was Cookies and Cream!
Because of this success, we plan to offer the flavored milk at Plainville High School regularly during the 2025-2026 school year.
Why Flavored Milk
Schools in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program are required to serve kids milk. It is one of the five main meal components. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, MyPlate, also recommends consuming dairy with all meals. This can include milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, or regular cheese. Students love flavored beverages and flavors of milk offered in schools are limited. School food services have served warm chocolate milk to students at breakfast and students love it for the warmer months of the school year.
Research shows that milk is among the lowest sources of added sugar for kids.
Consuming all of the components of school meals has a lot of benefits. Students who consume school meals do better academically and have an overall better diet quality. Therefore, adding some new flavors of milk for kids can enhance their participation in school breakfast and lunch by making it more exciting. Not only will they excel more in school, but most Americans do not consume the recommended amount of dairy products. By creating more options, kids will have more variation and can be more likely to get school lunches.
