Saturday 13 September 2008

vitamilk: not suitable for vegans

I have been drinking soy milk for quite some time. For most of my life before I became vegan, it was my milk of choice. My favourite has long been the Yeo's soy milk. I know that some people don't like how sweet it is, and that's what lead to its 'now with less sugar' rebranding, but I have quite strong brand loyalty for Yeo's, it's what my mum buys when she's buying popper packs of soy milk and chrysanthemum tea, and I love it.

My least favourite has been vitamilk, since that fateful day four years ago when I was sitting in Sparrow's, eating a perfectly delightful satay and lontong (not vegan), and it was the most disgusting soy milk I'd ever tasted. The texture was awful, the flavour was not pleasant at all, and I didn't finish it. Since then, I have been suspicious of any soy milk in a similarly shaped bottle, irrational but still a suspicion.

D and I were served vitamilk at a restaurant this evening. I frowned, but was resigned, and I had it in my mouth when D said "it has milk!" I felt disappointed and guilty and a little astonished, and my mother's displeasure at the idea of anything other than sugar and soybeans in soya milk was clear. The bottles were open, if we sent them back (we didn't, but we didn't drink them) they would be wasted but there on the front under the brand it was clearly printed, 1% whole milk solids.

At least now, my mother said, you know why it has always been your least favourite.

No comments: