I decided to splurge and buy a bottle of Hartzler’s skim milk for making latte’s with. Why Hartzler’s? I remember hearing the producer of the Curt Boster radio show, ‘Young Daniel’ rave about it a few years back. That show is now gone, but the thought has lingered in my mind. Since a majority of the fluid volume of a cafe latte is milk, not espresso, I figured why not tweak the milk variable?
I steamed my first pitcher of it shortly after getting back from the store to make some latte’s for Rebecca and I. The microfoam was far better than any milk I have used before. I snuck a taste sample of the milk prior to combining with espresso. I immediately could tell the difference. Miles apart from the stuff in the plastic jug or even that Horizon Organic crap in the cardboard box. This is hands down the best milk I have tasted — or at least as I remember.
I grew up close to neighbors who had dairy cattle and on occasion I would spend the night at their house. I recall having fresh non-pasteurized, non-homogenized whole milk served at breakfast, which at the time was strange to my senses. I didn’t like it at the time, but I suppose it was actually better than Hartzler’s.
If you want to know why the milk is so good, you can read a bit about it at Hartzler Family Dairy. A key factor for me in addition to the production quality is that it is produced in Wooster, which is relatively close to Columbus.
There is a bit of sticker shock on this product. A half gallon of skim cost ~$4.50. However, $1.50 is a refundable deposit on the glass bottle which you get back upon returning to the store. I don’t drink a lot of milk at all. In fact, I usually only use milk in coffee or espresso based beverages, so to me this isn’t a huge barrier at all.