What Exactly Is Vanilla Milk And What Goes Into It?

Most of us can remember enjoying a glass of chocolate milk in our childhood, whether we bought it in ready-to-drink containers or whipped up homemade chocolate milk ourselves using chocolate syrup and regular milk. But, chocolate milk isn't the only tasty spin on a glass of cold milk that's out there. You can also enjoy another kind of dairy drink called vanilla milk. 

Vanilla milk, similar to chocolate milk, is a flavored milk that's typically sweetened. However, instead of having a chocolatey taste to it, this drink is infused with vanilla for a unique flavor and aroma. Just like chocolate milk, this is a delicious drink to hydrate yourself with, whether you're a kid or just a kid at heart.

Of course, there's a little more to vanilla milk than just its taste and scent. Understanding the ins and outs of this drink is what will help you figure out if this might be your new go-to milky treat.

Vanilla milk is essentially milk with a sweet vanilla flavor to it. It's usually a white or off-white color, making it look pretty similar to regular milk. This drink can be made using non-dairy or dairy milk, so you can enjoy it even if you have allergies or need to adhere to a specific diet.

If you're wondering about the origins of this beverage, it's unclear just how far back drinking vanilla milk goes. For its part, animal milk has been drunk for several thousand years, with early human populations drinking it even before they were able to properly digest it. As for the origins of vanilla, cultivating and using this ingredient also dates back quite a few hundred years to ancient groups in Mexico and Central America.

The result is that it's hard to know if people thought to mix vanilla with their milk before the 21st Century or not. What we do know is that it's only in more recent years that vanilla milk has become commercially available, and today there are also several at-home recipes people can try if they want to make it themselves.

Making vanilla milk looks slightly different depending on whether it's a commercial or an at-home variety. If it's commercial vanilla milk, it's made by adding natural or artificial flavoring — or sometimes both — to milk to give it that vanilla taste. It also often includes a sweetener, like cane sugar. Additionally, these commercial products may contain other ingredients such as shelf stabilizers, added vitamins, or preservatives.

As far as homemade vanilla milk goes, things look a little different. These recipes typically include vanilla extract or vanilla beans to give the milk its distinctive flavor and usually call for either maple syrup or sugar as a sweetener. The drink is then made by mixing the ingredients together to combine them.

While vanilla milk is often drunk cold, it can also be enjoyed as a hot drink. Warm vanilla milk is made in much the same way, except that it involves heating the milk in a saucepan. It also sometimes calls for the addition of cinnamon to the recipe, and of course, you can add marshmallows or whipped cream on top, too.

The most obvious difference between vanilla milk and regular milk is the taste, thanks to the vanilla flavoring added to the drink. Besides this, vanilla milk also tends to be sweeter than regular milk. This is because vanilla milk has added sugar. In contrast, while plain, regular milk can have a slightly sweet taste, this is due to naturally occurring sugars in the drink. Another difference between these two types of milk is that some manufacturers may add coloring to the vanilla variety, which can make the two milks look slightly different as well.

Other than that, these two beverages are pretty similar. Both these drinks have similar nutritional profiles, thanks to the fact that vanilla milk is made from regular milk. Just like regular milk, you can also find a variety of vanilla milk fat percentages, depending on whether you want low fat, 2%, or another milk fat percentage in your drink.

Vanilla milk is easy to make at home, but if you'd rather pick up a pre-made variety, you'll be happy to know that it's fairly easy to come by. There are a few large commercial retailers that sell vanilla milk, including Horizon, Nestlé, and Shamrock. You can typically find these in your local grocery or convenience store.

If you don't feel like leaving the house, however, you'll be happy to know that some varieties of vanilla milk are also available for ordering on Amazon. These are generally shelf-stable varieties that don't need to be refrigerated until they're opened, making it possible for companies like Amazon to distribute them. For those who want to get their hands on this drink even faster, you can order them on Uber Eats and other food delivery apps. The good news is that whether you choose to make vanilla milk at home, head to your local supermarket, or order it from the comfort of your couch, this delicious drink is pretty easy to come by.