Emily, what does the M in Big M stand for?Oh God, milk?Incorrect.I thought that for so many years, but there's actually been a war about it.Really?
It either stands for Big Morty Alec or Big Melton based on where the, where the, where Big M was born in 1978.And I got to tell you, Melton has claimed bragging rights.
Wow.That, that puts Melton on the map.
It genuinely does.So, uh, I'm guessing we're going to talk about some big Melton's today.
Hi, you're listening to Ingredipedia, Australia's most calcium rich food podcast.I am Ben Birchell and I'm joined by my cohost, Emily Naismith.Hello, Em.
Hi, Ben.Let's talk about flavoured milk.
Ben, I know you love an Asian grocer.
What's your favorite thing to buy there?
Uh, I can almost never leave with a different type of chili crisp.
Yeah.I love a cute anthropomorphic custard bun.
But what about drink wise?What, what are you getting?
Uh, drink wise, I'll usually get, uh, like a tea bottle or a chrysanthemum tea.That was a kind of in a box.That's what I drank as a kid.
Well, that's good because I want to interest you in box Korean banana milk.So banana milk is not a big deal here.Like you're lucky if you find banana Big M at the shops, Big Melton, whatever you want to call it. It's like impossible to find.
The only banana milk I see at supermarkets is the little bluey branded ones for kids that come in a pop top.But unlike here, in South Korea, banana milk is a big, big, big deal.Huge.In fact, banana is the most popular flavoured milk in Korea.
Even here in Australia, I went to a Korean restaurant recently, Dubu, and they have like a very limited drinks menu.It was basically beer, water, or banana milk.And I had the banana milk, obviously.
There's a specific brand that's super popular in South Korea, Binggeure. Over there, it's served in these cute little bottles and uses fresh milk.But if you want it here, it's in a Tetra Pak because it's like UHT milk and it comes in a six pack only.
It's going to set you back $11.50, which is it seems steep.It's about $2 like when you when you work it out per individual little milk carton. But I want to know, why is it such a big deal in Korea?And then we're going to taste it.
So in the 1970s, the Korean government wanted to encourage people to drink more milk.So Binggeure created a banana flavored milk, capitalizing on the facts that bananas at the time, a luxury.People couldn't afford them.
And they thought that people would buy the milk if it had, you know, the taste of banana. And it had no banana in it whatsoever.It just tasted like banana.And that caught up with them in the 2000s.
The government said, if you're going to call yourself banana milk, it needs to have banana in it.And then they said, well, we'll call it banana flavoured milk.But then in 2010, the laws changed again.
If they wanted to use banana, they had to have banana in it.So now it has 1% banana juice.
Well done.Well played, Bing Graham.
So it's partly big because bananas are a luxury, but it's also a celebrity thing.Like K-pop boy band star Jungkook drinks it.Table tennis star Shin Yubin is in their ads.So it's just huge on a celebrity scale too.And I've bought into it.
I'm ready to throw away my love of Big M's and be consumed by Korean banana milk, but we should probably do a taste test first.Because banana Big M's my favorite Big M. So this is like a, this is a big deal for me.
Like if I like this Korean milk more, God, Melton bitter.It will be quaking.I think I'm going to start with the big M. All right.Start with what I know.
Yeah.Oh God, that's good.
I'll be the judge of that, Melton.It is good.I haven't had.
I haven't had banana milk for a long time.
All right.The Korean one.
It's no egg flip, but yep.
It's really, really, really good.I think it's better than the Big Milton.It's more banana-y.I feel like it's sweeter, more banana-y.
Oh, it's definitely sweeter.
And I love the little straw.
Well, you know what you're enjoying? It's the 1% banana juice.No, it's UHT milk.UHT Tetra Pak kind of milk has its own flavor and it's a bit more like condensed milk.
This tastes like condensed milk, like a, like a runnier condensed milk with some banana in it.
God, it's good.Okay.So what we need is a Korean Air sponsorship.We need to go and find, try the fresh version as well.
If anyone's listening, hook us up. Emily, it's interesting that we're doing a whole Flavoured Milk episode, but really it's just about Big M. Hey, I brought Big M into it.
Comparing it to Banana Big M. It's because we're from Melbourne and Flavoured Milk just means Big M to us.A little recap on Big M. I know we've talked about it a little bit before. Uh, it is the original.
It was launched in Victoria in 1978 with overtly sexy imagery of milk running down the cleavage of girls in skimpy bikinis.And that's why tradies now drink flavored milk.
It competed- That's 100% why, no other reason.
No other reason.It competed directly with Coca-Cola as the cool teenage drink.The four initial flavors were chocolate, banana, iced coffee, and strawberry, and followed later in 1978 by blueberry.
Um, Move is kind of the, the big M in New South Wales, and there's obviously Farmer's Union and Masters and a whole bunch of other flavored milks, but I'm going to just be talking about Big M and I'm going to be talking about the flavors of Big M's.
So there are the staples, like I mentioned. The ones that are available now, strawberry, chocolate, banana, iced coffee, and double choc.Yeah.They're the sort of always on the flavors that are in the market now.
There's then there's a whole bunch of flavors that were previously part of like limited range or were retired.And I want to talk about that limited edition range because it's where Big M really stretches out.
You know, it's like they're, they're starting to, they're jamming.It's like jazz. And that's where you get banana split.Don't really know what the difference was there.They did blue heaven for a long time.Caramel comes and goes.
Chalkberry comes and goes.
I've actually seen pine lime at the moment.
Yep.That comes and goes.An actual splice flavor has been around.Toffee whip, vanilla, honeycomb, mocha, hokey pokey, fruity mix, chalk orange jaffa.
Oh, I remember that.That was good.
My favorite egg flip.Yeah.Which last seemed to be around in 2022.It's been, it's come and gone.It was around in, you know, like 1984 when, when I was, you know, lucky enough to sometimes drink some flavored milk.
Uh, and I, I don't know, that's my favorite.Um, but it's also where you get the flavor that I want to talk about today.It's a limited edition range that's on the market right now. salted caramel popcorn.
Or as I like to describe it, proof that we are at the end of Big M Flavors.
It.Okay.You've just held it up.The thing I don't like about it is that it's in a bottle.That's not Big M to me.
Big M needs to be in a carton.It needs to be in a carton.You need to slightly awkwardly open it and sort of rip the cardboard a little bit and it dribble down your chin.You're right.
But, um, so that is not sexy way.
My cleavage is definitely not sexy.That is an issue, but I want to talk about what's wrong with the flavor because. Well, I want you to think about what makes truly great milk flavors.
And I'm going to, I'm going to tell you what it is because I can see you wracking your brain.
Well, what I'm thinking about is the day that I made cereal with popcorn.
Yes.I'm going to talk about that.
I am going to talk about that.And I have been thinking about it.
And that was for the podcast if people haven't listened to like the... Which episode was it?
It wasn't the corn episode.Popcorn episode.The popcorn episode.Yes. Okay.But the thing that makes truly great milk flavors is that they are based on things.It kind of sounds simple, really, when you say it.
Things that you would want to pair with milk.
So fruit and milk.Sure.That's a smoothie.Yeah.Chocolate and milk.Yes.There's milk in chocolate.You want to mix those things together.Egg flip.Yes.It's a milk, like egg milk.It's a milk drink. Popcorn and milk?No, thank you.
We tried it in the popcorn episode.It didn't work.It went soggy and it was gross.Salt in milk?No.You never ever want salt in milk.Explain to me when you want salt in milk.
Well, we had the salted cream on top of our iced coffee the other week, and that was pretty good. Stop getting me wrong.Let's see if this tastes good.Have you, have you tasted this?
I haven't tasted it because I've just been so angry.I've just been hate staring at it.Like popcorn does not go in milk.So let's taste it.
But I do want to talk about the fact that Big M have forgotten the irrefutable laws of flavoured milk that at its core, it's about the milk and you pair something that should be in milk.
Like coffee.Coffee and milk.Classic example.
Perfect.They were born to be together.Honeycomb.Sure.Honey and milk.Delicious.Okay.All right.Sorry.I got angry.I'm going to taste the Big M limited edition salted caramel popcorn flavored milk.
Yeah, it's really good. It's really good.
Lucky you got angry before you tried it.Otherwise we'd have no contact.
It's really good.I'll tell you why, because there's no salt in it at all.
And there's no popcorn in it.
There's no popcorn in it.It's really just like quite a nice caramel milk.Like that's all it is.It tastes like a cream caramel.If they called it cream caramel, I'd be like, great.That's, you want to mix that with milk.There's milk in cream caramel.
It's the naming that's thrown me off.You tell me though.
Yeah.Yeah.It tastes like those caramel lollies.Yeah.
Yeah.It's really delicious.Okay.Okay.Big M play on, play on Big Milton. So that was our flavoured milk episode that was not sponsored in any way by Big M, even though we pretty much just talked about Big M the whole time.
And you can vote for whose flavoured milk fact you found the most interesting on our Instagram, which is Ingridipedia.Thank you for listening.We'll see you next time.See ya.
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