Got Raw Milk?

Let me start this post by saying: We are not carrying raw milk at either of our shops. DHEC won't allow it.

BUT we have recently been approached by a local farmer who wants us to carry raw milk at our shop, to use in lattes or sell by the gallon, or bathe in, whatever. Raw milk, for those of you unfamiliar with the concept, is milk that has not been processed in any manner - neither via homogenization nor pasteurization. It's milk that your grandparents might have drunk and was drunk throughout most of the world for millenia until pasteurization was applied to milk in the last decade of the 19th century. It was a pretty good idea back then since it prevented illnesses like diphtheria, salmonellosis, scarlet fever, listeriosis, brucellosis and typhoid fever, all of which were much more common than they are now. (Homogenization has to do with suspensions of fat in milk and doesn't really factor into this discussion.)

The world of today is generally regarded to be cleaner and safer than it was a 125 years ago. We also have standards and regualtions as to how a business such as our must be run. The environment that made pasteurization a necessity still exists in the broader sense - we likely don't have outbreaks of listeria and typhoid fever precisely because we do have in place standards on how milk should be processed - but at the same time is it necessary to keep them in place where they might not be warranted?

The reason I bring this question up at all is because of the taste and not some sense of the homeopathic efficacy of 'real milk' in our diet. I do believe that the less processed and altered a food is the more likely it is to be good but for the moment I'm focusing on the culinary advantage of raw milk over normal milk. It's creamier and sweeter and acts as like as a compliment to milk-based drinks and not solely as a transport medium for the espresso. At least this is my experience of the past couple of days. I have spent a lot of time tasting cappuccinos made with raw milk and though it can be a trick getting the froth where you want it the flavor was never a problem.



I don't know. Are the risks, in this day and age justified? Would it be plain irresponsible to offer raw milk to customers? I certainly don't want to make anyone sick but I also want to make the best cappuccino possible.

It's all a moot point of course, because you know what DHEC said. I just wanted to bring the issue up. We all talk about extraction parameters for espresso, their blends and roast times but we rarely talk about the milk in any meaningful way.

NB: The farmer offering this milk is local and is inspected weekly by DHEC. The price he wants to charge is actually pretty reasonable.

On a nearly non sequitur note: Don't forget next week's Latte Art Hoedown. We're giving away a Mypressi TWIST to the winner! And for those of you who'd rather just purchase one, we are taking pre-orders as well!