Due Date

I will start off by saying, yes, lot's of people are pregnant but that is not what this post is about. This post is about Korean milk and its Due Date. Milk in Korea tastes different, not terrible just different in a not as good kind of way. The first time I tasted it I wondered if all milk tasted that way. Yes it does. So I wondered, would it taste much different if it was old? This weekend I had the opportunity to find out.

I was at the local HomePlus and found some milk on sale for 900 won, it was on sale because it was due that day. Milk is usually 1400 won for 1 liter so in this case I would be saving 500 won. That is almost $0.50. So being who I am I did some quick calculations on how much money I could save if I would always buy old milk. I buy 1 liter of milk every 2 weeks

Here is the math:

$0.50 every 2 weeks
$1.00 every month
$1.00 x 12 months
= $12.00 savings!

As you can see if I continue to buy old milk, by the end of the year I will have a healthy sum to put towards a down payment on a house. That is just a side benefit, the real reason I was buying the milk was to see how long it lasted.

The milk said it expired on the 20th which was the day that I bought it. I drank a bit of it, still just as good as new. The next day, the 21st, I a had a couple of bowls of cereal. Same thing on the 22nd. It was still tasting as good as any other Korean milk. I had another bowl of cereal on the 23rd, the milk still tasted the same. It was already 3 days past due and it still tasted the same. Unfortunately, by this time the milk had run out.

This tells me one of two things: either the milk I got was special, or Koreans aren't nearly as good as Canadians at guessing milk's expiry date. If it is the later, I can be confident that when buying old milk it will retain its taste until I have finished it. But if my milk was special I will be in for a surprise next time. I will keep you updated.