We've all seen those little tubs of half-and-half that restaurants serve with coffee. I'm trying to find a source to buy some of these containing MILK, not half-and-half, to use in my tea at work. Right now I buy a half-pint of milk on my way to work each morning and end up wasting what's unused at the end of the day, which is usually at least half. We don't have a fridge in our office. Does anyone know of a source where I can buy these little containers of milk in bulk?
Why not just get an appropriate bottle and put in about a quarter of a pint of milk in the mornings? If there's any left at the end of the day you can take it home with you. Saves wastage of milk and, more notably, the huge amount of packaging associated with those little tubs. It will probably be a lot cheaper as well.
Just use the bottle that comes with today's purchase of a half pint! Take it home with you at the end of the day, wash it out, half re-fill it and use it tomorrow morning!
I vote the "reuse and refill" route as well. I remember looking for similar containers of milk a while back, but really had no luck. It's better to buy yourself a quality container and fill it. That way, you can choose EXACTLY what kind of milk you want.
It may also be worthwhile to invest in a very small fridge, like this
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Not that exact one (since that seems a bit pricey), but something like that that's unobtrusive and fits the bill. You can also put other beverages in here, too, or leftover food, if you need.
If you can't do that, you might want to just do a well-insulated lunch cooler. Either way, you don't want to just let your milk sit out all day if you can help it.
I used to bring some milk from home with me, but have gotten out of the habit -- usually because I'm in too much of a hurry to get out the door to remember it most days. And then there's judging the amount I'll need. Sometimes I get in an extra cup or two, which requires more milk. If I don't use it, it gets wasted, because as I said before, there is no refrigerator. We're not allowed to bring in our own refrigerators.
Years ago an Au Bon Pain restaurant that I used to go to from time to time had the little tubs of milk along side the little tubs of half- and-half, so you could help yourself to whichever you wanted. I have not seen those little tubs in years. Now Au Bon Pain just has milk and cream in thermal jugs.
I agree. There are ways for you to have your milk and drink it, too.
Is there any reason you're not able to pour it into a thermal container the night before so the only thing you have to do is grab it from the refrigerator on your way out?
I don't see any reason for it to go to waste if you use a Thermos or prepare a little ice chest or both. I have a 6-pack cooler that keeps ice very well for several hours and a 12-pack cooler with which I travel. I keep milk, margarine, cheese, mayonnaise, etc., in it using motel ice machines. In a motel room, ice is still there and the contents still cold, 24 hours later. Both are hard-sided. My soft-sided 6-pack expandable to 9-cans cooler doesn't keep ice as well as my hard-sided coolers, but the contents do stay cool enough even in the car during the summer.
There are blue ice refreezable bricks, too, so you don't have to deal with ice cubes. If you get enough for two coolers, you can use one (set) during the day while the other (set) is freezing for tomorrow.
Maybe you could also freeze your milk. If you freeze it half-way, you might be able to use the unfrozen liquid while the frozen milk thawed. I used to know a family of 6 that went through milk like it was a chugging contest. The mother didn't want to go to the store every other day, so she bought gallons and put all into their garage freezer but two that went into the refrigerator. When one gallon was empty, she pulled a gallon from the freezer and put it into the refrigerator where it defrosted while the other gallon was being consumed. Sometimes, the milk wasn't completely thawed when they opened the container. They all said they couldn't taste any difference between the milk that went directly into the refrigerator and the milk that went into the freezer, first.
You could also switch to a tea that doesn't need milk.
No. I'll have to look around and see if I can find a suitably sized thermos. I already bring one thermos of iced tea for my lunch. If I can find a very small one for milk, that might work, otherwise it gets to be too much paraphenalia to lug around.
I was looking through my tea journal for another reason and found a note for one tea about needing to add milk when the steep was increased by 30 seconds. Maybe your tea is like that, too, where your decreasing the steep time by 15-30 seconds makes it taste good without your having to add milk.
I KNOW! Dry whole milk. I bought a can of Nido (by Nestle) at a Middle Eastern market and it's pretty good. Not like that nasty non-fat milk powder or non-dairy creamer. In fact, even reconstituted with water it tastes pretty good. I just sprinkle some in my tea and it dissolves right away.
Reconstituted milk powder used to be the standard practice in factory tea rooms (for hourly QC tasting of the manufacture) on boondocks tea estates making gutsy teas that required milk for tasting. I think the last place I had tea so made was in Rwanda in 2004, but I always keep a tin at hand in my office in case the refrigerated milk runs out before the end of the day.
Thank you both. I've tried the nonfat dry milk in the past, and while it is better than nothing, it doesn't always dissolve completely. I've never seen dry whole milk. I shall have to give it a try. Has anyone ever seen it in a supermarket -- or is my best bet just to order this Nido product online?
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