During our winter stay in Bowen we shop at the same national supermarket chain as down here in Melbourne. It’s a case of doing that (being the only supermarket in town) or using the local independent grocer – IGA – also a sort of national chain but owner run – with slightly higher prices. Being a ’country town’ most of the businesses close at lunchtime Saturday – no city weekend trading hours there…..apart from one chemist/pharmacy and IGA.
We use powdered milk, have done for many a year, it works for us, is easier to have on hand rather than the UHT long life stuff (yuk) and usually mixes quite easily….except for a couple of months prior to going away we noticed it was needing a bit more effort to get rid of lumpy bits of undissolved powder on the top of the liquid.
Anyway, one week there was a problem with supply – lots of full cream but no skim on the shelves or out the back. Still none available a few days later so out of necessity one Sunday we went down to the other place….where their shelves were full. Same weight….Same price….bet it’s all packed into different packets in the same factory. Same ratio of powder and water to mix……same taste….but there was one difference……it dissolved and mixed up a dream. Just with a fork, no beater needed. Big smiles all round.
Back home again the last bag of the original brand I had on hand here was almost finished so I decided to hunt out the ’new’ one. Unlike the other national chains those shops aren’t on every corner so it was a fair drive to the closest…half way up the mountain just for a couple of packs of skimmed milk powder😊
And what’s with the picture below ?
Well, I was about to recycle the empty pack and wondered if there was a difference in the health/daily allowance figures on the front.
Oh dear…the figures on the lower ‘new’ pink bag are much higher than the ones above on the ‘old’ grassy green one
Oops, now I see why…..one is for a 250ml serve – the other for a 100ml serve.
Now where did I put those specs??
Still Waters 
Often a magnifying glass is needed. Print is so small, glasses just don’t cut it.
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I have used UHT for years since the kids would drink litres one day and then nothing for a week. I got sick of throwing fresh milk out. I grew up on powdered milk – my brothers and I used to eat it from the tin and it would stick to the roof of our mouths. I don’t think I could face it now!!
I think I will start carrying a magnifying glass with a light in it. Even my specs struggle to read the small print these days.
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I always have skim milk powder on hand, but of late have been getting bottles of readymade in, got lazy I think…
But a month or so back, I clicked on the wrong size via online shopping and in the end, wasted a whole lot of milk. Currently I’m back to the smaller size but I use the powder in other ways…
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Shopping is somewhere I really, really need my glasses. And as others have commented, they are often not up to the ‘small print’.
I agree with you about UHT milk too. A tragic travesty.
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I’m guilty of going shopping without glasses, much to my husband’s irritation! 😉
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We had a milk cow on the farm when I was little, all we knew was fresh milk. When we no longer had the cow, milk powder reconstituted was what we had. It was awful. I still hate it. We sure missed that cow!
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F uses powdered milk in her toadted mueslei recipe. Other than that she doesn’t drink milk and particularly dislikes the uht kind. I like a lick of fresh cream but would never drink milk.
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Funny that it is harder than usual to buy skim milk here right now. As for powdered–I grew up hating it and still can’t stomach the stuff.
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