Strongly salty over a slightly cooked milk taste and a caramel sweetness. There’s no shortage of flavor, but it’s not allocated in the right places and proportions.
All tagged Lactose Free
Hershey's Plus Protein Chocolate Milk
Beefy feel, and a nigh-stinging sweetness that ultimately dominates the cocoa, veering the Hershey’s-licensed flavor into its rightly ‘candified’ domain. It feels fortified, and carries a chalkiness that strays from its milky roots. Ultimately, you could do a lot worse from a taste perspective in the ‘fortified’ market— but when compared with elite chocolate milk, the flavor gap is much more pronounced than the protein gap.
Darigold FIT Chocolate Milk
Girthy, chalky, and a restrained flavor profile that deftly avoids funkiness. Drink this for its impressive characteristics if you must, but look elsewhere for more hedonistic pursuits.
Clover Sonoma Lactose Free Chocolate Milk
They’ve done well to make cocoa the raison d’être, as all other attributes play their supporting role with competence, altruism, and grace. It feels substantial, yet lithe, and the noticeable amount of chalk knows not to linger.
Fairlife Chocolate Whole Milk
The same, signature Fairlife twang plugged into a more clotted base. The sweetness is distractingly unnatural and significantly hampers the experience. I get that the nutrition stats are attractive (low sugar, high protein) and it serves that market well, but from a flavor standpoint, it doesn’t quite do whole milk justice.
Dairyland Lactose Free Chocolate Milk
More sweet than anything else, in a way that veers slightly from cocoa and approaches caramel. It’s less smooth than others of this ilk, but remains a viable alternative to average, lactose-containing chocolate milk.
King Soopers Lactose Free Chocolate Milk
Not terribly sweet (in a good way) and the focus remains on its middle-of-the-road chocolate flavor that goes down with relative ease.
Giant Lactose Free Low Fat Chocolate Milk
Proof that ‘smoothness’ doesn’t necessarily equate with ‘natural feeling’— it feels like the soul has been ultra-pasteurized right out of it, leaving you with a flat, mediocre, drinkable chocolate milk.
Hiland Lactose Free Chocolate Milk
Great milky feel and a clean, if not somewhat tardy cocoa flavor. With the recent slew of lactose free whole chocolate milks to come out— it’s as good a time as any for the lactose intolerant.
Lactaid Whole Chocolate Milk
Very smooth, appropriately creamy, but lacking a cocoa punch. Instead, the flavor resembles an inoffensive, yet relatively uninspired cooked milk sweetness that fades in proportion with the sip-to-swallow process. You’re left with a clean finish that helps to warrant future consumption, facilitating the ‘getting used to’ process.
Prairie Farms Lactose Free Chocolate Milk
Proof that lactose free can still be milky and natural feeling— this is a very welcomed, full-fat addition to the category. Does well to keep the sweetness on a leash and let the cocoa flavor shine, which it does more so in the latter half of the draw. This deserves to be more popular that I presume it to be.
Organic Valley Breakfast Balance Dark Chocolate
Hollow and watery with the trademark Stevia-astringency, which remains remarkably difficult to hide. I’ve had much worse tasting things at this low-50s-calorie-per-100mL tranche, and I can’t deny the impressive attributes (organic, lactose free, gluten free, Fair Trade, high calcium, high(ish) protein)— but the flavor and drinking experience does not compare favorably to your average chocolate milk.
Fairlife Smart Snacks Rich Chocolate
The sweeteners seem to be in competition and ultimately dominate the experience. A honey-like note kicks off the sip, but by the end, you have a saliva-inducing essence plaguing your tongue. In the interim, there’s too much chalk and not enough cocoa to salvage a respectable score.
Lucerne Lactose Free Chocolate Milk
Sweetish, averagely smooth and creamy, and a pretty straight-forward cocoa flavor. All components come together well enough to crest the good side of the bell curve.
Darigold Refuel Rich Chocolate Shake
Tons of flavor, particularly on the sweet end of the spectrum, which is also its biggest drawback. There’s no fortified taste whatsoever— it’s all very well hidden behind an impenetrable wall of sweet. The cocoa and salt are both stronger than average as well, and help to provide much-needed dimension.
Darigold Refuel Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake
Slightly less sweet, but noticeably more grainy and chalky than its chocolate counterpart. The flavor is very well executed and accurate to how you’d hope it would be— but unfortunately the texture (while not bad for a protein-y drink) is a departure from the smooth and milky ideal.
Fred Meyer Lactose Free Chocolate Milk
Very well balanced and highly drinkable. Not weighed down with excess sugar or that ‘thickened’ feel— a pleasant addition to any grocery order or BYOB gathering.
WinCo Foods Lactose Free Lowfat Chocolate Milk
Surprisingly chocolaty and well-balanced, with plenty-but-not-too-much sweetness and a creaminess that outperforms its fat content. A definite ‘must try' for the lactose averse fans of chocolate milk— or really anyone for that matter.
Sunnyside Farms Lactose Free Lowfat Chocolate Milk
Much more ‘milky’ feeling than the low fat (lactose-containing) version. The flavor is also much more in line with what you would expect and likely prefer— amply chocolaty with a kiss of malt.
Cowhead Premium Chocolate Milk
Definitely sweet and flavored— but what that ‘flavor’ is, is a bit of a mystery. It doesn’t venture confidently into the chocolate realm, but it's more of a fake-vanilla with a touch of malt.