If you are fluent in meme, you might have heard of choccy milk. It all started in 2012, when a girl posted a video on Youtube blowing bubbles in her chocolate milk, called “blowing bubbles in mah choccy milk.” In 2016, choccy milk exploded as a meme. Everyone on the internet sure loves choccy milk, but it seems like not everyone knows where it comes from.
A survey conducted by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy found that 7 percent of American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. Another 47 percent answered that they have no idea where chocolate milk comes from.
The Truth
If you thought that choccy milk comes from brown cows, or you’re one of those who has never really thought about it, I have news for you. Brown cows do not serve an extra special chocolately purpose on our planet — they produce regular old milk, just like all the other cows. Chocolate milk is just regular milk with chocolate and sweeteners added.
The good news is that you can make choccy milk yourself (even if you aren’t a cow). I prefer to make mine by stirring up a couple pieces of melted dark chocolate in a mug with a cup of milk. However, you can also mix in some Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup and get a similar chocolate taste.
History
According to the Smithsonian, Jamaicans would boil milk, cinnamon and harvested cacao shavings to create an early version of hot chocolate. It was not until the Spanish got a hold of cocoa beans after the Columbian Exchange that sugar was added and the drink began to resemble hot chocolate as we know it today.
What’s the Deal? Is Choccy Milk Healthy or Unhealthy?
Chocolate milk is hailed by marathon runners and weightlifters alike in being the perfect post-workout drink. Not only is it delicious, chocolate milk has the perfect ratio of carbs and protein. Also, the added sugar is excellent energy to refuel.
Some consider chocolate milk to be a healthy incentive to get children to drink more milk in general. They argue that the added sugar in flavored milk accounts for just 4% of added sugar in the diets of Americans between the ages of 2 and 18 as opposed to 40% from soft drinks and sweetened beverages.
Chocolate milk has become a staple of American children’s lunches primarily due to a push from the U.S. Dairy lobby. Now nutrition experts believe that the added sugar and calories in chocolate milk are contributing to the obesity epidemic in the United States and need to be promptly removed from school lunchrooms. According to Time Magazine, “One 8-oz. serving of reduced-fat chocolate milk has nearly as many calories and sugar as a 12-oz. can of Coke.”
Clearly, there is more to choccy milk than meets the eye. Choccy milk is a definite good choice for athletes, but should be nothing more than an occasional snack for everyone else.