10 Chocolate Milk Brands to Avoid

Special Report

Published: February 21, 2024 11:30 am

If you love chocolate, there is a good chance you have tasted chocolate milk at least once in your life. With the hope this is the case, you might ask how chocolate milk can be worth avoiding. Unfortunately, for chocolate milk lovers like you and me, there are still brands with flavors you can skip.

Introduction

Glass of chocolate milk on table close-up

Source: Africa Studio / Shutterstock.com

Credited with the discovery of chocolate milk, Sir Hans Sloane took the knowledge gained from a 1700s trip to Jamaica on how to mix cocoa and milk. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long before chocolate milk was growing increasingly popular. Today, you can find it at every local grocery store from a variety of brands.

The thing is, you shouldn’t leave your chocolate milk love up to chance. Instead, let this list, based on first-hand experience and online reviews help you decide which brands to avoid.

1. Nesquik Chocolate Milk

Nestle Reports Slowest Sales Growth In Six Years — Unfortunately, Nesquik has too much sugar added to really provide a great taste.

There’s a better-than-good chance that you might have first tasted Nesquik as a kid. It’s disappointing this is the first time many people try out chocolate milk. While Nesquik is a popular brand, its chocolate milk has entirely too much sugar. Yes, sugar might be a treat, but this sugar-heavy drink from Nesquik is well worth avoiding.

Nesquik Makes You Quickly Stop Drinking

In many cases, sugar would be welcomed but not when it leaves a nasty aftertaste.

Under normal circumstances, being too sweet would be a positive and not a reason to avoid. However, when you taste the Nesquik, it can feel entirely too grainy in your mouth. There’s a strong chance you won’t even want to finish the whole drink.

2. TruMoo

Homemade New England Chocolate Milkshake in a Glass Jar Mug on a white wooden background, low angle view. Copy space. — TruMoo used to be a childhood favorite but now it just doesn’t all that great.

Yet another grocery store staple, TruMoo chocolate milk is just not that good. The days of seeing your parents putting TruMoo in a shopping cart full of excitement are long gone. In its place is a belief TruMoo simply does not have enough chocolate taste to properly call this real chocolate milk drink. It’s sold as chocolate milk, it looks like chocolate milk, but it’s not true chocolate milk.

TruMoo Yourself Away from This Drink

Refreshing Delicious Chocolate Milk with Real Cocoa — With so many great chocolate milk options available, TruMoo is easy to avoid.

This is a definite disappointment, especially to those who may have grown up with TruMoo as part of a school lunch routine. However, it was only tasty back then because it was better than regular milk. Today, with so many great chocolate milk options available, TruMoo is just worth avoiding entirely.

3. Oatly Oat Drink Chocolate

Oat Milk Giant Oatly Makes Public Debut On NASDAQ — Oatly is a healthy plant-based chocolate milk that designed for lactose-intolerant individuals.

Some things should never be mixed in life and this case, it’s a plant-based chocolate milk drink. Trying to create a decadent treat that is both plant-based and dairy-free isn’t going to work for most people. Yes, there are health benefits here and being dairy-free might make this one viable chocolate milk options for some people.

Pass on Oatly Oat Drink Chocolate

Oatly Reports Quarterly Earnings — Unfortunately, even with Oatly’s positive health benefits, it doesn’t taste all that good.

However, if you have the option of purchasing any other chocolate milk brand, you should do so. There is just too much cream associated with the taste and the texture feels wrong. Again, there might be an entirely different reaction from someone who is lactose intolerant but otherwise, it’s another easy recommendation to avoid.

4. Great Value

A glass of chocolate milk and ginger snap cookies — You want Great Value chocolate milk to taste great because of it’s inexpensive pricing.

Walmart’s -inhouse brand has plenty of food-based winners, but chocolate milk isn’t one of them. Like Nesquik, it’s simply too sweet to taste good which means there is a bad aftertaste. The good news is that Great Value has a great cost, so it’s got that going for it. On the other hand, it tastes entirely too watery, which is the opposite of how you want chocolate milk to taste.

Great Value, Not So Great Taste

Fresh yummy chocolate milk on white table. Space for text — In Great Value’s case, the low pricing doesn’t justify the watery taste.

Unless you want to just shop at Walmart and only buy its house brands, you can do better. Some online reviews wonder if Great Value tastes less than great because it only uses 1% milk. The lack of fat in this milk might be the reason why it’s not as creamy as the top chocolate milk brands.

5. Almond Breeze

Almond Breeze is the best tasting almond milk chocolate drink available, which isn’t saying much.

Another healthier choice on the chocolate milk front, Almond Breeze is also another pass. However, this feedback comes with a caveat. Almond Breeze is the best chocolate almond milk you can find today. Unfortunately, that alone doesn’t allow Almond Breeze to climb the general ranks of chocolate milk flavor.

Almond Breeze Past This Drink Option

Unless you absolutely must have almond milk, Almond Breeze is worth avoiding.

For its part, almond milk is just very thin. One of the most satisfying aspects of chocolate milk is finding one with the perfect cream formula. Almond Breeze hasn’t found that formula. Instead, you get a much healthier non-dairy option that just doesn’t taste all that satisfying.

6. Hershey’s

Citing Rising Cost Of Ingredients, Hershey's Raises Prices 8 Percent — Hershey’s hits too hard on the chocolate flavor, which makes it difficult to finish.

When you look at Hershey’s chocolate milk, there’s an eerie comparison to that of Nesquik. You might think these two competing candy companies would know a thing or two about the ideal chocolate flavor. Whereas Nesquik isn’t chocolatey enough, Hershey’s almost hits too hard on the flavor. There is a real afterkick of chocolate and not necessarily in a good way.

Hershey Syrup Is So Much Better

Sweet Dark Chocolate Sauce in a Bowl — Instead of Hershey’s premade drink, you can go with Hershey Syrup and your own milk for a better taste.

There has always been something great about Hershey’s chocolate syrup and milk mix that feels like home. This premade version doesn’t have the same warm and fuzzy feeling and because of that, you can go ahead and leave it on store shelves.

7. Silk Chocolate

French Food Maker Danone To Buy Denver Company WhiteWave Foods For 10 Billion — Silk Chocolate is a healthy option but lacks the chocolately flavor of other drinks.

If you are just comparing Silk chocolate soymilk to Almond Breeze, the former is the better choice. There is something to be said about soy milk’s flavor over that of almond milk. Soy milk is also the healthier choice of the two. Unfortunately, the soy chocolate milk aftertaste is just not great. It’s quite distracting and leaves you wondering if you tasted chocolate milk at all.

Silk Chocolate for Health, Not for Taste

Even if you are a huge fan of regular soy milk, you might be turned off by the overwhelming aftertaste. There is something great about healthy chocolate milk options, but not being able to handle the Soy chocolate milk aftertaste is a real issue.

8. Horizon Organic

Glass of tasty chocolate milk on wooden table, space for text. Dairy drink — A childhood staple, Horizon Organic chocolate milk used to taste like lightning in a bottle.

Something of a school staple, Horizon Organic low-fat chocolate milk is good enough for kids. For adults, it gets to be a little more challenging with Horizon Organic’s aftertaste. A pattern is starting to show that aftertaste is one of the primary reasons a chocolate milk brand should be avoided.

Horizon Organic, For the Kids Only

Today, Horizon Organic chocolate milk is best left to kids who have yet to experience a variety of chocolate flavors.

What’s difficult with Horizon Organic is that it offers 12 grams of protein, which is great for children. It’s this added protein though that changes the aftertaste and makes Horizon Organic taste a little worse than it otherwise should.

9. Kirkland Signature

Milk chocolate is poured into a glass — Kirkland Signature is a signature Costco brand without a definitive reason to buy.

As Great Value is to Walmart, Kirkland Signature is to Costco. What’s interesting is that Kirkland Signature can often be better than the name-brand food it’s attempting to replace. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the Kirkland Signature organic reduced-fat chocolate milk. With reduced-fat milk, a red flag should automatically go up as you know it’s not going to be as creamy as you might prefer.

Kirkland Signature Has “Signature” Aftertaste

Chocolate Milk Bottle Mock-Up — The signature aftertaste of this drink is that you probably don’t want seconds.

Most important is that Kirkland Signature simply doesn’t taste like true blue chocolate milk. The creamy aftertaste of chocolate milk is indistinguishable. In the case of Kirkland Signature, there is nothing “signature” about its taste. Arguing that Kirkland Signature is better than Great Value doesn’t mean much when Great Value is worth avoiding all the same.

10. Ronnybrook Creamline

Homemade almond chocolate milk in a bottle — Unlike other chocolate milk drinks on this list, Ronnybrook is arguably too creamy with its aftertaste.

In the grand scheme of chocolate milk brands to avoid, Ronnybrook Creamline is the least-worst option. Aside from being one of the most expensive mainstream chocolate milk brands, Ronnybrook Creamline is only for those who prefer very, very creamy chocolate milk. While many brands on this list are here because of a lack of creamy taste, Ronnybrook is here for the opposite reason.

Ronnybrook Is So Close

Bottle of chocolate milk with red striped straw on wooden background — If Ronnybrook could drop the creamy taste just a little, it would likely become an easy favorite.

If you are not someone who can stomach a super creamy drink, you will not love Ronnybrook. However, if you jump for joy at the idea of super creamy chocolate milk, Ronnybrook is almost good enough to be removed from this list.

Conclusion

Even with this list of chocolate milk drinks to avoid, there are still quite a few chocolate milk brands worth drinking. Favorite names include Fairlife and Promised Land, both of which have the exact level of creamy chocolate taste you want. The good news is these brands are also available at just about every local grocery you can think of. The next time the craving for chocolate milk hits, now you know which brands you should both avoid and seek out.

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Read more: Special Report, chocolate, chocolate milk, Costco, great value, Hershey, horizon organic, Food

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