Just got back from a Tesco shop, so scrutinised the milk aisle. Not something I'm in the habit of, usually I just grab my usual and move on. Some seriously odd pricing going on.
Great joy, their finest Channel Islands (Jersey) not homogenised full milk, a glowing yellow creamy top, is back on (it's seasonal). £1.75 per litre. 57g fat per litre, that's creamy. And delicious on the breakfast cereal.
Cravendale semi skimmed filtered. £1.95/l 17g fat. Humm.
Organic goats milk £1.95. Seems cheap to me, surely milking goats is a bit less easy than having a robotised dairy herd that self-service themselves at the automated parlour, with just a machine minder to watch over them. Which is the modern way, don't kid yourselves. You want cheap milk, cheese, whatever ,this is the way to do it, with feed, not grazing on natural grass, hay or silage, organic or otherwise. Though that might be changing soon, blame Putin and his "Special Operation". We don't yet, AFAIK, pen them in feedstock yards, feed them GM soy, and pump them with growth hormones and antibiotics like the Americans do, even though some would like to do that. Ever drunk supermarket American milk ? I have, frequently, totally disgusting. As also is their consumer grade coffee. As also are their steaks, pork, and pretty much everything else meat related until you look out the finer stuff, which they can do quite well.
Tesco ordinary semi skimmed 95p/l
Tesco organic full fat, 75p/l That's very odd.
Of course semi skimmed or fully, ought to be cheapest, the cream/fat they skim off goes into butter, cheese, whatever, at higher margin.
Guess what I came back with ? Though the Channel Islands stuff is really a bit OTT for my tea and coffee, so I also bought the bargain priced full fat homogenised organic stuff as well, for that.
Scrambled eggs on sourdough toast (three) for breakfast tomorrow, with a bit of garlic Boursin mixed in too. And some fresh herbs from the garden. Eggs from a free-range farm not ten miles from me, which Tesco sell here, as a special locally sourced thing. You won't find them in any other Tesco. They like to do that sort of thing ,their buyers probably enjoy the visits. They are pretty good with the muticultural aisles as well, not that we don't also have plenty of specialist shops for that as well . Polish, West Indian, Jamaican, Indian, Chinese, other Asian, etc, they've got some interesting stuff also.
However I realise that my monster Tesco Express is probably an exception. and exceptionally managed. And being only about 200 yards away is pretty much a no-brainer for me. Sorry Lidl, Aldi, Asda, Morrison, M+S and Waitrose, you all have your good points too (well Asda not so much). Their canteen is also about the best you'll find in any supermarket outside say Fenwicks.. Or supreme, El Corte Inglés , if you happen to be in Barcelona., or somewhere else abroad where they have a store.
However I also have real butchers, fishmongers greengrocers, bakers and specialist shops only a bicycle ride away, which I delight in visiting, when I have the time. And the Farmers Market in the town centre on Thursdays. I am blessed I suppose.
Fortunately I don't have any cholesterol problems, which I attribute to healthy eating. And ignoring one locum GP who tried to give me the hard sell that everyone of my age should be taking a statin or poly-pill, irrespective of my rather good blood tests. Had a word with the senior partner after that, never been suggested since. Even though, at the time, NHS GPs were being incentivised to the tune of £50 per patient to put them on statins.
By the drug companies. This was before the generics came out. I know of what I speak, my three best friends from school are GPs (early retired but still registered), as also their wives, running their own practices, but weren't having any of that either. Actually they were also so ethical that they wouldn't even accept freebies like pens and stationary from the reps. never mind the ski trips etc. offered whilst attending a "conference" to legitimise the thing. Also disgusted by the big push to prescribe more heavily addictive opiate painkillers, but that's another dirty story as well. Sorry for digressing. And rambling on.
I like milk, drink a lot of it. Cravendale has it's place and I can see why it costs a bit more, I have good uses for it, but I am also more discerning about finer stuff, even if it does go off rather sooner.
