Organic Valley Organic Nonfat Dry Milk Powder, 12-Ounce Bags (Pack of 4)

We car camp with a tent and a bunch of coolers, so keeping food chilled is always an issue. I am currently pregnant, and with a camping trip coming up, I was concerned about drinking the calcium I needed. I came across this product and we gave it a try during our 5 day beach camp. It was perfect!! We used it as the creamer in our coffee, and I also brought a protein shaker bottle and strawberry Quik for a tasty drink that only needed water. It was sooo nice to have this option! It didn't need to be refrigerated, and packed very easily.My only complaint is that the powder sticks to the side of the pouch, so when you scoop the powder out, it tends to stick to your hands. The pouch makes it easy to pack, but I will likely look for a hard sided container to store it in to make it easier to dispense. The bag is only halfway full, too, so there's no avoiding sticking your hand in there unless you pour it out.This powdered milk is now a camping staple for us. It tastes great, is organic, and gives us yummy beverage options.

I use this milk because I live in a rural town and its 70 miles to a store that carries organic non-fat milk. I make all my yogurt with it. My yogurt maker calls for 5 cups of milk for 8 containers of yogurt and I mix 5 cups of water with 1 1/2 cups of powder milk. This makes the yogurt creamy. However, I couldn't just stir milk slowly and get a good blend. It clumped if I mixed by hand. I tried to stir on the blender & mixer, tried shaking it with a mixing type shaker (for pancake batter). No matter what I had foam. It doesnt change a thing except I have to skim it off before pouring yogurt mixture into cups. But it does taste great when making non-fat, organic homemade yogurt. I will continue to buy.

I usually use this for baking and making chocolate milk and smoothies, I like that its organic and does not have Vitamin A Palmitate in it (synthetic vitamin A also used to make napalm)The powdered milk was shipped in an envelope and arrive damaged. One of the bags of milk was punctured and there was sticky powder all over the bags. I can't use it, because it may be contaminated and this item can't even be returned. I have a toddler and I just can't take the chance that she will get sick. This item is difficult to find, but I will have to try harder to find it at a health food store.

Here is a comparison of liquid,organic milk and organic valley organic nonfat dry milk powder. 16 servings of liquid milk costs $5. 13 servings of powdered milk costs $7. Powdered milk does not dissolve well at all in heated water or a blender. It works well in baking. The only benefit to powdered milk is that it can be stored much much longer than liquid milk.

I try to buy organic products whenever possible; so I decided to try this. I usually do not use milk quickly enough to justify buying a gallon of fresh milk; so this sounded good. I cannot find it in any of the stores in my area and Amazon is easy to deal with so this seemed like a good choice. Organic Valley should be a bit more forthcoming with specifics about this product; since many of us may not be familiar with it. I have used a lot of other nonfat dry milk products, but this is quite different. Although the actual product description does not state that it is "non-instant", if you enlarge the picture, you can just barely read it on the front of the package. The mixing instructions on the package tell you that you can stir or shake to mix the milk, but your blender or an electric mixer are probably your best options. Stirring produces a very lumpy, undissolved mess. I called Organic Valley and spoke with a very complacent woman who informed me that she puts the dry milk and water in a jar and shakes it vigorously to mix it. She also informed me that since it is not an instant product, once it is mixed, you will need to stir or shake it again if it is not used immediately; because the mix will begin to settle. Once it is actually dissolved, the taste is wonderful: it tastes absolutely fresh.

If you are looking for a high quality dry milk product then this is it. This dry milk is organic which makes it free of pesticides, antibiotics and all the other mess that we find in regular milk today that isn't good for us. It mixes out very well with warm water. I did not find it to be too powdery at all it was just right. I bought this to take with me overseas on my 2 week vacation because I only drink organic milk and I wanted to be sure that I would have it for tea/cereal /etc. I was very happy with the dry milk I mixed a cup every morning with warm water and it was delicious in my tea. This product states non-instant but it really don't take but 5 mins. to prepare a cup of milk with the dry milk. How much more quicker could it be? Buy this product if you are looking for high quality great tasting dry milk!

Like most people who routinely buy organic products, I'm accustomed to mark-ups in the 10% to 50% range. I usually think it's worth it to know what I'm ingesting. Thus, I would overlook the price of Organic Valley Organic Nonfat Dry Milk Powder were it not for the fact that getting the powder to dissolve in water is nearly impossible. Per the instructions on the package, I used cold (chilled) water. I tried shaking it vigorously - again, per package instructions - to no avail. "Put it in the fridge for a while so it can dissolve," I thought. Bad idea. When I took it out, the undissolved lumps of powder had formed a crust the exact consistency of Spackle on the surface of the water. "Ah, a whisk! That'll do the trick," was my next bright idea. No, the lumps of Spackle adhered to the wires of the whisk with a large mass of partially dissolved powder stuck accumulating in the center. I thought of taking a pitcher of water and milk powder to my local paint store and asking them to put it in the gadget that shakes the living heck out of paint, but that seemed like too much trouble and they might not appreciate my not buying any paint. I did get satisfactory results with an immersion blender, finally, so if you happen to have one on hand, by all means give Organic Valley Organic Nonfat Dry Milk Powder a try. By the way, if you do buy some and find a way to make it dissolve in water, please let me know. I look forward to hearing how you did it.P.S. Once it's mixed, the milk is good, but a little on the sweet side.