The Flavor of Breast Milk Is…
What flavor would you call breast milk?
You’ve tried your breast milk, right?
I mean, I never glugged down a bottle or anything but I certainly had a swallow here and there, mostly to make sure the temperature was just right and, you know, I can’t really tell you exactly what it tasted like. I don’t remember.
Apparently, a lot of folks find mom’s milk pretty tasty. So delicious, in fact, that they were lining up for breast milk ice cream last year in London. While I don’t exactly recall relishing the flavor I think it was a lot sweeter than cow’s milk.
We know there are four basic flavors. They include sweet, sour, bitter and salty. But, according to bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell, the flavor of breast milk is none of the above. He describes the flavor of breast milk as…
Umami.
According to Motherwear.com, in his book Blink Gladwell casually describes the flavor of breast milk as umami. So, what exactly is umami? Motherwear describes it thusly:
It means “meaty” or “savory,” and is used quite a bit in Asian cooking. Foods in this category include parmesean cheese, fish, cured meats, ripe tomatoes, and fermented products like miso and soy sauce. It serves the function of “rounding out” other tastes. Kind of like you wouldn’t sit down and eat a chunk of parmesean cheese, but a little of it makes lots of dishes taste great.
Glutamates and neucleotides are apparently what give umami foods their flavor and breast milk contains as much of those substances as soup broths. That’s ten times more than cow’s milk contains. You can find that info in this chart from the Umami Information Center.
So, what do you think? Did Gladwell nail it? What flavor would you call breast milk?
I would just call it sweet. Maybe that means I eat too much sugar.
It’s sweet, right? Now I’m worried cause my breast milk doesn’t taste like parmesan cheese!
Yeah, I would say sweet. Like sweetened condensed milk, only not as thick. No parmesan cheese here.
How much breast milk is Malcom Gladwell sampling anyway? Seriously, even if he tried his wife’s milk, how would that conceivably be enough of a representative sample to start inventing flavors?
I don’t care for the taste. I’d say sweet and umami.
Yes it’s sweet. Mine taste like horchata, a refreshing Mexican drink made with rice & cinnamon.
YES mine tastes like horchata too! OK now I can stop being paranoid that it doesn’t taste right!
Yeah. Mine kind of tastes meaty… like a broth… I would have to agree. but it has a very sweet undertone. I don’t eat or drink any dairy so it definetly does not taste like cows milk. no wonder my 6mo is 18lbs!!!!
I personally haven’t tasted my milk, but my just-turned-2-year old daughter has told me, when I asked, that it tastes like broccoli, strawberries, and lastly, candy. I’m sure it depends on what I’ve been eating at the time. She’s almost weaned and told me the other day that “it’s not working, need more milk”, when nothing was coming out.
My breastmilk is delicious – anything but “meaty” which sounds utterly disgusting – mine tastes like a mixture of sweet fennel tea, vanilla and a teaspoon of cream – which would make a brilliant ice cream! In fact I make my baby a tea using those ingredients as a substitute when his dad is looking after him – my baby boy loves it!
I agree with Megan – that Malcolm Gladwell bloke is talking utter nonsense! Every milk tastes different, and what you eat definitely has an effect – I’m vegetarian, which avoids “meaty milk” flavour *Yuk!*
Sweet and only sweet. Kind of the condensed milk theory but thinner and not as sweet but not cows milky. IDK it’s just not a salty flavor no matter how much salt i eat.