This Item Sucks. Literally.

My children are batty about chocolate milk.  I can't say that I share their enthusiasm.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE chocolate!  Milk is cool in my book too.  However, the combo... ya, there is something just really wrong there.  In my personal book-of-the-insane, milk should follow chocolate to chase away all the lingering bits and makes for a nice final touch to the sweet.  When you put them together, the milk doesn't get to clean the palate because it's saturated in chocolate and you are left with that chocolaty aftertaste that begs for the milk.  It's like I need milk as a chaser to my choco milk.  I know.  I'm weird.

My kids, however, are normal.... well.... sort of.  And they love them some chocolate milk!  So when my Mom found these chocolate straws that turn your milk chocolate, she was all over them. Bought 2 packs. When the kids saw what she had bought them, they freaked out.  Needless to say, we all had a mid-day milk snack to try them out. 

Each pack has 6 straws.  You don't cut them, you just plop them in a glass of milk and ... well... suck.  The milk passes up through specially designed straw, passes all the chocolate beads and is magically chocolaty by the time it reaches your lips.... in theory.  In reality, it takes several rather strong sucks to get the milk into the straw and up passed the beads.  Then it takes several more (and quite a bit of milk) to get the beads broken down enough.  Even then, the taste... not very chocolaty.  It gets (slightly) better as you run out of milk, and could possibly be better with a 2nd glass, but seriously... who is going to drink that much milk?  No surprise, this product is part of the "got milk" campaign.  In other words, a ploy to get you to buy more milk.

Cute cows though.

At first, my children loved them.  Or rather, they love the novelty of them.  First reviews were "This is so cool!"  "Wow, look at all those beads."  That was quickly followed by, "Uh!  I ran out of milk."  The first pack went quickly, but then there's 6 in a pack and we have 5 (that can use them) in our family.  These were purchased a few months back and we still have the 2nd pack and 4 straws remain.  So apparently, at some point, Mom and kids had one more go at them and then promptly lost interest.  Definitely not purchasing again, but it was a fun thing to try.

These do have a few good things going for them.  No artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives.  Gluten free.  4 grams of carbs. 4 grams of sugar.  16 calories per straw.  So, if you MUST have something chocolate and you're watching all that stuff for dietary reasons, I say go for it.  Might even work with soy milk or whatever substitute you attempt to use it with.  (just don't tell the Got Milk people... a large cow may show up on your door step, slap you silly and take your straws away!) 

On a KidLit's rating scale (ya, I just made that up), I give it 3 out of 5.  It's creative.  It's a dietary option for those who HAVE TO HAVE choco and otherwise can't.  But it sucks.  Literally.  Save your money and get the syrup.  And a milk chaser for me. ;0)

3 out of 5 on the KidLit scale... like that means anything.