Opinion divided
OPINION: Boutique milk company Lewis Road Creamery’s latest offering to mark Matariki is unfairly facing heat from certain quarters of Māoridom, who are opposed to any commercialisation of all things Māori.
Lewis Road Creamery today launched a new range of milk sourced solely from Jersey cows, the first single-breed standard milk to go on sale in supermarkets nationwide.
“The Jersey cow is rightly famous for her milk. It is richer, creamier, with higher butterfat and a more velvety texture,” said Peter Cullinane.
“A single-breed milk really lets those qualities shine.”
Cullinane said as a dairy producing nation, New Zealanders deserved to have access to the best possible drinking milk, free from PKE and permeate.
“We’re delighted that Jersey milk is in the spotlight,” said Alison Gibb from Jersey New Zealand.
“This has been a long time coming – I was always envious when travelling overseas and seeing the fuss that was made of pure Jersey milk in other countries.”
Lewis Road says single-breed milk aligned with clear trends among its increasingly sophisticated dairy consumers.
“Our customers want to know the provenance of their dairy, they want whole products that haven’t been over-processed, and they want to be able to taste that difference,” said Cullinane.
“With a single-breed standard Jersey milk we can do all those things, and at a more accessible price for consumers.”
As well as a higher butterfat content, Jersey milk contains less water, less lactose and high levels of calcium.
“We’ve gone to huge effort to segregate the supply coming from our Jersey herd and to leave it as untouched as possible from the shed to the shelf,” said Cullinane.
In standard dairy industry practice, milk producers mix the milk from various breeds of cow, break the combined product apart, then reassemble it using permeate to create a standardized protein content.
“We’re providing milk the way it used to taste, before everyone started chasing cheap and bland volume,” said Cullinane, pointing out the new range’s authentic taste was a fitting way for the company to celebrate World Milk Day on June 1st.
The range is permeate-free, PKE-free and bottled in the brand’s award-winning recyclable rPET bottles made from 100% recycled plastic.
Lewis Road Creamery Jersey Milk is available in Homogenised (blue top), Non-Homogenised (silver top) and Light (light blue top). They each come in 1.5l or 750ml bottles with an RRP of $5.75 and $3.49 respectively. The range is available nationwide from 1 June.
