Milk in Bags

For the past three weeks, I have been living in a house that gets its fridge stocked semiweekly. This might not seem like a noteworthy occasion, but for us foreigners, it’s an opportunity to discover unique tastes and products, a riveting experience unlike any other!

Okay—not quite, but you guys do have Cheez-Its which is definitely a plus.

So this is relevant because it enlightened me on one of Canada’s less-than-favorable products. One of Canada’s biggest fallbacks—other than the Maple Leaf’s record—is the placement of milk into bags.  Yes, milk in bags, it is indeed a real thing. It seems like food for astronauts, but apparently us Canucks think that encasing our milk in plastic makes for a better milk experience.

Not only does ‘milk in bags’ look weird, but it is a heck of a nuisance as well! The wrong cut could spell disaster. Too little of a cut—you’ll finish pouring milk onto your cereal by lunchtime and too big of a cut—you’re left with soggy Mini Wheat’s swimming in a liter of 2%.

Another problem with this selective packaging of dairy is that scissors and milk go hand-in-hand. Let’s just say you’ve just enjoyed the unique college delicacy of a spoonful of peanut butter with Nutella, what happens if you’re without scissors? Your throat becomes dry, tongue sticky, lips chapped…that peanut butter is not going down easily. In other words, catastrophe.

Situations like this and worse will continue to occur if Canada doesn’t make the full transition to cartons soon.  In this instance we need to stop trying to be unique and just adapt to the American way.