Powdered milk

[Trigger]

Just bought some Nestle Nido powdered whole milk, by all accounts it's not bad stuff, certainly better than the powdered skimmed stuff which is just white water.

Question though- I've never used it before so can you just put a spoon directly into a cup of tea? The only directions on the tin are to make up the whole lot using water and then presumably to be kept in the fridge like traditional milk. But I don't want a litre of milk so I'm wondering if I can just keep small amounts for stirring into a brew when out and about/camping?

The only other option I can see is loads of those little UHT pots but it's a bit inconvenient carrying a dozen of those around, a small sachet of this powder would be a much better job all round.

[shane]

Throw it straight in and you'll probably get lumpy tea. The best thing I've found to date is to have a small bottle (100-200ml) put of couple of spoon fulls in with some water and go shaken not stirred. Enough milk for the evening and morning.

Failing that put a little in a cup with very little water to make it into a paste or milk then add your teabag and hot water. With a little trial and error you'll get there .

Nowadays I'm finding it easier to get used to black tea and coffee and just chuck some sugar in, the only thing powdered milk is good for is porridge

Have fun

[al_yrpal]

Go in an Asda cafe and pinch some of their plastic sleeve milk. Very convenient to carry for making tea and coffee, better than those little pots. You can buy big boxes of sleeves in places like Makro etc. But they will run out of date before you can use them all.

Al

[rualexander]

Before you add the powdered milk directly to your tea, put some cold water into the tea to cool it a bit, then add the powder, that should prevent it from forming lumps.

[Trigger]

Failing that put a little in a cup with very little water to make it into a paste or milk then add your teabag and hot water. With a little trial and error you'll get there .

That sounds like a plan. All be it like you say, trial and error with the amounts, I foresee some nasty tasting cuppas during this process!!

[pjclinch]

I drink black tea and coffee. I started doing this precisely to avoid all the unsatisfactory milk solutions for wild camping but now I prefer it any time.

The key thing for me was realising how to remove the bitter edge from the beverages. With tea it comes from the tannins that tend to come out with longer brewing, so use shorter brewing. If you find that's a bit lacking in oomph use more tea but for less time. For coffee, use actual ground coffee rather than freeze-dried. Ortlieb do a neat camping filter-holder so you don't have to sieve out the grounds with your teeth. Also, remember that all teas/coffees are not created equal, so experiment with different types. Typical UK tea-bags use the assumption that you'll be aiming at a bitter brew softened with milk, so they're not always the best way to get what you're after.

Pete.

[BeeKeeper]

Pre-mixing with a bit of water as Shane suggests is usually the best way but if you let the tea cool a bit and then shake the powder in gently you might find it will dissolve. You could also try pre-mixing the powder with sugar and instant coffee for example and then adding the hot water.

However, is it actually a powder or is it made up into little granules? If the latter (which is called "instantised" and is made by adding a very small amount of water to the milk after it has been fully dried) it may dissolve in hot water without forming lumps.

Put on your white lab jacket and experiment!

[eezypeazy]

This year I tried Nescafe's "two-in-one" individual instant white coffe sachets - they're a bit like instant coffee machine coffee and I found them to be quite acceptable - beats having to take separate coffee and whitener products or milk. I also trried instant porrige in pots(just add boiling water) and that was acceptable, too.

Wouldn't like to live on dried stuff for too long, though...

[Trigger]

I'm afraid I can't abide coffee in any shape or form, pity as the instant sachet with all the ingredients is handy.

First trial with this milk stuff hasn't gone too bad, used about 15g of powder (which turned out to be roughly 3 heaped teaspoons) to 100ml of water, it's certainly not unpleasant.

[bikepacker]

+1 for Shane's method.

[julk]

I take some Nido with me cycle camping for when I am unable to get fresh milk.
I have used it spooned straight into hot drinks and stirred, added into a water/porridge mix and cooked up, also made it up in a container with cold water.
All methods have worked ok for me.

Give it a try at home to see what works for you.

[rualexander]

If you take sugar in your tea or coffee, you can use a tube of Nestle Sweetened Condensed Milk.
Slightly different flavour than regular milk and sugar but still ok.
An open tube will keep for about a week unrefrigerated before the taste starts to go a bit cheesy.

[Trigger]

I take some Nido with me cycle camping for when I am unable to get fresh milk.
I have used it spooned straight into hot drinks and stirred, added into a water/porridge mix and cooked up, also made it up in a container with cold water.
All methods have worked ok for me.

Give it a try at home to see what works for you.

Brilliant, I'll try spooning it straight in next!

[andrew_s]

I lived on the stuff for 3 years in the Antarctic. Slowly add cold water to the powder so as to go via a paste stage.
I never tried the shaking method as we were mixing 2 or 3 litres at a time.

[andymiller]

Carry a small jar/plastic container and mix enough for a day?

They used to do something called Coffee Mate which you could spoon directly into a cup of coffee - but I don't think they've made it in years.

I went down the black coffee/tea route. Green tea is good if straight black tea is too bitter.