[ButlerianJihad]

> risk without benefit

Indeed. There is no reason to consume raw milk. Pasteurization is not actually the problem.

On the other hand, there is no reason to homogenize milk at all. It is safe and legal to procure "cream top" or non-homogenized milk at many grocery outlets. Cream-top milk is not processed, and in fact there have been detrimental effects linked to the consumption of homogenized milk, which you can avoid by drinking cream-top milk instead.

Homogenization does not make milk safer or healthier to drink. On the contrary, it permits the processors to remove healthful elements and sell them in a more profitable vehicle. Why not simply keep your entire product intact, as it was found in nature?

The "raw milk" craze is a bonkers red herring for everyone. Don't drink raw milk. Don't buy the hype. But you don't need homogenization, either!

[mcbuilder]

Non homogenized, lightly flash pasteurized milk has been my favorite for years. Just tastier, luckily I grew up in a little strange town where it was norm, and I don't have the weird modern health movement baggage to go with it.

[ChoGGi]

Would someone who had never had it consider it tastier, or is it memories of growing up that make it tastier to you?

[ButlerianJihad]

If you can sit down and compare a glass of skim milk to full-fat milk, you’re getting somewhere.

Cream-top milk is not merely full-fat: the cream is unmixed and free floating. You can immediately tell it is different by texture.

Some people separate the cream and reserve it for coffee or something. Or you can agitate it for “manual homogenization”. The difference is texture, really. It may have bothered housewives trying to cook or to pour it. But I love the experience.