I am a big fan of milk and dairy products, enjoying all sorts of cow milk variants. I also like ewe milk, and was introduced to goat milk about 5 or 6 years ago which I love. When I lived in Belgium I managed to find horse milk…which was sadly disgusting. When passing through Dubai airport, I was intrigued by the sight of full cream camel milk powder. A bit of research revealed a number of unsourced health claims for camel milk, but also quite a lot of talk about the good flavour, so I picked some up. 

Chilled camel milk

A box of 400g of powder makes up just over 3 litres of prepared milk. When I made it up, it had a strong smell of UHT milk, so perhaps I shouldn’t have used boiled water. I then chilled it for a few hours. After that it was white with globules of fat. The smell had reduced considerably, though. So, time to taste it… it is very rich, slightly sweet, and has a goat milk dryness to it, except dialled up a lot. When it hits the back of your mouth there is a really weird herby flavour I can’t put my finger on. I’ll call it camel. The first mouthful was so shocking, I was really put off by it. It is much thicker than cow milk, and it turns out it has more than double the fat and the protein. Slower sips, rather than a gulp, revealed it is not quite as bad as I first thought, but although I finished the glass, I’m not sure I will finish the box. A talking point for parties, maybe…