Eli5: If the milk of each cow is unique, how come all milk bottles of a brand taste the same?

Question

I remember tasting milk of many cows in my family farm. Each cow had a “signature” taste and part of the experience of drinking milk was enjoying the different tastes. The taste of milk of one single cow depends on many factors: age, diet, health, etc. Then, how do companies standardise the taste of their bottled milk? Best case scenario I can imagine is that producers blends the milk of many cows, but this is definitely no guarantee of a standardised taste. How is this achieved?

In: 462

Answer 1

I think this old thread explains it, a bottle of milk likely combines the milk of thousands of cows, so all the signature tastes are blended.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/qjfsf/how_many_different_cows_contribute_milk_to_create/](https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/qjfsf/how_many_different_cows_contribute_milk_to_create/)

It’s not the same thousands of cows in every bottle, but that much averaging will mean the milk will consistently taste very similar, to the point of tasting the same every time