Milk is a staple in many households.   We feed it to our children, pour it over our cereal, use it to flavor our coffee, or drink it by the glass full. For this project, I took three bottles of milk and colored them with food dye.  I used red, green, and black dye.  On September 13th I packed the milk in my lunchbox.  During the lunch break in my Art Theory class I pulled out the bottle of black milk and began to drink.   The eight other people at the table reacted strongly when they saw what I was doing.  I pulled out my camera and tried to catch a few of their expressions.  After I convinced them it really was milk, I asked each person present to answer a few questions regarding their experience.  Some of their replies are below:

"That’s not milk!"
"It’s a weird color."
"Something not natural, something unhealthy."
"Gross, eww!"
"I would not drink anything that color.
"What is he doing?  Some kind of health regiment?"
"The color was so fake it looked like it would make a stomach sick."
"Catches one’s attention."
"Nasty!"
"I cringe at the thought of drinking that crap."
"That’s why milk doesn’t come in assorted colors."
"There has to be a reason he’s drinking this."
"Maybe there are some new flavors I’m not aware of."
"Paul’s a brave man to drink such a scary looking liquid (and deserves an A)."

I had practiced drinking the colored milk so I could try to appear nonchalant for the experiment.  I had to try to ignore the color and focus on the flavor.  After surprising them with the black milk, I brought out green and red.  I tasted them all, since I was thirsty.  However, when I tried to drink more, the class asked me to stop.  They said it was too gross. Although we occasionally see chocolate or strawberry milk on the shelf in stores, the colors I created were very unnatural and not at all appetizing, at least to adults.

My wife was thoroughly disgusted by all of the colored milks, but our eleven year old son saw the milk and immediately wanted to try it.  He thought the colors were “neat” and wanted to drink some right away.  The next morning I found him happily munching away on his morning cereal while it floated in green milk.  Before I rinsed the containers later that day, he had willingly tasted all three.    Although I had been able to drink the colored milk samples, it turned my stomach to watch him eat his cereal with green milk.  I had to leave the room.

The adults who encountered my project all had a basically negative response.  Most of them were art students, so I was not surprised that they compared my concoctions to paint.  I think it would be interesting to try this experiment with more children.  Perhaps they are more flexible and open to trying new things.  I really enjoyed this project.  Most of the people who encountered my milk reacted negatively, making me realize just how important the color of milk is to its identity.  Altering the color made the milk impure and distasteful.