It's undoubtable that milk is considered an essential grocery item, with it featuring on breakfast tables all across the UK on a daily basis.
But while milk is readily available in seemingly every shop, not all brands are of equal quality.
To find the best, KentLive reporter Sam Honey decided to test supermarket own brands of semi-skimmed milk.
Sam says: "I visited four main supermarkets to try out their dairy offering and answer the question of where to find the best milk once and for all.
"Our competitors here are Iceland, Marks and Spencer, Tesco and Aldi, in each I grabbed semi-skimmed and began comparing."
Iceland
Sam decided to pay a visit to frozen-food chain Iceland first.
He said: "While I did go looking for 2 pints in each shop as I’d argue that's the most common size bought for a weekly shop, my local Iceland only had single pints.
"Obviously this isn't going to affect the taste in any way, only the price - a quick trip to their online store however tells me that the going rate for two pints of semi-skimmed is 89p, a fair price if ever there was.
"Now onto the taste, and I’ve got to say, I was pretty impressed.
"One of the main things that can go wrong with semi-skimmed is getting the balance right, don’t want things too watery or too full, and Iceland got the balance perfectly.
"A quick taste test and I really was reminded of the flavours found in the likes of Cravendale, not quite exact but definitely similar, so we’re off to a great start here."
Aldi
Next on Sam's list was a trip to budget supermarket Aldi.
He said, "In complete honesty, my experience with Aldi has been very hit and miss over the years
"Sometimes they absolutely knock it out of the park and deliver truly surprising quality at a discount price - other times I’ve been left feeling like I should have just paid that little bit extra for better quality elsewhere.
"In terms of price, there is a recurring theme here as all of these choices cost about the same, with Aldi also costing 89p.
"When it came to taste though, this was a little underwhelming - this time around the milk did border more on the watery side of the things.
"It was by no means bad, but for my own personal tastes, not exactly what I was looking for.
"When looking at the price it would be hard to justify buying this over Iceland’s offering for the exact same amount of money."
Tesco
It was then time for Sam to visit one of the "big four" supermarkets, in this instance, Tesco.
He said: "No budge in price on this one either at 89p, it's down to the taste to set this one apart.
"It was a definite improvement on Aldi’s, and was almost identical to Iceland’s, perfectly balancing the flavours and keeping the optimal consistency.
"Those two are now neck and neck, so it is down to our last choice of the day to see who will come out on top."
Marks and Spencer
Finally, for an even view across the board, Sam visited premium retailer M&S.
He said: "M&S almost certainly comes to mind, the supermarket giant is known for it, from both their advertising and their ability to deliver on it too.
"The trade off however, is that you will usually be paying that little bit more, and this theory rang true.
"But, not to worry, as the price mark up was literally 1p, with two pints of semi-skimmed milk costing me 90p, hardly one to break the bank.
"Now the question is, does the taste beat out the other two or will we be left with a tie for first place?
"Simply put, M&S blew the other two out of the water, tasting near identical to the likes of Cravendale.
"This really was a delicious glass of milk, and would be perfect for all things from cereal to tea.
"Safe to say, that 1p extra really did make all the difference."
The verdict
After conducting his research, Sam came to a conclusion.
He said: "I leave you here with the knowledge that you don’t need to pay big brand prices for high quality milk.
"M&S has absolutely got you covered on that front, and Iceland and Tesco aren’t too far behind either.
"Aldi might leave you just a little disappointed this time however, but there’s always something great around every aisle in the budget supermarket so I’m sure I’ll be back there very soon."
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