In an attempt to combat poor milk sales, the company that makes Lurpak butter and Castello cheese will introduce a sparkling milk drink to international supermarkets - but the news of a drink made from milk by-product has been greeted with scorn.
One of the UK's biggest milk producers, Arla, which is owned by 12,500 farmers, says it will be making a "sparkling milk & fruit drink" as part of its plans to triple its business outside standard white milk.
In a , the company says it wants to "challenge soft drinks with healthier milk-based alternatives".
"One of the challenges we have is teenagers not drinking milk,” Matt Walker, Arla's senior director of innovation and research tells the .
"The insight we’ve found is that milk is not that cool."
The drink willbe pink, fizzy and made from a byproduct of milk - a type of whey with no fat, that contains dairy protein and amino acids but won't curdle when mixed with fruit juice and then carbonated.
It will be trialed in the UK, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, before being distributed more widely.
People on social media are not convinced:
Other drink makers have tried to make fizzy milk happen in the past.
One of them, launched by Coke in 2009 and called Vio, was described as a "vibrancy drink" and came in flavours such as Peach Mango, Citrus Burst and Very Berry. It was included in of the 50 worst inventions of all time.
Others have had more success - Milkis, for example, is a fizzy milk drink popular in South Korea.
And there is a traditional type of fizzy milk that is growing in popularity - fermented milk kefir (and lesser known versions, such as shubat - a fermented camel milk from Central Asia).
As Sydney-based wholefoods pioneer Holly Davis writes in her new book (Murdoch Books, $45), "Kefir is sometimes referred to as the champagne of milks. Fizzy milk is an acquired taste but once acquired you will likely want more."
