Banana Flavored Milk
Banana Flavored Milk () is a South Korean milk beverage produced by Binggrae in Korea. Name. The name "Banana Mat Milk" () in Korean translates as Banana Flavored Milk. Flavor. The beverage consists of 80 percent milk which gives a soft and savory taste because of its high content of natural milk. It contains just a hint of banana flavor. History. Since 1974, 800,000 bottles of Banana Flavored Milk are sold each day in Korea and around 6 billion bottles have been sold across the country. According to Binggrae, 150 billion Korean won worth of these bottles have been  sold in 2014 alone. The bottle's design is said to be inspired by traditional Korean jars. According to the company, it initially came up with a polystyrene bottle to differentiate its product from glass bottles and plastic packages that were prevalent milk containers in 1970s. The bottle has an overhanging lip which prevents the milk from dripping onto the drinker's face. Banana Flavored Milk got its flavor because the Korean government wanted to encourage Korean citizens to drink more milk. At the time Binggrae introduced its product, bananas were expensive and considered a luxury. They believed consumers would  be enticed to purchase their milk for a taste of the fruit. Global selling. The banana-flavored milk was first exported to the U.S. and is been sold over the countries including mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Canada, New Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia. It was launched in China in 2008 and increased its sales from 700 million Korean Won in 2010 and 15 billion in 2013. Many Thai consumers came to the Korean Pavilion of the Bangkok Food Fair held on May 31, 2017, to June 4, 2017, to taste this product. Nutrition. According to the consumer research , banana flavored milk contains low milk ingredients; reconstituted milk blended with skim milk powder with water and butter or cream, which arouses criticism that the product contains no milk.