Desert Farms Raw Camel Milk

Yes, raw camel milk is a thing.  And not just in Egypt anymore!

Desert Farms is a company based in the United States that has farms around the country which house camels to produce milk.  These farms are owned by private farmers in various locations, as shown by this image from the Desert Farms website:

The animals are raised as humanely as possible, on the most eco-friendly farms as possible.  Most of the farm owners are members of the Amish community, so they are pros at being as earth-friendly as they can be!  Other sustainability practices Desert Farms partakes in are their BPA-free & 100% recyclable packaging and their commitment to only supporting farms that align with their own ecological goals - no matter the size of the farm. 

The milk itself is hormone-free, non-homogenized, and the camels supplying it are seasonally grass-fed.  This means that whatever grass is growing in their pastures is the first thing eaten, and then the farmers supply the deficit with the grass that is in season for that time.  An eating cycle in this fashion means that the camels have a variety of food sources depending where they live, and the grass supplied by the farmers varies from hay to alfalfa to other grass breeds.

Desert Farms makes sure that the product is fresh, on top of all the other great things they focus on.  They harvest the first milk of the day and bottle it on-site to be shipped rapidly to customers, saving health and taste.  They also supply both raw and "lightly pasteurized" milks, so you can be satisfied no matter which side of that debate you stand on.

The nutrition behind this stuff is pretty cool, too: it contains half the saturated fat (and therefore half the TOTAL fat) of cow milk, though the "sat fat" demonizing is finally being lowered.  There's also a great amount of calcium, vitamin B1, phosphorus, and potassium contained in a single serving.  To top it off, camel milk is a prebiotic, meaning it "feeds" the good bacteria in your gut to promote good digestion and absorption of the foods you're eating in the first place.

So what do I think?

This stuff is freaking DELICIOUS.  I sampled it at Paleo f(x), probably an annoying number of times.  And then I snagged some more from Walid, the owner, to bring home and write about on here for y'all.  And I enjoyed it even more.  

So what does it taste like?  Cow's milk, pretty much.  Except I would argue that it's thinner in consistency because of the lower fat content (the rare occasions I do drink cow's milk, it's whole milk).  And it also has a slightly sweeter aftertaste than cow's milk.  I very much enjoyed drinking it with dinner and pairing it with some dark chocolate!

Rating: 10/10

If you would like to purchase some camel milk from Desert Farms, click here.