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Got milk? A new “bar” in Montreal does.

Photo courtesy of Natrel Milk Bar

The just-opened Natrel Milk Bar by java u aims to raise milk’s profile from a supporting role to star status. It’s flipping the focus for latte-loving Canadians from the coffee beans to the white stuff.

With plans to expand, the flagship café features seven varieties of Natrel Milk to go in people’s java, whether it’s a barista-poured cappuccino or a self-serve drip. (Selections include skim, organic, lactose-free, and maple-flavoured milks.) Its menu focuses on dairy-driven items: salads, sandwiches and desserts with milk, yogurt, and cheese, plus milkshakes in the summer. Then there’s a line of clothing and accessories line made with milk.

Will milk bars be the next big thing? Expert opinion is divided.

Kristin Menas, associate editor, Canada and Adult Beverage, at Technomic, a food-industry research and consulting firm, notes that this isn’t the first milk bar in the country. Toronto’s Moo Milk Bar launched in 2012. Vancouver has the Miura Waffle Milk Bar, which specializes in yogurt-based drinks and milkshakes. Despite these openings, she says Technomic has not seen significant growth of milk bars or even milk-related restaurant-menu mentions recently.

“In the past year-over-year period, Technomic data only shows a 1.1 percent growth of milk on chain and independent restaurant menus,” Menas says. “In recent years, we have actually been tracking interest in non-dairy milk alternatives more than actual milk. Because of growing health concerns and diet restrictions, consumers have been looking to dairy alternatives like nut milks and soy products.”

According to Statistics Canada, milk sales fell approximately 15 per cent on a volume basis between 2002 and 2014. 

“I don’t predict that milk bars will become as big or even comparable in popularity to coffee shops,” Menas says. “I don’t see there being much growth for them in that segment. Coffee has a lot of room for growth in that it lends itself well to evolving flavour trends. Plus, coffee is also already a part of many consumers’ daily routines. Milk has a hurdle to jump in being seen as anything other than a child’s drink or a nice pairing for indulgent, rich desserts.”

Menas says that for milk bars to prove successful, their best chance is to follow some of the trends happening with other non-alcoholic drinks, such as promoting milk's healthy benefits.

“Smoothie and juice bars are very trendy and showing room for growth in Canada,” Menas says. “Much of this has to do with their functionality—specific nutritional benefits—such as energy boosting, aiding in weight loss, regulating sugar levels and serving as an ideal pre- or post-workout drink. Milk will have to be billed as providing specific nutritional benefits or completely avoid the health trend by being viewed as an indulgent, dessert-like option—like being paired with cookies.”

Other food and marketing experts believe the new bar can succeed.

“When I think of milk, I think of food memories,” says “global culinary trendologist” Christine Couvelier, former President’s Choice executive chef and founder of Culinary Concierge. “I think that would ring true in a lot of people’s minds, and food memories are always a trend I watch. I think they’re very clever at the milk bar, as I think the menu is also full of memories. For instance, their dessert menu has a red velvet cake. It’s not just that a red velvet cake is a food memory, but they’ve also been very innovative and have made into a sandwich cookie. So they’re changing it up and thinking about the today.

Photo courtesy of Natrel Milk Bar
Photo courtesy of Natrel Milk Bar

“It’s going to bring awareness to milk and attention to milk,” she adds. “They’re going to match it with great tastes. I can’t see how it would do anything except increase their sales. Milk is not a new thing, but they’ve put a new spin on it…. Not only will people in the milk or dairy industry going to be watching this, I believe a lot of the food world is going to be watching this.”

The company has plans to expand within Montreal and possibly nationwide, but by starting out in a single location, the Natrel Milk Bar has a built-in test market full of target consumers.

“It’s such a creative partnership to showcase their product; they’re saying that you’ve got choices in milk, which is something we take as pretty boring,” says Cidnee Stephen, co-president of the Calgary Marketing Association. “Kudos to them for going so far out of the box to try something new. I’m not sure people would necessarily be searching for a milk bar, but [Natrel and java u] could be starting a whole, brand new genre.

“They’ll be able to demo their products, and being in one location is a low-risk way to get consumer awareness and feedback. If they use this location to really get it right, it will give them a better chance of success as they go forward. It [the customer base] is a fairy trendy bunch of people and social media is going to be great for them.

The only thing that could pose a problem, Stephen says, is the name. “Where there could be confusion is that when you call it a milk bar, are people going to assume that it’s not coffee shop? That’s a detriment more to java u than to Natrel Milk Bar. One thing it might require is content marketing, blogging, and social media to educate people what a milk bar is, and they’ve already started doing that by saying it’s a unique café experience. Maybe instead of milk bar, Natrel milk café might have been slightly better terminology. They might still want to be playing with the name.”