Chicken-flavored milk goes viral

A province whose people are famous for knowing how to eat, Guangdong is also known for its people’s love of chicken. 

Drawing inspiration from this love, a local dairy company has developed an unexpected product — milk flavored like one of Guangdong’s most classic chicken dishes — and it is going viral on the Chinese internet. 

Guangzhou-based Fengxing Milk's latest product features the flavor of ginger-and-scallion white sliced chicken. Photo from Fengxing Milk's WeChat official account

Launched by Guangzhou-based Fengxing Milk, the product features the flavor of ginger-and-scallion white sliced chicken, a signature Cantonese chicken dish. Priced at five yuan per carton and released in limited quantities, it is sold mainly through online channels. 

Its slogan, “chicken has chicken flavor, milk has milk flavor,” is a playful twist on the famous Cantonese saying “chicken has chicken flavor, fish has fish flavor,” which is commonly used to praise the freshness of ingredients. 

This unusual combination has astonished netizens, many of whom say they could never imagine ginger and scallion, chicken, and milk being put together. 

Astonishment and curiosity have fueled sales — in an interview with a local television channel in late January, a Fengxing Milk staffer said the product has sold out in offline channels, with restocking scheduled for early February. 

So how does it actually taste? Online comments have been sharply divided. While some netizens said the flavor was acceptable, as the milk taste overpowered ginger, scallion, and chicken notes, some praised that the combination was ingenious and the taste was surprisingly good, while others said it tasted too grotesque and they could barely finish a carton. 

A post by Xiaohongshu user "momo" introducing how she uses the chicken-flavored milk to cook noodles has garnered over 3,000 likes. 

Some people even tried using it for cooking noodles and broth, saying that although it its not a good beverage, it does make a good cooking companion. 

The chicken-flavored milk is part of a broader trend toward unconventional beverage flavors in recent years. 

A poster for Marketside's celery flavored yogurt. Photo from Walmart's official Xiaohongshu account

In December, Yili Dairy, one of China’s largest dairy companies, launched a garlic-flavored yogurt, while last month Marketside, a Walmart-owned food brand, introduced a celery-flavored yogurt last month. 

Would you consider trying these novel-flavored beverages?