This Chocolate Milk Company Is Redefining Dairy in a Big Way
With nearly double the protein and about half the sugar as regular skim milk, Slate could be your new healthy drink of choice.
Photo provided
Were you ever one to crack open a cold (or maybe room temperature) Yoo-Hoo? Or, were you more of the Nesquik type? Ovaltine? Hershey’s syrup? Whatever way you sip it, chocolate milk was definitely a childhood treat. But as almond milk has begun to replace dairy—and we’ve all grown up—this beverage has lost its coolness.
But why?
Manny Lubin and Josh Belinsky, founders of Slate, a Boston-based chocolate milk startup, are exploring this very conundrum. And millennials, they’re looking at you.
“I’ve always had this idea for a chocolate milk for adults,” Lubin says.
When he started doing some research, he realized there was room in the market for a milk beverage that young adults actually wanted to drink, and be seen drinking. Because quite frankly, a bright yellow bottle with a cartoon bunny on it is totally not Instagrammable. And with the abundance of super trendy milk alternatives, Lubin needed something that not only looked good, but also tasted good, and was good for you.
Northeastern grads with a knack for digital marketing and brand awareness, Lubin and Belinsky put their entrepreneurial minds together and formulated the idea for Slate. It had to come in sleek, simple packaging, it had to be lactose-free (because both founders are lactose-intolerant), and it had to have way less sugar than your average chocolate milk—all while packing a ton of protein. And not only that, it had to be able to be purchased with the click of a button.
That’s just what they created. Slate comes in tall, slender cans in shades of tan—completely acceptable to be seen with walking around the office or out of the gym.
The new product comes in three different flavors: Classic Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, and Mocha Flip.
“It’s not super sweet like Hershey’s but not super bitter like Belgian chocolate,” Lubin explains. “It’s milky, and a little bit on the darker side. It’s just freaking delicious.”
Each flavor of milk contains only 9 grams of sugar and 17 grams of protein. “Compare that to regular skim milk and those numbers would more or less be flipped,” Belinsky says. With those kind of macros, registered dietitian and personal trainer Kelli Fierras’ preferred post-workout drink of choice was just made even more stellar. And all Slate milks are lactose-free, nut-free, and contain no artificial flavors. Using an ultrafiltration system, they are able to strip the milk of fat, water, and sugar (including the lactose sugar) and are left with a concentrated liquid form of milk called ultra-filtered milk. From there, they add cocoa and monk fruit (a natural sweetener that comes from a green melon grown in China), among other ingredients.
The product is shelf-stable, and can last without being refrigerated for a year—much like your classic Yoo-Hoo drink. That makes delivering Slate to people’s doorsteps easy and manageable.
So while everyone is turning their nose up at dairy in favor of milk alternatives, Lubin and Belinsky are diving head-first into the industry. “We’re trying to give milk a clean Slate,” Lubin says. And maybe that’s exactly what it needs.
For more information and to preorder: slatemilk.com.
Josh Belinsky (left) and Manny Lubin (right) / Photo provided
