A Highland dairy farm is the first in the north to launch a new “make your own” milkshake service, which has seen sell-out success.
The team at Connage Highland Dairy in Ardersier have been trialling the new service for the past six weeks before unleashing it on social media which has sparked huge interest in the service.
Thousands of litres of the dairy’s milk have been purchased from its vending machine and customers have been enjoying transforming the product into their own milkshakes.
The organic firm is owned by brothers Callum and Cameron Clark and their wives Jill and Eileen and boasts a herd of 150 cows, mostly Holstein Friesian with Jersey crosses and Norwegian Reds.
Jill said: “We love our fresh and tasty organic milk and we thought that local children would really enjoy adding the different flavours. The milkshakes have certainly been a hit among children and adults are loving it, too!
“We launched the service six weeks ago and demand has been so wonderful. Local people have been so supportive.
“One day last week we ran out of milk it was so popular and we’ve ran out a few times this week as well because so many people have been turning up to make their own milkshakes. We’ve told the girls they need to produce more milk!
“We are delighted and are always filling up to make sure all visitors get a milkshake.”
How does it work?
Customers purchase a one-litre glass bottle (which is theirs to keep and is priced at £2) and use this to fill up with milk at the firms’ milk vending machine.
They then take their filled milk bottle and add a 50ml shot of the flavouring of their choice.
Jill added: “You purchase one of our reusable glass bottles, fill it with milk from the vending machine and then decide your flavour of syrup from the optics.
“Add a shot of syrup to the bottle, give it a magic shake and hey presto, you have a milkshake!
“The milk is priced at £1.20 per litre of milk and 50p for a shot of 50ml flavour syrup so you can make a milkshake for as little as £1.70.”
Starting with 12 flavours, the team has already added an additional seven flavours due to demand, bringing the total count to 19.
She added: “We now have 19 flavours including strawberry, raspberry, chocolate, banana, banoffee, salted caramel, black cherry, white chocolate, chocolate orange, mint chocolate, bubble gum, caramel, Turkish delight, vanilla, Creme Egg, blueberry muffin, cappuccino, Irish cream and rum and raisin.
“Chocolate and strawberry are favourites for sure, but the blue bubble gum looks fun in the milk because of its blue colour so the kids love it!
“Things have really taken off since we posted about it on social media and with lots of flavours to choose from there’s plenty of options. It is great to see people enjoying the new product.”
Due to demand the dairy has started running short of glass bottles and has advised customers who have their own reusable bottle to bring them with them if using the service. The bottles must be washed in advance.
Plastic bottles are also available for new customers to purchase.
Callum and Jill manage the cheese side of the business while Cameron and Eileen undertake the majority of the work on the farm themselves.
Connage Highland Dairy is open from 7am to 7pm daily.