Lewis Road Creamery has returned its specialty celebratory milk flavour ahead of Matariki and the start of the Māori new year.
The limited-release horopito-spiced milk is back on supermarket shelves, created in partnership with Pouarua Farms, and is a collaboration purely for celebration and not for profit.
“It’s such a short product period that we won’t make any money, but as food producers, we think it’s really important at Matariki to pause and reflect on our place living and working on the whenua, and to share the fruits of our labour,” said Lewis Road’s Lynette Maan.
The Winter Spice milk uses native horopito that has been wild-harvested from the Horopito region near Ruapehu, combined with ginger root, sweet notes of caramel, spices, and earthy black pepper.
It includes milk supplied by Pouarua Farms, which Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Paoa, Ngāti Tamaterā, Ngāti Tara Tokanui and Te Patukirikiri jointly own. Each has been a supplier of PKE-free milk to Lewis Road Creamery for several years.
“The Winter Spice milk flew off the shelves last year, with every bottle gone within just a few weeks.”
Maan continued that Lewis Road couldn’t wait to bring it back to mark this important time of year.
Lewis Road Creamery’s owners, Southern Pastures, have long celebrated Matariki on their 19 dairy farms and will also be hosting celebrations to thank their farmers around Aotearoa over the coming weeks.
Winter Spice milk has a limited release in June and is available in supermarkets unless sold out prior. Packaged in Lewis Road’s award-winning rPET 300ml bottles, the Winter Spice milk is 100 percent recyclable, including the lid.
