Milk in a box?

Anyone who has lived in Europe knows that "TetraPak" milk dominates the market here. The milk comes in basically a giant juicebox, and comes in two varieties - "fresh milk" which is stored cold and is basically the same as in the U.S., and "stored milk" which is ultra heat treated and is stable at room temperature for months until opened.

The "stored milk" is by far the most popular, probably because it is convenient to store and costs about half as much as "fresh milk". Since we've been here we have only tried "fresh milk", but I thought it was time we tried some of the "stored milk" to see how it tastes. So, I bought a liter of stored milk and put in the the fridge to get cold. This morning I poured myself a glass and took a drink.

Well, this ultra heat treated milk that supposedly never goes bad had gone completely rancid. After a few minutes of gagging and washing my mouth out with water, I poured the remainder of the milk into the sink. More than half of the milk was a solid cheese-like substance. This was not milk that had gone a little bit sour. This was milk that had turned into brie. It was undoubtedly the worst thing I have ever tasted in my entire life.