Disneyland’s exec chef explains why Star Wars Land’s Blue Milk has a surprise taste

The blue milk at Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge doesn’t taste like I expected it would. It’s not bad. In fact, I think I might like the drink, which lands somewhere between the delicious flavors of doodh soda and a pineapple-coconut slushie. It’s so drinkable that I finished a cup without noticing I’d reached the bottom. But this isn’t what I imagined when I saw Luke Skywalker gulp a cup of Bantha milk in A New Hope. According to one of Disney’s chefs, that surprise is by design.

At a press day just days before Galaxy’s Edge opened to the public, I spoke with John State, executive chef of Disneyland Resorts and Parks, about the Star Wars expansion’s marquee, non-alcoholic drink. I asked State how he and his team concocted a recipe for Blue Milk, a drink that has millions of different imagined flavors amongst Star Wars fans who’ve seen it on screen but never smelled or tasted the drink.

“I think there’s a simple answer,” said State. “When you’re given a task to create something that is this unique, and very established in [the Star Wars] storytelling, you have to make something that will get people to say, ‘Wow, I wasn’t expecting that.’

“It has to be unfamiliar. Like, ‘Wait a minute, what is it? I’m not sure I want to try that.’. And then they’re like, ‘Okay, it’s familiar. I get it!’”

Rather than try to create a flavor a small portion of the audience has imagined, Chef State and the Disney Parks team went in the direction: create something nobody will expect. Don’t slightly miss expectations; change the expectations altogether.

The flavor unquestionably beats the actual taste of the Blue Milk from the filming of A New Hope. In a 2018 interview with RadioTimes, Hamill described the taste of the Blue Milk on the original film’s set:

Well, the original blue milk was what they call “long life milk,” which you get at camping stores because you don’t have to refrigerate it. And we were in North Africa.

So it has additives — they put blue food coloring in it — and it was really ghastly. Oily and sweet and yuck! Triggered your gag reflex. But I said, “Look – if they gave me blue milk, you bet I’m going to drink it on camera, because what other chance am I going to get?” So there’s an indication that I’m an underrated actor – I gulped it and acted like I liked it without vomiting.

The recipe to Galaxy’s Edge’s Blue Milk remains a secret, though food and theme park bloggers have already begun to crack the code. For folks who won’t visit the park anytime soon, this recipe at Ashleycrafted.com looks like it could come close. Galaxy’s Edge visitors will be able to purchase Blue Milk for $7.99.

The land’s Milk Stand also offers Green Milk, introduced in The Last Jedi. I’ll just say this: stick with the Blue Milk.