Where was this when I was an undergrad?

There are a few ways that milk is packaged in this country, but they fall into two basic categories:

1. Hard packaging, which includes both hard translucent plastic bottles and opaque waxed cardboard cartons.

OR

2. Soft packaging, which consists of thin plastic bags that fit into a reusable hard plastic holder/pourer.

At Chez Treppenwitz we use the soft packaged milk bags... partly because it's cheaper, and partly because it is much more ecologically responsible to use something with minimal packaging to throw away. Since we don't normally use milk in hard packages, I haven't really kept pace with any of the latest innovations.

Innovations? In milk packaging???   

I can hear you all asking this question to your computer screens, but I assure you there have been giant leaps in milk carton technology.   Really!

One of these innovations came to my attention yesterday morning as I sat through a meeting where the usual assortment of hot drinks and cakes had been served. While I sat there trying desperately to feign interest in the topic, something about the milk carton in the middle of the conference table caught my eye (yes, A.D.D.-boy is easily distracted).

At first I wasn't sure what I was looking at, but then someone picked up the carton and poured a splash of milk into his coffee... and all at once I realized I was looking at something special.  RIght there on the conference table was a packaging solution that could have prevented all (OK, most) of the fights I used to have with my college roommate.

You see, our standing agreement was that whoever finished the milk would go out and buy more.  Simple, right?

In theory this was a perfectly sound arrangement.  But in practice my roommate had worked out a system where he could justify never buying milk by leaving the carton in the fridge with about half an inch of backwash (sorry girls, guys drink directly from the carton... deal with it!) sloshing around the bottom!

From the outside you couldn't tell how much was in there... so I would only find out we were totally milk-less at 2AM while looking for something to wash down a box of chocolate-covered Entenmann's donuts!

Getting back to yesterday's meeting... there on the side of the milk carton was a clear, skinny 'window' that allowed you to see exactly how much milk was left inside!  The window even had graduation marks next to it which saved you the trouble of having to estimate how much was left.

I must say, it takes a lot to impress me... but I was impressed! 

Of course, I was so fixated on the milk carton that if you put a gun to my head I couldn't tell you what yesterday's meeting was about!  :-)

Anyway, here's a picture (if you look closely you can see the carton is nearly empty... although it still contains considerably more than my roommate used to leave me!):

Now comes the part where everyone on the planet tells me that this nifty milk window has been around for the past 10 years!