When it comes to fresh milk, I'm spoilt rotten. I prefer water buffalo milk (Bubalus bubalis or Bubalus carabanesis) over cow's milk and if I can't have it, I have a fit. Kidding!

Seriously, what makes me choose buffalo milk over cow's? First, the taste. It's smoother, tastier and doesn't leave a sour aftertaste. It is also healthier. A composition analysis shows that buffalo milk has 58% more calcium, 40% more protein, and 43% less cholesterol than cow's milk. In India, they successfully manufactured infant food from modified buffalo milk simulating human milk.

Last year, the BBC in its programme Inside Out did a feature on BUFFALO MILK - THE HEALTHY ALTERNATIVE. Although not yet backed by scientific evidence, buffalo milk seems to relieve eczema, psoriasis and irritable bowel syndrome.

For those with epicurean sensibilities, real mozzarella or Mozzarella di Bufala - that fresh, stringy, textured, very white cheese - can only be made from buffalo milk. Anything other than that is considered inferior. In Italy, it would not be considered as mozzarella at all.

The water buffalo has been with humans since pre-historic times. Originally from Asia, it has been used as a beast of burden especially in rice-growing regions. They were later introduced in parts of Africa and Near East around 600 A.D. and were introduced to southern Europe during the Middle Ages. It has only been recently that the water buffalo has been farmed as livestock in Western European and US and where its products - milk, cheese and meat - have been domestically produced.

For more details and to locate where buffalo milk is sold near you, check out:
In the UK - Buffalo House and BuffaloMilk.co.uk
In the US - Woodstock Water Buffalo