Remember back in the day when your post was delivered on time by someone you knew, and fresh milk arrived at the doorstep every morning ready for your enjoyment?

Those days have largely disappeared now, although over in the UK morning milk delivery is making a comeback. So what is driving this ‘phoenix rising from the ashes’ recovery? You know where this is going:

And the reason for this startling turn-around? Millennial hipsters who are now having a taste for what is being dubbed ‘craft milk’ in the way they also rediscovered ‘craft beer’…

As [milkman] Kevin Read deftly pilots our float around the back streets of trendy Shoreditch, he tells me that the opportunity to reinvent the modern milkman – whilst initially met with scepticism – has now been embraced by “milkies” everywhere…

“But we’ve hung about, and we owe much of our renewed popularity  to one type of person.” He gestures to a group of obvious twenty and thirty-somethings  by the side of the road, wearing plaid shirts, skinny jeans and only just finishing up their night out. “Hipsters.”

The hipster revolution has caused quite the social stir, from bringing back the beard to turning vinyl records once again into a viable industry. The milkman, it seems, is simply the latest beneficiary of this subculture.

“I feel like I fit in with the hipsters,” laughs Read, as he strokes his own facial hair. His black fleece and jeans, unfortunately, disagree.

Shoreditch is renowned as a hipster stronghold, so much so that Russell Brand owns a ‘non-profit, anti-capitalist coffee shop’ there.

More on why fresh milk is so sought after:

“A lot more people are thinking about where their milk comes from now. There’s a much bigger focus on organic milk, and smaller dairies with milk floats feel more reliable to the people. Unless we could actually milk a cow on our customers’ doorsteps, this stuff” – he gestures to the tinkling bottles in the back of the float – “is the purest you can get.

Yeah, I was into organic milk long before it was cool.

How long before Bree Street doorsteps are dotted with milk bottles and beany-wearing hipsters popping their twirled ‘taches out into the crisp morning air? You know it’s coming soon…

[source:telegraph]