In the "Mood" for Banana Milk

Make a great sip for your next K-drama binge.

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Celebrities from IU to Lee Min-ho have promoted banana milk.

Bananas are piling up in my kitchen, thanks to my husband, who bought a bunch before going out of town. When you’ve got lemons, make lemonade. When you’ve got bananas, make banana milk. Yum!

Binggrae Banana Flavored Milk had product placements in K-dramas from Goblin to Reply 1988 and Twenty-Five Twenty-One.

While it’s been hawked by celebrities and featured in many K-dramas, my intro to banana milk was the 2016 movie Mood of the Day (Viki, Amazon). The film bombed at the Korean box office, but I like it because it’s a little sexier than the average Korean rom-com. (Plus it’s got basketball scenes and an Ed Sheeran song on the OST.)

Two strangers sit next to each other on a train. Jae-hyun (Yoo Yeon-seok of Dr. Romantic, Hospital Playlist fame) is a cool and confident womanizer. Soo-joong (Moon Chae-won from Flower of Evil) is out of sorts because she’s stuck in a dead-end relationship while her good friend is now engaged. 

Jae-hyun is a sleaze at first, but he improves. And he did buy Soo-joong some banana milk.

Soo-joong chokes on a sandwich, and Jae-Hyun gets her some banana milk. She sits primly and sips her beverage while Jae-hyun outlandishly propositions her because by accepting his gift, she has given him the “green light.” Finally Soo-joong can take it no more and shoves the container back at him as she moves to another seat. 

Binggrae came out with its banana milk (banana mat uyu in Korean) in 1974 in an effort to get Koreans to drink more milk.

The banana milk Soo-joong was drinking was made by Binggrae. You can get it at any Asian grocery store or Amazon. It’s not bad. But like Soo-joong and her dead-end relationship, you can do much better. 

I love homemade banana milk. I hate calling it a recipe because it’s so ridiculously easy. It takes maybe five minutes to whip up, with no special ingredients. Give a try and let me know what you think.

Recipe Notes: 

1. Milk - I use 2 percent milk. I made this with oat milk for my kiddo, who gave it a thumbs up. Most variations of milk will probably be good.

2. Sweetener - I use honey, but you can also use sugar or maple syrup. 

3. Vanilla - You can make it without this, but don’t. It makes this drink taste much richer. 

Recipe: 

Adapted from Korean Banana Milk at My Korean Kitchen 

Serves 1 

Ingredients: 

1 ripe banana, broken into pieces

3/4 cup regular milk (any variety) 

¼ cup water

1 Tbsp honey

⅛ Tsp vanilla extract

Nutmeg or cinnamon (optional) 

Instructions: 

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend it for about 30 seconds or until smooth with a milk-like consistency. Serve immediately. (It will start to separate if it sits.) Sprinkle with nutmeg or cinnamon if you want.