Shmeel’s Milk, which comes from an upstate farm, boasts the opposite. Raw and unpasteurized, it “contains vitamins, no artificial preservatives, yet lasts four times longer, comes from cows fed grass and are free to graze on grass and use mashgichim who daven with a minyan and go to mikvah every day.” The non-homogenized milk, which comes with a layer of cream on top that proponents say tastes delicious, also comes with a heavy price: half a gallon for $7.50 and one gallon for $12.

I spoke with one of the distributors, who would only give his first name, Shaya. He helped start the company a few months ago and says, “It tastes unbelievable, almost like ice cream. It looks different, it smells different.”

Until now, Shaya has been delivering milk to people’s homes, mostly in Brooklyn. He reached the groups in Brooklyn who have been buying it on the black market for years and tell stories of their kids who stay healthy on this milk and never need to go to the doctor. Shaya estimates between 50 and 100 customers in Brooklyn for his product.

Although it’s very difficult to obtain a hechsher for cow’s milk, Shaya, who also sells bread, managed to get two hechsherim, including from Rabbi Yechiel Babad, the Tartikov Rav. “Milk is kosher from a kosher animal, whether it’s pasteurized or not,” said Rabbi Moshe Elefant of the OU Kashrus Department, expressing approval in theory, but with an extra requirement that goes beyond the Tartikov hechsher. “When it comes to pasteurization or adding vitamins, if it’s required by the government then it’s required by us,” Rabbi Elefant said. “It’s not a kosher issue but a legal issue, a health issue and a consumer issue. The consumer should make the decision.”