Sweet, filling and fortified, Caribbean milk drinks sit somewhere between a drink and a meal. They are what you reach for mid-morning, after a shift, or when someone in the house needs building up.

Supligen is the Jamaican original — a thick, sweetened malt-and-milk drink fortified with vitamins, in vanilla, peanut and cookies and cream, 290ml.

Nurishment is its UK counterpart and just as familiar in British Caribbean households — vanilla, strawberry and banana in the 400g can.

Lasco Food Drink comes as a powder rather than a can, in strawberry and vanilla 120g sachets. Mix with hot or cold water or milk. Popular for children, and easier to carry than tins.

Big Bamboo Irish moss is the traditional one — sea moss blended with milk and spice into a thick, sweet drink, in peanut and vanilla. Long associated with strength and stamina.

Want to make Irish moss from scratch? See our dried sea moss in Afro-Caribbean Groceries.