LSU Grads and Their 14-Year-Old Carton of Expired Milk Family Member

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How a 14-Year-Old Carton of Expired Milk Became Part of My Friend's Family

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It was late summer 2003 when Nick Guth and Brett Monteleone decided to clean out their refrigerator. The two Louisiana State University seniors were a typical pair of bachelors, so it was only natural that there were unidentified specimens of foodstuff and a few half-finished milk cartons in there. One by one, they checked the long-passed sell-by dates of each opened carton of milk and tossed them into the trash. But one stood out: It had just three more weeks left until it would reach its one-year anniversary of being expired.


"We kept Milk because he was the carton that had the [longest-past] expiration date in our fridge," explains Guth, now a Louisiana State Area Manager for Proximo Spirits.

"Nick's email [address] was LSUpartyboy@gmail.com," offers Monteleone, now the Executive Chef and General Manager of Old Rail Brewing Company in Mandeville. "It's not like we needed an excuse to party, but for some reason this seemed like a good one."

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Milk's first birthday party was held on September 17, 2003. "After that, we knew we couldn't get rid of him," says Guth. "We'd celebrated him, he was family; so we kept him."


Every year since then, on Milk's ever-older expiration date, they get a cake, invite friends over, and celebrate Milk. One of Guth's brands at Proximo is Three Olives, so an array of vodka flavors are set up for a hosted White Russian bar. Although, before you ask, Milk does not participate. "Milk comes out with his birthday hat, and we sing to him," says Guth.


Once he reached a truly impressive age, Milk's family decided that he deserved more formal recognition. Each year on his birthday since 2011, they've been submitting Milk to the Guinness Book of World Records… and each time, the submission has been rejected, with reasons ranging from the difficulty of verifying his age to simply "no thanks."

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