Much to my stomach's chagrin Coca-Cola is set to launch fizzy milk on the world.

The drink contains skimmed milk mixed with sparking water, flavoured with fruit and sweetened with cane sugar.

Scientists have developed the drink at the firm's laboratories in Atlanta, Georgia, ensuring it will not curdle in its 8oz aluminium bottle.

Going under the name Vio, Coca-Cola has begun test-marketing the carbonated drink at natural food stores and delis in New York It sells for about $2 a bottle, no chilling required. One of Coke's copywriters claims it tastes "like a birthday party for a polar bear".

It comes in four "natural" flavours -- peach mango, berry, citrus and tropical colada -- and could even be marketed as a healthy nutritional drink. But it has 26g of sugar a bottle, on a par with other non-diet Coca-Cola products, and 1.5g of fat.