Ready-to-drink milk beverages with improved texture/mouthfeel by controlled protein aggregation, and method of making thereof

A method of producing a ready-to-drink beverage comprising:

• mixing a milk component comprising casein and whey wherein the casein and whey are present in a ratio from about 75:25 to about 60:40, a flavor component, a sugar, an acidifier, and a stabilizer system to form a beverage composition;
• adjusting pH of the beverage composition between 5.9 to 6.2;
• homogenizing the beverage composition after the pH adjustment;
• heating to a temperature ranging from 75° C. to 99° C. and holding for 15 seconds to 400 seconds to obtain a beverage base product;
• cooling the obtained beverage base product to 65° C. or below;
• adding buffer to achieve pH of 6.7 to 7.0;
• sterilizing at ultra high temperature (UHT) conditions at 136-150° C. for 3-15 seconds;
• cooling to 25° C. or below to form a beverage solution, wherein the beverage solution comprises casein-whey protein aggregates having a volume based mean diameter value of at least 3μm as measured by laser diffraction;
• and
• filling aseptically the beverage solution in an aseptic container to form the ready-to-drink beverage.