WASHINGTON (AP) - The dairy industry's "Got Milk?" campaign may have found a way to get more into teen-agers - through school vending machines that dispense colorful $1 bottles of chocolate, strawberry and coffee-flavored milk.

School officials, who have come under fire for using on-campus soda sales to meet their budgets, say they are delighted with the initial response from students.

"The taste is really good," said Jonathan Angelo, a junior at Granada Hills High School in suburban Los Angeles. "It's better than school milk."

Besides Southern California, machines have been installed at middle and high schools in Austin, Texas; Boston; Omaha, Neb., and Miami. After the test ends this spring, the industry hopes the results will persuade bottlers and schools nationwide to put in similar machines.

Flavored milk has more calories and as much sugar as soda, but milk also has a variety of minerals and nutrients, including calcium and vitamins A and D. A 16-ounce bottle of calcium-fortified chocolate milk has 460 calories, more than double that of a typical cola, but nearly a day's supply of calcium.

Susan Ruland, a spokeswoman for the "Got Milk?" campaign with its hip celebrity ads, says, "You've got to get the milk where people are and in the right packaging."

Teen-agers could be a critical market for the dairy industry, which has been working to reverse a decades-long slide in milk consumption nationwide.

"If the milk industry wants to capture some growth it has to be more relevant to younger consumers," said John Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest. "You do that by packaging. You do it by availability."

U.S. milk consumption peaked at 32 gallons per person in 1970. In 1999, the latest year for which statistics are available, it was less than 24 gallons per person.

The high-tech vending machines are equipped with global positioning systems that allow daily sales to be tracked to the bottle. Bachtelle and Associates, a California consulting firm managing and analyzing the test, said initial weekly sales have been running about 200 of the 16-ounce bottles per machine.

The "Got Milk?" campaign is authorized and monitored by the federal government and paid for by producers. Ads have featured dozens of celebrities wearing the famous milk mustaches, from singer Britney Spears, to baseball star Mark McGwire and actor Matthew Fox.

The school vending machines are decorated with some of the "Got Milk?" celebrities, including the Backstreet Boys and Dixie Chicks singing groups.

The test has not gone without glitches. Some of the machines are prone to eat money. But in general the response has been strong.

One machine placed outdoors at Villa Park High School in Orange County, Calif., was selling out on a daily basis before it shorted out in a heavy rainstorm.

"It's right beside four soft drink machines and it outsold the soft drinks," said Frank Becker, the school's athletic director. "It was a huge success."

Chocolate is the favorite flavor everywhere, but tastes vary by market. Coffee-flavored milk accounts for about 30 percent of sales in Boston. Plain milk is available in all the machines but typically is the least popular. Lowfat varieties also are stocked.

Chris Carillo, the Austin school district's assistant director of food services, said, "Our purpose in providing these machines is strictly to provide a healthy beverage option for students. The typical adolescent in schools today has a wide variety of beverages to choose from. Some are not so nutritious."

At Granada Hills High in California, "the demand is there without a doubt. They love the product," said assistant principal Robert Garcia.

There are two machines off the 3,750-student school's main quad. A sign on each warns, "No Refunds! Use at your own risk."

That didn't stop Kathleen Sheets, a 15-year-old freshman who was sipping a bottle of lowfat chocolate despite having lost $2 in the machine a couple of days earlier. "It's kind of expensive, but well worth it as long as it doesn't steal my money," she said.

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.