Coffee Milk Is The Official Beverage Of This State

The New England area is known for some of its wonderfully wild foods and unique recipes you won't find anywhere else. In Boston they have B&M baked beans on hot dogs, zooming out to all of Massachusetts, the state almost had the fluffernutter designated as their official sandwich, Indian pudding can be found up and down the coast of the Northeast, and apple pie with cheddar cheese is quite popular in New England's Great State Fair (via Mass Live). But another New England specialty is the one and only coffee milk.

What is coffee milk? Odds are, if you didn't grow up in the Northeast, you haven't heard of it, but the drink is much like it sounds. Kitchn says coffee milk is made by mixing together regular milk with coffee syrup to make something that emulates chocolate milk. Okay, so what is coffee syrup? Glad you asked. Coffee syrup is made using coffee grounds, sugar, and water until a sweet, coffee-flavored sticky star of coffee milk is born (via Allrecipes).

This caffeinated concoction is particularly popular in the state of Rhode Island, so much so that coffee milk was adopted as the state's official drink on July 29, 1993. According to the Rhode Island Government, coffee milk is not just a suitable drink you can find in and around the Ocean State, it can also be turned into a delectable coffee "cabinet" which is basically just a coffee-flavored milkshake. The premium syrup producer in the state is Autocrat Coffee Syrup, which has been providing it to folks since 1895!

Coffee syrup has been bouncing around the New England area since at least the late 19th century, but New England Today Food claims citizens of Rhode Island have been stirring up coffee milk since at least the 1930s when syrup companies Eclipse and Autocrat were competitively selling their caffeinated syrups. Coffee milk was widely popular among children throughout the 20th century and it was used as a way to encourage youngsters to drink more milk! Today, Food52 claims that the best coffee syrup brands in New England for making own coffee milk are Autocrat Coffee Syrup, Dave's Coffee Syrup, and Morning Glory Coffee Syrup. So don't waste any more time, and order yourself a jug of this sweet Northeastern nectar.