Of the 27 states that list an Official State Beverage, 12 of them claim milk. Milk. I can see that in the big dairy states, but, well, I suppose I can't name all the big dairy states. A quick consult with my Secretary of Agriculture (aka Laura) was inconclusive. So I'll refrain from ragging on all you milk-guzzlin' states. Indiana, sensibly, selected water. Nebraska: Kool-Aid. I'm not even touching that one.Rhode Island, my new home, chose to take on the traditional milk, but with a savage twist. My friends, I give you..
Subject: Coffee Milk
Aliases: None
Major Features: Coffee syrup, milk
Minor Features: None
At some point "back in the day" clever soda jerks began experimenting with different flavorings. Being a former soda jerk/bartender myself, I can empathize with the desire to try something new (beer frappes!). Eventually, sweet coffee syrup became fashionable, and after a few corporate mergers, the Autocrat brand emerged as the ne plus ultra of Rhode Island style coffee syrup. Despite living less than an hour from Rhode Island, I had never seen Autocrat, which also makes regular coffee, until I crossed the border. Maybe there are parts of Connecticut--or Attleboro--where you can get this stuff, but it seems to be pretty well contained to the Ocean State. Well, then, what is coffee syrup? Mostly, it's our good friend high fructose corn syrup.
Assessment: The recipe from the syrup bottle calls for 8 ounces of milk mixed with two tablespoons of syrup. Prepared thusly, coffee milk looks, smells, and tastes like a melted coffee frappe. There is a slight corn syrup mouth-coating finish. The coffee flavor is slight but good.
Conclusion: I'm not entirely sure when you would drink this. Personally, it just made me wish I were drinking an actual coffee frappe, or an actual cup of coffee. It definitely tastes coffee-y, and coffee milk would be an excellent gateway drug for coffee. If you're tired of your daily chocolate milk, or want your kids to get a taste for java, coffee milk is an excellent choice. I may explore other uses for the coffee syrup--or I might just throw it away. If I wanted to make coffee milk, I'd just brew some coffee and add it to a bunch of sugar and milk. But that's not the point of this exercise, now, is it?
I wonder if it beats milk coffee -- a popular drink in India. Milk coffee consists of hot milk mixed with Nescafé granules... but then again, 95% of the time in India "real coffee" is Nescafé and water... in which case I highly prefer milk coffee. It's only when you go to the South that you're lucky enough to get real coffee... and if you're really lucky, people will grow in their backyard, take it to town to get roasted, and bring it back home for breakfast, Yum! This morning as Devin guzzled his first of half a dozen cups of coffee, he ruefully wondered how he had survived on Nescafé for over a year in South Asia.
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