And now, the official state drink.

So, you ask, if Del's frozen lemonade is the unoffical state drink, what is the official state drink? Why, that would be coffee milk.

People outside southeastern New England tend to be baffled by coffee milk, and dairy executives are baffled when they see that Rhode Island is the only state where coffee, not vanilla, is the top selling ice cream flavor. The state loves it, and after a contentious debate in the state legislature, coffee milk defeated Del's in the bruising fight to become the official state beverage. Cynics might say that the time and money spent arguing over something so trivial would be better spent addressing Rhode Island's seemingly innumerable problems, but good lord people, have you ever had coffee milk? It's delicious!

Autocrat of Lincoln has practically cornered the local market in coffee syrup. Fortunately, they make a fine coffee syrup indeed. As you can see, my bottle is sitting next to a carton of Rhody Fresh whole milk. Just keeping it all local ...