Coffee milk beat Del’s lemonade to become Rhode Island’s official state beverage: the state officially designates coffee milk as its state drink.
Coffee milk is made by combining milk with sweetened coffee syrup. It developed as a distinctive Rhode Island diner and soda-fountain tradition, especially among Italian-American communities. The drink is different from iced coffee: the syrup is mixed into cold milk, producing a sweet, coffee-flavored beverage without requiring brewed coffee to be cooled.
Rhode Island lawmakers gave coffee milk official status in 1993. Del’s lemonade, a frozen or semi-frozen lemonade associated with Rhode Island’s Del’s Lemonade stands, is an iconic local refreshment, but it is not the state’s official drink. That contrast makes this question easy to misread: Del’s has enormous cultural visibility, while coffee milk has the formal designation in state law.
A related fact readers often ask about is coffee syrup. Brands such as Autocrat became closely associated with Rhode Island-style coffee milk, helping turn the drink into a recognizable regional specialty.