Coffee Milk

Coffee milk is a phrase you may not be familiar with—unless you’re from a very narrow section of New England. It’s similar to ordinary iced coffee or an iced coffee latte, but more convenient. If you don’t know how to make coffee milk, well, you’re not alone. It’s the state drink of Rhode Island, but it’s almost unknown anywhere else.

The recipe for coffee milk is simple enough. It calls for stirring a syrup into your milk; that’s it. No matter how morning-challenged you may be, this “recipe” is within anyone’s skill set.

Ingredients for Coffee Milk

• Milk: The protein content and generally high nutritional value in milk make it an excellent daily thirst quencher, especially in the morning.
• Coffee syrup: Coffee syrup is exactly what it says—a sweet syrup flavored with coffee and intended for mixing with milk. We like Eclipse brand syrup, but any coffee syrup will do.

Directions

Step 1: Mix the coffee milk

In a large pitcher, mix the milk and coffee syrup until they’re well blended.

Coffee Milk Variations

• Make your own syrup: If you live in an area where you’d need to order the Eclipse coffee syrup online, or you’d just prefer to make your own, it’s simple enough to do: Brew 1/2 cup finely ground coffee with 2 cups water to make a super-strong coffee base, then combine it with 1 cup sugar. Simmer the mixture for about 30 minutes, until it’s reduced by half (down to 1 cup) and really concentrated. Refrigerate the mixture and use it up over a period of two weeks.
• Go nondairy: Although the drink is usually made with regular milk, if you’re lactose-intolerant, you don’t need to feel left out. Coffee milk can be made with lactose-free milk, or you can skip the dairy entirely and use your favorite plant-based milk.
• Make a “cabinet”: Coffee milk on its own is a pleasantly cool treat, but you can also take it up a notch. If you blend ice cream into it, you get what a lot of us would think of as a milkshake, but New Englanders call it a “frappe” and those in Rhode Island call it a “cabinet.” Whatever you label it, it’s cold, sweet and delicious.

How to Store Coffee Milk

Keep your coffee milk in your refrigerator in a serving pitcher. Make sure it is covered with a tight-fitting lid to keep any unwanted fridge flavors from infusing themselves into the coffee milk.

How long does coffee milk keep?

Coffee milk will last just as long as the milk you’ve used to make it. That, in turn, depends on the milk’s “use by” date. As a rule, you can eyeball the use-by date on the milk’s packaging and then add four to seven days. If your kids leave it out on the counter in the summer, then all bets are off.

Coffee Milk Tips

Is this like iced coffee from the coffee shop?

That depends on your coffee shop, but yes. The end result is pretty similar, though you may find one sweeter than the other if you try them head-to-head. Iced Vietnamese coffee is another variation on the theme, using brewed French-roast coffee and getting its sweetness from condensed milk.

Does coffee milk actually contain caffeine?

Yes, it does have some. If you’re keeping a watchful eye on your caffeine consumption, do some label-reading and pick a coffee syrup that has less (or more, as the case may be). If you make your own coffee syrup, you can choose to make it with decaffeinated coffee instead of regular. Alternatively, you could stir a decaffeinated coffee concentrate into your milk, then sweeten it to taste.

How do you make coffee milk with instant coffee?

Instant coffee is a quick way to make your own coffee syrup. Start with 1 cup water, rather than 2 cups, but the same 1 cup sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved, stir in 1/4 cup of your favorite brand of instant coffee and remove it from the heat. Alternatively, you could simply stir instant coffee into your milk and sweeten it to taste, but preparing a syrup is more convenient.