Coffee milk + Dunkin'? New latte is what RI fever dreams are made of

Dunkin' is out with a new fall menu that features a true Rhode Island original: coffee milk.

The new Dunkalatte is described as "sweet, creamy, and unlike anything else" because it combines espresso with a secret ingredient: coffee milk, inspired by Rhode Island's official beverage , according to a news release from the company. The coffee milk is made with whole milk and Dunkin’s very own coffee extract. "The result? An ultra-smooth drink that sips like a latte and tastes like a melty milkshake," according to Dunkin'.

The coffee milk origin story

Coffee milk is made by mixing coffee syrup with milk, just like you make chocolate milk.

“The story goes that sometime back in the 1930s a soda jerk at a pharmacy fountain was experimenting with different drinks to offer the kids,” Dave Lanning, the owner of Dave’s Coffee which makes a coffee syrup, told The Journal last year.

“The kids were getting bored with the typical drinks and wanted to feel like 'grown-ups' that would usually be drinking coffee. He concocted a mixture of strong coffee and a whole bunch of sugar,” he continued. “He mixed this into a tall glass of cold milk and ... coffee milk was born! Word spread quickly, and soon every soda fountain in Rhode Island was offering coffee milk as a special drink to their young customers.”

The first commercially produced coffee syrup actually was based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1932 by the company Silmo Packing Company.

Then Warwick-based Eclipse started creating its own product in 1938. Autocrat Coffee didn’t enter the market until the 1940s, though in the '90s they would buy Eclipse.

Then in 1993, Rhode Island lawmakers declared coffee milk the official state beverage.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Coffee milk + Dunkin'? New latte is what RI fever dreams are made of