The Bucks Milk House, at the south end of the Wisconsin State Fair Park, right next to the Milwaukee Mile, has five flavors of tasty Wisconsin milk – chocolate, strawberry, root beer, sea salt caramel (introduced last year) and, new this year, mint – at the stellar deal of 50 cents a cup.
This year, the Milk House – which, before he sold the team and retired from politics, used to carry Herb Kohl’s name (back then the milk was even cheaper at just 25 cents a shot) – celebrates three decades at the fair.
During a recent visit to the State Fair, I plopped down my $2 to get samples of all but the root beer. I have no valid excuse for skipping that one other than that I just wasn’t feeling it. That, and I didn’t think it would work very well in my plan.
My plan to mix the flavors and see which made for the best combinations.
I’m told that you can ask the lattistas (I just made that up) to mix the milk for you and they will happily do it.
However, I made my own experiments...
Here's how a few of the combos looked.
Mint and chocolate – this one, as you’d expect, is one of the best, hinting at the tasty mint chocolate chip custard at Kopp’s.
Mint and strawberry – Again, a great combo. Who doesn’t love some chopped mint atop a bowl of fresh strawberries?
Sea salt caramel and chocolate – The Ghirardelli folks know all about this winning combo.
Sea salt caramel and strawberry – This was a pretty good blend, but not among the top finishers.
Sea salt caramel and mint – I didn’t think this worked very well, unsurprisingly. The two flavors just seemed to cancel each other out.
As my cups began to empty, I notched it up a bit and started adding more flavors.
Chocolate and mint and strawberry – This was a definitely a winner, perhaps taking the overall title, or at least tied with chocolate and mint.
Sea salt caramel and chocolate and strawberry – There was too much going on here to really enjoy any of the flavors. Not gross. Just meh.
Sea salt caramel and chocolate and strawberry and mint – You can guess how this turned out. If the combo of the first three flavors wasn’t earth-shattering, adding the mint didn’t help much.
Verdict?
Very little beats the simple combo of chocolate and mint, though adding strawberry added a nice touch.
What I really miss, however, is the banana flavor, which was both versatile and delicious. Please bring it back. And, next year, let’s have malt, too (which Prairie Farms sells over in the Wisconsin Products Pavilion).
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
