New nonalcoholic drinks to try at the Minnesota State Fair in 2024

Sometimes you just need a minimum of two drinks — one in each hand — when walking around in the heat of the State Fair. Here’s where to find new, nonalcoholic drinks to help keep you hydrated or caffeinated during this year’s fair.

Start your day with a Honey & Spice Shake-up from the Hamline Church Dining Hall. It’s made by Ginkgo Coffeehouse and includes espresso, spices and Minnesota honey shaken together until it’s foamy. It’s topped with oat milk, so it’s perfect for coffee lovers who are vegan or lactose intolerant.

The Jammy Sammies stand at the north end of the fairgrounds offers lemonades made with local jams, and this year they have a new offering: blueberry matcha. They’ll still have their regular jam’nades too: strawberry jalapeño and blueberry mint.

Loon Lake Iced Tea is a new vendor this year, serving up cotton candy iced tea, garnished with edible glitter and a rock candy swizzle stick to stir for a color-changing effect. They have other flavored iced teas too: blueberry, strawberry, blood orange and peach.

Another new vendor is El Burrito Mercado at the International Bazaar. They’ll serve a watermelon drink with chamoy sauce and seasoned mango called Agua de Sandia Loca.

Paella Depot will serve up aguas frescas with their paellas as a new vendor. They have plenty of unique flavor varieties, including ginger-peach-raspberry, guava-hibiscus, mango-pineapple-basil and blueberry-mint aguas frescas.

Chan’s Eatery has Korean corndogs and mochi donuts to eat, but the new vendor is also serving up fruit and milk boba teas with optional tapioca and jelly toppings. Milk tea options include Thai, taro and strawberry; the fruit tea options include dragon fruit, mango and peach; and the boba toppings include strawberry, mango and rainbow.

For a unique twist on a classic, Blue Moon Dine-In Theater has a sweet corn cola float. They use Minnesota-made sweet corn cola and sweet corn ice cream and top it with popping candy and house-made frozen caramel.

And for a sweet treat that’s somewhere in between a beverage and ice cream, check out the new mocha madness at Minnesnowii Shave Ice. It has caffeine-free coffee flavoring and a caramel macchiato cold foam center.

This year the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild will have nonalcoholic beer, wine, cider, seltzer and more at their location in the Agriculture Horticulture Building. They join other booths that have mocktails and NA beers available throughout the fair.

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