Seven decades of all the milk you can drink at the State Fair

Gordon Saemrow and his four siblings competed against each other as kids to see who could drink the most at the Minnesota State Fair’s all-you-can-drink milk stand.

“We took it pretty seriously and we probably drank six glasses each,” he said. “Then we were set for the day.”

While he doesn’t remember who won, the fifth-generation dairy farmer said it was a family ritual to visit the stand. It continues to this day. Saemrow and many of his family members, including his children, now volunteer at the stand 50 years later.

The American Dairy Association of the Midwest’s all-you-can-drink milk stand, a tradition for many Minnesota State Fair attendees, turns 70 this year.

The stand, now located at Judson Av. and Clough St., started selling milk for a dime in 1955. Back then, it was located on Machinery Hill. The current building was built in 1990.

In recent years, as many as 100,000 people visit the booth during the fair’s 12 days.

A new special is being offered for the first time this year: two glasses for $5. A single cup costs $3, after a 2024 price increase.

“It’s a hell of a deal,” Dean said. “I’ll get about three refills and get a bang for my buck.”

The couple always stops at the booth to share a turkey sandwich and milk for lunch. Jan said she hopes the stand keeps the deal next year for their 52nd annual trip to the booth.

Charles Krause, chair of the Midwest Dairy Association’s board of directors and a Minnesota dairy farmer, said he can remember when the glasses cost a quarter.

“My earliest memory of the booth is from when I was five or six and I remember it was cool to see all the other people drinking milk,” he said. “It’s one of the things people can count on.”

The milk has mostly stayed the same, other than adding a chocolate option in 2004.

“It’s the same every year and there’s nothing better than ice cold milk,” she said.

The way the milk gets to fairgoers has changed over the years.

“They had a milk truck on one end of the stand, and it would pump milk right out of the truck,” Saemrow said about the stand when he was growing up. “We thought that was pretty neat, because it was the same kind of truck that milk would leave our farm in.”

Now, 10 totes holding 300 gallons of milk each sit on the second floor of the booth. They funnel the milk to the first level where volunteers sell it to customers.

“We’ve installed 200 feet of stainless-steel pipe that carries the milk around, and it’s insulated so it doesn’t get warmed up,” Krause said.

As far as anyone can remember, the stand has never run out of milk, and it sells nearly 13,000 gallons of milk every year. Chocolate milk has a slight lead over white milk in sales, something Saemrow encounters during his shifts.

“Quite a few people say they can’t remember the last time they’ve had chocolate milk, or they haven’t had chocolate milk in years, so it’s like a treat,” he said. “I also have people say, ‘you guys should be closer to Sweet Martha’s cookies.’ And then you see them dipping their cookies in their milk.”