From July 31 through August 10, the Wisconsin State Fair is once again offering oodles of entertainment, oodles of animals, oodles of questionable T-shirts, rides for folks of all ages, and much more. Oh, and food! And drinks! In addition to the State Fair’s annual food-stand staples, this year’s fairground festivities feature eight intriguing indulgences and four baffling beverages that were named the 2025 Sporkies and Drinkies finalists. We wasted little time heading to West Allis with empty stomachs and open minds to try the 12 finalists during State Fair’s opening day…

SPORKIES

Ube Butter Banana French Toast Lumpia — Lumpia City

This year’s winner! And with good reason. This year’s Sporkie-claiming lumpia (a Filipino spring roll of sorts) capably walked the line between authenticity and accessibility, as the pair of halved rolls were stuffed with tasty and exotic ube butter, syrup-touched French toast, caramelized banana, and powdered sugar. Sure, $12 is a tad steep for a mere four pieces, but this colorful concoction manages to be a satisfying dessert that’s not overly sweet or filling. If you’re late to the ube train and/or you want to sample a champion, we encourage you to stop by Lumpia City. Be warned: this is the longest food-related line we saw at this year’s Wisconsin State Fair, but things do move pretty efficiently and it’s worth the wait (and weight) to order some.

Bratwurst Rangoon — WürstBar

This year’s first runner-up! Also with good reason! These little devils from WürstBar are good. You get four wantons stuffed with bits of brat and a whole lot of cream cheese, some Nori Komi Furikake seasoning, plus a little container of dipping sauce. Fun! The cream cheese definitely overpowers the brat bits, but this is the Wisconsin State Fair, so that tracks. Is $11 a bit much to ask for these snack-able delights? Yep. Is it 2025? Yep. Does the price sit better when you’re eating these things while watching people fly down the Giant Slide? YEP.

A Hunk A Hunk Elvis Donut Ice Cream Sandwich — Badger Bites

Much like this year’s Drinkies winner that leaned on Prince, Badger Bites evoked none other than Elvis for its Sporkies-suited dessert. As you might expect, the combination of peanut butter and chocolate sauces, powdered sugar, and bacon pieces topping a Grebe’s cake donut that’s liberally filled with banana and potato chip ice cream is super good, even if it’s unabashedly messy and not particularly innovative. At $10, it’s actually a pretty decent value for a sweet treat, at least by State Fair standards.

Mexican Street Corn Pizza — Charlie’s Pizza

And this year’s second runner-up is…Mexican Street Corn Pizza from Charlie’s Pizza? Huh. We’re a bit stumped on this one because, well, there’s just so much corn. It overwhelmed the crust. It overwhelmed the cheese. It overwhelmed everything else. If you’re in the mood for cooked pizza dough covered in approximately four pounds of corn, this is for you, we guess. It’s corn!

Blueberry Breakfast Bratwurst — Milwaukee Brat House

Upon seeing the Blueberry Breakfast Bratwurst sign, a guy directly behind us at the Milwaukee Brat House line in the Wisconsin Products Pavilion perfectly summed up the new menu item to his kids without even knowing it by saying, “It’s not breakfast time. I’m trying to eat some real food.” As we saw others retrieving what appeared to be freshly grilled and delicious Usinger’s sausages ahead of us in line, we understood his point. Though the blueberries were visually present inside of the “brats” (a generous term for two tiny breakfast sausage links), we didn’t really taste them. Meanwhile, the bacon jam was sparse, sloppy, bland, and it sogged out any portions of the pancake “buns” that weren’t already extremely dry. We have no doubt the Milwaukee Brat House will be cooking up some exceptional links over the next week and a half, but this Sporkies entrant should probably be avoided.

S’mores Churro Fries — Saz’s BBQ

A big RECOMMENDED on these tasty and nostalgic beauties from Saz’s BBQ. Cinnamon-sugar churro fries topped with marshmallow creme, chocolate sauce, and crushed graham crackers! Need we say more? The fries were crispy and the s’mores stuff was delivered in just the right amount—the latter sending us back to a time when we would cook s’mores over the fire and stuff ourselves silly (a couple of weeks ago). Again: Is $12 a bit much to ask for these snack-able delights? Yep. Is it 2025? Yep. Does the price sit better when you’re eating these things while watching a delightful country cover duo called Big Shoes To Phil? YEP.

Pretzaroni Pizza Brat — Gertrude’s Pretzels

Now three years removed from their Sporkies win, Gertrude’s Pretzels was back in contention with this year’s Pretzaroni Pizza Brat. While they didn’t land in the top three this time around, we think they truly knocked it out of the park with this one. Yes, it’s $15, but the bratwurst is substantial, and when wrapped in soft pretzel with baked in pepperoni slices, buttered, and dusted in Parmesan, it’s well worth it.

Honestly, the marinara sauce added next to nothing and was actually hard to effectively dip the brat into, but it wasn’t really even necessary for this Sporkie to soar. Sure, it didn’t place, but we’d argue that maybe it should’ve.

Gochujang Smashburger with Kimchi Bacon Jam — Blue Moon Tavern at the Park

As we were sitting outside Blue Moon Tavern and preparing to dive into our $13 Gochujang Smashburger, we struck up a conversation with two women next to us. Were they going through all the Sporkies, too? Yes they were. Did they have any favorites? Yes they did. Could they help us find Charlie’s Pizza, which had somehow eluded us for hours? Yes they could. The women then graciously offered us a French toast lumpia from Lumpia City, and told us they were doing Sporkies reviews for their TikTok channel. “But we don’t have many followers, so no one will see it!” they laughed.

Ladies, if you’re reading this: Thanks for the lumpia! Let us know where we can watch your TikTok reviews! We’ll link to them here!

Also, the Gochujang Smashburger with Kimchi Bacon Jam was pretty good. Kind of small, but pretty good.

DRINKIES

Carnival Cooler (Spiked) — Tropics

Another year, another State Fair drink with pickle juice in it. Hey, we’re not complaining! It might be pinkish in hue, but be warned that this baby shamelessly leads with pickle juice. If you’re into that, then you might also enjoy the accompanying presence of watermelon, lemonade, lime, hot honey, and oodles of Tajín that collectively add a dash of complexity to this deceivingly refreshing beverage. Speaking of additions, this $12 non-alcoholic drink is available in rum-spiked slush form for a total of $17, which we gladly took advantage of during our Fair visit. Need more? Well, it has a cherry/orange garnish and a decorative carousel horse toothpick topper. If you’re sick of beer and other canned options on the fairgrounds, by all means give either rendition of the Carnival Cooler a try.

Dubai Chocolate Strawberry Smoothie — Caribbean Smoothies

We weren’t looking forward to this drink for some reason. It just seemed so…rich? Heavy? A lot to take in when we had already eaten 17 pounds of State Fair food? A whopping $15? But, oh, we were wrong, for this Dubai Chocolate Strawberry Smoothie from the Caribbean Smoothies stand was great. “A refreshing strawberry smoothie is layered inside a cup swirled with pistachio butter and chocolate topping, then garnished with shredded Kataifi and extra chocolate drizzle,” reads the description. “This Insta-worthy twist on the viral Dubai chocolate trend is a can’t miss treat!” Oh, is it an Instagram/TikTok thing? News to us. But whatever—it’s good! Especially the first dozen sips before the chocolate settles to the bottom and then you’re just drinking chocolate!

Dirty Pancakes — Buzzy Badger

With all due respect to people in recovery and those whose beliefs prohibit them from consuming alcohol or caffeine, so-called “dirty sodas” are downright dreadful. We knew we were in for a sugar-bomb going into this, but goddamn if this wasn’t the absolute sweetest thing we’ve ever tasted in our lives…by far, and not in the good way.

As if the confluence of root beer, vanilla creamer, and straight-up maple syrup wasn’t already cloying enough on the tongue, brown sugar popping boba, whipped cream, and the garnish of three mini pancakes really hammered the sweetness home. With all due respect to Buzzy Badger and to anyone who relies on dirty sodas instead of something else, this was extremely not to our liking. Also, it was $9.76 after tax and before tip.

Purple Rain Refresher — Rock and Roll Beer Garden

According to the description from the Rock and Roll Beer Garden, the Purple Rain Refresher is “inspired by the glam and grit of rock legends.” Hmm. What rock legend could that possibly be? So, dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to tell you that the Purple Rain Refresher (the winner of this year’s Drinkies!) is available with vodka ($16) or without ($10). We are also here to tell you that while we ordered ours with vodka, we couldn’t really taste it. Sure, the Concord grape juice mixed with grapefruit soda and lemonade was refreshing, but that little vodka kick would have had us partying like it was 1999. But it was Thursday afternoon, we guess that makes it alright. Prince.

BUT HERE’S THE BEST PART. THE PURPLE RAIN REFRESHER COMES WITH EDIBLE GLITTER AND POP ROCKS THAT BLOW UP IN YOUR DRINK. THIS IS WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE WHEN THE POP ROCKS CRY!