Every summer place has a signature drink. Nantucket does rosé. Newport does a gin and tonic on a lawn. Block Island — nobody can fully explain this, and we’ve asked — does the mudslide: vodka, coffee liqueur, Irish cream, blended frozen, drizzled with chocolate, and consumed on decks overlooking the Atlantic in quantities that would alarm a mainland cardiologist. It’s dessert with a work permit. We are not proud. We are also not stopping.
The title fight
This is a contested crown with an actual electoral history. In the island’s Best on the Block voting, Ballard’s took the 2025 title — the frozen beachfront version, drunk with sand underfoot. Then in 2026, Champlin’s pulled the upset from the New Harbor side, proof that the pond-side blender program had been underestimated for years.
The permanent contenders: The Oar, whose sunset-deck mudslide has a congregation that will hear no criticism, and the Beach House, holding down the Crescent Beach flank. Four bars, four styles, one genre.
How to run your own tasting
Do it over two days; this is not a sprint beverage. The route that works: Ballard’s off the afternoon beach, The Oar at sunset over the pond, Champlin’s dockside the next day, and the tiebreaker wherever the deck chair feels right. Take notes. Argue. Send us your ballot when voting opens — this is the category with the highest turnout energy on the island, and we intend to keep it that way.
My ballot
Since a critic who won’t pick is just a stenographer: The Oar, at sunset, on the deck. The frozen beachfront versions win afternoons, but a mudslide is a dessert masquerading as a drink, and dessert belongs to the golden hour over the mooring field. Champlin’s 2026 win was deserved — the pond side takes this seriously — but my vote hasn’t moved. Argue with me by ballot next summer.
One warning from experience: the frozen version drinks faster than its contents suggest. Two is a decision, not a rhythm.
The rest of the island’s drinking geography — the bands, the last calls, the quiet wine rooms — lives in the bars guide.