Nothing says the 4th of July like a refreshing, delicious and stunning red, white, and blue patriotic drink!

In honor of the upcoming 4th of July holiday and in celebration (celebration??) of the blazing hot weather we are enjoying (enjoying??), today and Thursday I’ll be sharing two fun, festive and deliciously cold and refreshing drinks to help you along.

A red, white, and blue layered drink full of ice in a glass cup.

First up are these adorable and clever layered drinks. They are popping up all over the internet and I had to make them to really believe they could work.

Who would’ve thought that based on something simple like sugar content, the drinks would stay put in their own little layersphere. Definitely one of those “why didn’t I think of that moments.” But considering I can barely remember my children’s names let alone my high school physics class (or would it be chemistry I need to call on?), I’m not really surprised my brain didn’t go there first.

I kind of grabbed different drinks to make these layered beauties work without thinking about flavor combinations and I have to say that having never mixed cranberry juice, blue gatorade and Sprite together (surely I’m not the only one who has never gone there), I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome.

It was delicious! And seriously, I think these drinks are so cute, it wouldn’t matter what they taste like.

When I pulled out these tricky drinks for my kids, they showered me with such praise, I felt like the smartest and coolest mom in the whole world. No need to enlighten them otherwise.

Stay tuned Monday for the other drink that will rock your world. Here’s a hint: fruity volcano.

Top view of a red, white, and blue layered drink in a glass cup.
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Red White and Blue Patriotic Drink

4.41 stars (5 ratings)

Ingredients

  • Cranberry Juice, chilled
  • Blue Gatorade, not sugar-free, chilled
  • Sprite Zero, chilled
  • Ice

Instructions 

  • Fill each glass with ice.
  • Pour the cranberry juice into the glass, filling about 1/3 of the way.
  • Slowly pour the blue gatorade on top of the ice (if you pour it around the sides of the glass and it hits the cranberry juice directly without filtering over the ice, it won’t create separate layers) and let it flow down until it fills the cup another 1/3 of the way (so now the glass should be 2/3 full).
  • Finally, slowly pour the Sprite Zero on the ice and let it slowly flow down to create the final layer. Serve immediately.

Notes

Layering the Drinks: the method behind this drink is choosing 3 (or more!) drinks with varying sugar content and layering the drinks with the highest sugar on the bottom working up to the no-sugar drink on top. For instance, I used cranberry juice with 30g sugar for the bottom layer, blue gatorade with 16g sugar for the middle layer and Sprite Zero with 0g sugar for the top layer.

Recipe Source: seen all over the internet, in particular here and here