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Memorial Day Drinks: Patriotic Drink Recipes For Your Weekend, Holiday Celebration

By Charisse Van Horn
Published on: 05:55 PST, May 28, 2016

It’s Memorial Day weekend and that means people across the nation will celebrate with barbecues, cookouts and patriotic food and drinks. These patriotic, Memorial Day drink recipes are the perfect addition to any Memorial Day weekend celebration and will complement your holiday theme. Memorial Day is a time that we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice and gave their lives to secure the freedom for our country. Many choose to embrace the solemn aspect of the holiday while others celebrate the joys of being alive and enjoy the freedom veterans fought for. Patriotic drink recipes are a good choice for those celebrating Memorial Day weekend with barbecues and cookouts, as well as for those who are returning from a parade or decorating veterans’ graves in their local cemetery. Whichever way you commemorate to celebrate Memorial Day, patriotic drink recipes are the perfect way to celebrate the American spirit.

Memorial Day drinks make great use of the colors red, white and blue. Keep in mind that you can always add drink favors such as patriotic stirrers, flags and umbrellas to pep up any drink. You can find suitable drink favors at party stores. For those who want a fancy drink, you’ll need to know how to separate colors like red, white and blue in order to make the drinks look great. Elisa Garcia shares her tips for keeping patriotic colors in Memorial Day drinks separate in the video below.

As you can see, this simple drink consists of three separate layers of red, white, and blue while served over ice in a chilled flute, or champagne glass. You may choose to add alcohol to the drink or serve it as a non-alcoholic beverage. To make this perfect Memorial Day drink, you need cranberry juice (or your choice of a cranberry blend, just as long as it is red) for the red layer, white flavored pina colada SoBe for the white layer, and a blue Gatorade or Powerade for the top layer. Take your flute glasses and fill them to the top with ice cubes. Slowly pour the red cranberry juice about one-third of the way. If you prefer to make an alcoholic beverage, add your alcohol to the cranberry juice, ensuring that the glass is one-third filled.

Next you will add the pina colada SoBe for the white layer. You want to ensure that you pour the SoBe slowly over the ice to prevent it from mixing with the red. Use a gentle hand and pour over the middle of the ice rather than on the sides of the glass. For this portion of the Memorial Day drink, you need plenty of patience. Pouring too quickly will cause the colors to mix and your Memorial Day drinks will lose their vibrancy. Pour slowly to ensure your drinks look as colorful as possible. After the white layer you will add the blue layer with the Powerade or Gatorade. Use the same technique of pouring over the middle ice cubes with a very slow hand. The trick to layering this drink is in pouring the liquid as slowly as possible to prevent it from blending.

Next on our list of Memorial Day drinks is the bright and sparkly Red White and Blue Pop Rock Cocktail. This drink is an alcoholic beverage, but since it uses candy, you can omit the alcohol and make it an entertaining and fun drink for kids. This drink recipe comes from Calling Shenanigans on YouTube and is a fun, festive and patriotic drink choice.

Though it’s Memorial Day weekend and not the Fourth of July, many recipes are interchangeable for both holidays. Since Memorial Day drinks need red, white and blue, you can easily add strawberries and blueberries to a drink to instantly transform it to a patriotic beverage.

You can add sliced strawberries, blueberries and even bananas to a glass of sprite to make it patriotic.

Are you going to serve patriotic Memorial Day drinks this holiday weekend?

[Photo by Elena Shashkina/Shutterstock]

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