Drink Week Part 1: Patriotic Punch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of my favorite things to make are layer cakes, but I have yet to post one on here. After all, I am the Cake Merchant. I had all kinds of aspirations to make a beautiful layer cake this week, I really did. But with the temperatures being over 100 degrees every day this week, I just couldn’t bring myself to turn on the oven. I know that these high temperatures are not isolated to Texas, so you may be feeling the same way (unless you’re lucky and live in Southern California). I’ve decided to devote this coming week entirely to drinks- cold, fizzy drinks with lots of ice! Plus, I came across these really cute star shaped ice cubes at the store the other day, so it’s fate. Drink week has officially begun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I came up with what I thought was a brilliant and original idea for a red, white, and blue layered drink for the 4th of July. After I googled it, it turns out that my idea is far from original. There are lots of layered drink recipes on the internet, which turned out to be quite helpful since it took  some of the guess work out of making them. After a bit of research and experimenting, there seem to be two keys to making layered drinks. First, make sure that each layer has a different sugar content, with the most sugary drink being on the bottom. Second, pour slowly! The slower, the better. This will ensure that you get a red, white, and blue drink rather than a purple drink.

Patriotic Punch

adapted from here

Ingredients:

1 bottle of Cranberry juice cocktail (not diet)

1 bottle of  Grenadine (optional)

1 2 liter bottle of Sprite or 7-up (not diet)

Low Calorie Blue Gatorade

Regular or star-shaped ice cubes

6 tall clear glasses

Directions:

1. Fill the glasses with ice cubes.

2. Fill each glass with cranberry juice, about 1/3 of the way. I mixed the cranberry juice with some grenadine to boost the sugar content and color, just to make sure the layers stayed separated.

3. Slowly pour the Sprite or 7 up into each glass, almost to the top.

4. Top each glass off with the Gatorade. The Gatorade layer will bleed into the Sprite, so you won’t need too much of it to create the blue layer. Serve immediately.