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Easy 4th of July Layered Drink

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Raise a toast with our patriotic 4th of July drink, boasting enticing layers. Follow our guide for a memorable celebration!

5 glasses of red, white and blue layered drinks in tall thin glasses, and surrounded by red, white and blue decor including one red, one white and one blue star standing behind the drinks, and small red white and blue stars surrounding the drinks, along with red and white linen and blue and white linen. Each drink has a blue and white straw and a red and white straw in it

Perfect for Memorial Day, the 4th of July,  Labor Day, or any hot summer day! You can use this technique for any layered drink, as the secret is in the sugar content of each ingredient.

The variations are endless! They are made extra fun with the addition of popping candy on the rims of the glasses!

Red white and blue layered drink from top to bottom in square glass with two straws with spiral design. Drink ingredients pictured include red powerade, white gatorade and blue gatorade. Writing on the image is, "Sugar content is the key to layering. Arrange the liquids based on their respective sugar densities, with the highest sugar content at the bottom layer."

The layers are made by stacking the liquids from most sugar dense to least sugar dense! 

We had so much fun trying all these combinations and purchased everything at Walmart and Target. Let your kids pick out their favorite red layer, white layer, and blue layer. You could even set up a mocktail table where kids use their basic math skills to create their specialty drinks. 

Capture the deliciousness! Pin the tantalizing image to your favorites board on Pinterest and have the recipe at your fingertips whenever you yearn for a delectable drink!

Let’s make your new favorite Patriotic drink!

Supplies for your 4th of July layered drink:

Three tall thin glasses with a red, white and blue layered drink; two with red at the bottom and one with blue at the bottom. All with two straws and each with pop rock like candy around the entire rim of glass

Ingredients for your Patriotic mocktail:

  • Lemon wedge or fresh lemon juice
  • Popping candy – remember Pop Rocks? This is the new and improved version from Walmart. Imagine the fun as the kids take a drink and get an explosion in their mouths!
  • Ice cubes (lots and lots of fresh ice)
  • Red Layer beverage 
  • White Layer beverage
  • Blue Layer beverage

These are the beverages that we tried. I’ve provided feedback on what each tasted like (to me) so that you can start searching for the perfect ingredients for your taste buds. “Cool frost” didn’t help me much in the store as I was looking for flavors that would go together (I thought it tasted like fruit punch).

6 full blue drinks containers including 2 powerades, 1 hawaiian punch, 2 gatorades and one icee;, 9 white or clear drink containers including 7Up, Ginger Ale, gatorade, powerade and other drink mixes; , and 7 red drink containers including gatorade, body armor, cranraspberry, strawberry Fanta, and other drink mixes. With each color lined up on its own separate shelf of drinks.
RED BeveragesSugar ContentTasted Like To Me
Powerade Zero Fruit Punch0gFruit Punch
Rose’s Grenadine Syrup20gGrenadine
Body Armor Fruit Punch21gFruit Punch
Ocean Spray Cran Raspberry26gCranberry Raspberry
Body Armor Watermelon Strawberry28gWatermelon
Mr & Mrs T Strawberry Daiquiri-Margarita Mix (non-alcoholic)43gStrawberry
Fanta Strawberry45gStrawberry
WHITE BeveragesSugar ContentTasted Like To Me
Coco Lopez Cream of Coconut18gCoconut
Rose’s Simple Syrup19gSugar Water
Gatorate Frost Cool21gFruit Punch
Powerade White Cherry21gCherry
Favorite Day Piña Colada Mix (non-alcoholic)29gCoconut
Schweppes Ginger Ale33gGinger ale
Texas Roadhouse Margarita Mixer (non-alcoholic)37gBottled ReaLemon
7Up39gLemon Lime
Milos Lemonade65gLemonade
BLUE BeveragesSugar ContentTasted Like To Me
Powerade Zero Mixed Berry0gCotton Candy
Hawaiian Punch Polar Blast13gFruit Punch
Powerade Mountain Berry Blast21gFruit Punch
Gatorade Fierce22gGrape
Icee Slush Blue Raspberry23gRaspberry
Gatorade Cool Blue34gRaspberry

Optional Garnish:

  • Fresh Blueberries
  • Fresh mint leaves
  • Fresh raspberries
  • Fresh Strawberries
  • Lime wheel
3 glasses of red white and blue layered drink with 2 straws each, rimmed with pop rock like candy, and decorated with red white and blue star decor, and red, white and blue napkins

Directions for making your layered drink:

1. Rub a lemon wedge on the edge of the glass.

Rubbing a lemon slice on the entire upper rim of a tall, square drinking glass. Also a small white bowl with blue powdery candy, a small white bowl with red powdery like candy, and a small white bowl with sliced lemon

2. While it is still wet, dip the glass into a small bowl filled with popping candy (aka Pop Rocks). 

Dipping a tall square glass, the upper rim of which has been covered with lemon juice, into a small white bowl of red pop rock like candy. Also, a small, whtie bowl of blue pop rock candy and a small, white bowl of sliced lemon

Your glass will look like this:

Two small white bowls of pop rock like candy, one with red candy and one with blue candy, and a small white bowl of sliced lemons, and a square glass, the upper rim of which was dipped in lemon juice and then into the red candy

3. Pour in your first ingredients, filling 1/4 of your glass. 

4. Fill the glass with ice. Look at the first layer to ensure it does not go more than 1/3 of the way up the glass. The ice will make the first layer rise to 1/3 of the glass. If there is too much of the first liquid in the ice-filled glass, sip some of it out with a straw.

5. Slowly pour your second layer over the back of a spoon so that the liquid does not forcefully mix with your first layer. 

In a tall round glass, adding 7 Up as the middle layer on top of an already poured red layer of liquid, and before the last blue layer

6. Repeat for your third layer.

Adding the top blue Hawaiian Punch layer to a tall, round drinking glass that already has red and white layers of liquid in it.

7. Garnish with fresh berries if desired. 

Layered red white and blue drink in tall thin glass with two straws and pop rock candy on rim of glass

Additional ideas for red, white, and blue beverages:

  • RED: Cranberry Juice, Red Koolaid, Simply Fruit Punch,
  • WHITE: Club Soda, ginger beer (ginger beer does not contain alcohol), grapefruit juice, pineapple juice, SoBe pina colada, soda water, tonic water, light agave nectar. 
  • BLUE: Butterfly Pea blue tea (cooled)

Our combination ideas for 4th of July layered drinks:

Red, white and blue layered drink in tall glass with two straws and pop rock like candy around entire upper rim of glass; consisting of daquiri margarita mix, pina colada mix and blue raspberry icee.
Layered red, white, and blue drink in an hour shaped glass with powerade, cran-raspberry, and Hawaiian punch bottles in the background.
Red white and blue drink in round tall glass with blue Hawaiian punch, 7Up, and Strawberry Fanta. Glass has 2 straws, one with blue and white spirals and the other with red and white spirals
Drink in a tall thin glass with 3 different layers of color: red, white and blue; and including containers of red daquiri margarita mix, clear ginger ale, and blue powerade

Tips & Tricks:

  • Adding your first layer before the ice cubes is ideal.
  • If you use straws, put them in after your first liquid so the insertion does not disturb the layers.
  • Pouring your second and third liquid slowly over the back of a spoon will allow the liquid to sit on top of the previous one without the force of gravity, making it go into the one below it. 
5 glasses full of red, white and blue layered drinks, with two straws in each glass, each glass rimmed with pop rock like candy; and, red, white and blue star decor surrounding the glasses.

Perfect for your Fourth of July cookout, this refreshing drink will be a kid’s favorite. The best part will be letting them make different drinks and watching as they make their own drink recipe. Just have plenty of crushed ice on hand!

Love this recipe? We would love your support by giving it a 5-star rating and spreading the deliciousness by sharing it on Facebook. Don’t forget to pin the mouthwatering image to your favorites board on Pinterest for later cravings!

Any way you make it, our layered 4th of July layered drink is a refreshing way to cool down a hot day. Let us know in the comments what combinations were popular at your July celebration. 

More special occasion posts can be found here:

5 glasses full of red, white and blue layered drinks, with two straws in each glass, each glass rimmed with pop rock like candy; and, red, white and blue star decor surrounding the glasses.

Easy 4th of July Layered Drink

Yield: 1
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Active Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes

Raise a toast with our patriotic 4th of July drink, boasting enticing layers. Follow our guide for a memorable celebration!

Materials

  • Lemon wedge or fresh lemon juice
  • Popping candy - remember Pop Rocks? This is the new and improved version from Walmart. Imagine the fun as the kids take a drink and get an explosion in their mouth!
  • Ice cubes (lots and lots of fresh ice)
  • Red Layer beverage 
  • White Layer beverage
  • Blue Layer beverage

Tools

  • Tall glass (collins glass is a good choice because it has straight sides and you can easily see the layers)
  • Large tablespoon
  • Small bowls
  • Paper straws

Instructions

Rub a lemon wedge on the edge of the glass.

While it is still wet, dip the glass into a small bowl filled with popping candy (aka Pop Rocks). 

Pour in your first ingredients, filling 1/4 of your glass. 

Fill the glass with ice. Look at the first layer to ensure it does not go more than 1/3 of the way up the glass. The ice will make the first layer rise to 1/3 of the glass. If there is too much of the first liquid in the ice-filled glass, sip some of it out with a straw.

Slowly pour your second layer over the back of a spoon so that the liquid does not forcefully mix with your first layer. 

Repeat for your third layer.

Garnish with fresh berries if desired. 

Notes

Additional ideas for red, white, and blue beverages:

  • RED: Cranberry Juice 
  • WHITE: Club Soda, ginger beer (ginger beer does not contain alcohol), grapefruit juice, pineapple juice, SoBe pina colada, soda water, tonic water, light agave nectar. 
  • BLUE: Butterfly Pea blue tea (cooled)

Tips & Tricks:

  • Adding your first layer before the ice cubes is ideal.
  • If you use straws, put them in after your first liquid so the insertion does not disturb the layers.
  • Pouring your second and third liquid slowly over the back of a spoon will allow the liquid to sit on top of the previous one without the force of gravity, making it go into the one below it. 

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