Category Archives: Holidays

Patriotic layered drinks

I’ve seen these non-alcoholic patriotic layered drinks in red, white, and blue floating around Pinterest.  They look so fun and festive for celebrating the 4th of July!

Red, White, and Blue patriotic non-alcoholic layered drinks - amerrymom.com

I sooo wanted to try them with my kids.  Unfortunately, some of those ingredients for the layers were flavors that my picky kids won’t actually drink.

I love the look of the layered drinks I saw on the blog In Katrina’s Kitchen.  It uses Sobe Pina Colada for the white layer, cran-apple juice for the red layer, and a blue Gatorade for the blue layer.  The only one of those ingredients that my kids like is the Gatorade.

So I set out to come up with a version that would appeal to my kids.  I understand that the layers are created due to different densities of the liquids – caused by the amount of sugar.  Thus, I looked for alternative ingredients in the red, white, and blue colors.

I came up with a few options.  Gatorade or Hawaiian Punch for the red layer, Gatorade or Mountain Dew Voltage for the blue layer, and Gatorade or lemonade Vitamin Water for the white layer.  I also considered Sprite/7Up/Sierra Mist, which are obviously clear, but I thought that could work in place of the white.

Keeping in mind that the sugar content is key, I experimented with different combinations to create the red, white, and blue layered drinks.

The combination of ingredients that worked best for me was:

  • Blue bottom layer:  Mountain Dew Voltage (46g of sugar per 12 ounces)
  • Red middle layer:  Hawaiian Punch (21g of sugar per 12 ounces)
  • White top layer:  Lemonade Vitamin Water Zero ( 0g of sugar)

Patriotic layered drinks - ingredients - amerrymom.comThe important aspect of layering the liquids was to add plenty of ice to the glass and pour directly onto an ice cube to prevent the liquids from mixing.  I don’t know how it works, but it does – mostly.

I found it most difficult to keep the white/clear layer separate.  I didn’t have any luck with the lemon-lime soda.  It mixed right into the next layer for me.  The lemonade Vitamin Water Zero worked better, but still didn’t stay as separate as I would have liked.

We decided it was close enough to red, white, and blue!Non-alcoholic red, white, blue layered drinks - amerrymom.com

 Since I was making these for my kids to try, I kept the blue layer fairly small due to the sugar and caffeine content in the Mountain Dew Voltage.  I didn’t want to amp them up too much!

We had fun experimenting with the drinks and watching the layers form.  These layered drinks are pretty and festive – and my family enjoyed trying them!

Have fun creating your own layered drinks!