How to make a Bomb Pop cocktail for a red, white and blue July 4

Red, white and blue? That means cherry, lime and, uh, blue. With or without a little vodka.

Day drinking for a special occasion? Awesome. Day drinking to celebrate the birth of your nation? That’s practically your civic duty.

July 4 is more than a holiday meant to traumatize dogs with hours of traumatic sky booms. It’s a day to celebrate and focus on the things that make America great. What better way to do that than hang out with other folks who hate the monarchy and drink themed cocktails?

This year, the biggest trend is the Bomb Pop, a simple cocktail that doesn’t taste quite like the popsicle that inspired but looks like patriotic bunting when done correctly. It’s a four-step process that takes a little more effort to craft than your typical cookout drink, but one that will absolutely stand out among a sea of light beers and hard seltzers.

So let’s make something pretty, and boozy, to celebrate our nation’s independence. First, your ingredients:

You’ll need:

• Lemonade or limeade. Limeade will get you closer to replicating an actual Bomb Pop flavor, but is more difficult to find.
• Grenadine or Maraschino cherry syrup.
• Blue Gatorade/Powerade or even just blue food coloring.
• Vodka (I used Beattie’s strawberry vodka because it’s very good and also the only thing I had left after a weekend of bloody Marys. Regular vodka? Totally fine. Want to skip it for a virgin cocktail? Hell yeah. Want to swap it out for gin to revel in that lime flavor? Also great)
• A Bomb Pop for garnish.

Fill a glass with ice and fill the first third with your grenadine or cherry syrup. Then, combine your limeade with vodka; I use a 50/50 mix that gives you four total ounces.

Now comes the tricky part. Pour that slowly over an overturned spoon so it sits on top of the red cherry juice rather than mixes with it. It’ll look something like this only, you know, better if you’re not trying to pour AND take a picture at the same time.

Next, repeat the process with your blue. I used Powerade because it’s cheap and perfectly captures that nebulous “blue” flavor we all know and love. You can use food coloring mixed with lemon/limeade or vodka if you prefer.

Once that’s carefully poured, it’ll look like this:

OK, now we’re talking. Toss in that Bomb Pop garnish and you’ve got red, white and blue on red, white and blue.

How’s it taste? Well, weird if you drink it according to layer, obviously. But mixing the contents gives you a sweet, slightly tart cocktail that’s at least a little bit too much but certainly looks cool. You probably won’t want more than one, but if you’re mixing these up without the booze it’s an easy win for any kids at your cookout.