21 Drink Salute to America


Since 2007, the sotted author has been celebrating the 21 days each summer between Flag Day (June 14) and Independence Day (July 4) by mixing up a different cocktail each day — calling it the “21 Drink Salute to America.” Featured here is one year’s “Salute” as culled from social media posts. Cheers!


2023 Cocktails

1) Bocce Ball; 2) Fuzzy Electric; 3) Spicy Icy Chai-quila; 4) Cherry Daiquiri; 5) Dutch Old Fashioned; 6) Coco Cran; 7) Dr Peppermint; 8) Strawberry-Guava Mojito; 9) Midori Colada, Midori Splice; 10) Blueberry Old Fashioned; 11) Caiprinha; 12) Campari & Graperfruit; 13) Minty Martini; 14) Aviation Cocktail; 15) B-52 Bomber; 16) Surfer on Acid; 17) Honey Apple Fizz; 18) Boozy KC Freezer Pop; 19) Pickletini; 20) Liber-Tea; 21) Jello, America!

*Note: all text and photos below were created by the author; some of the cocktail recipes were borrowed/adapted from various print and online sources. I would like it very much if the mixologists who originally created these cocktails don’t sue me. Thanks.

#1 - BOCCE BALL

The all-American fast-food breakfast is the inspiration for my morning cocktail -- the first installment in this summer's 21 Drink Salute to America. I'm drinking a Bocce Ball, which is just OJ spiked with a shot of vodka and a half ounce of nutty Amaretto. (Please don't spike your OJ while pulling away from the drive-through... wait til you get home, or just be a savage and mix it up right there in the Mickey D's dining room.) It's Flag Day, and I almost decided not to do a 21 Drink Salute this year. I'm in the midst of remodeling my attic and kitchen, so most of my barware is in storage somewhere, and I am currently without a kitchen sink. But to borrow a never-give-up sentiment from "Animal House," was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?! Hell, no! So, expect a weird assortment of cocktails this year as I clean out my liquor cupboard (to make space for a new dishwasher) and find creative ways to drink amidst the rubble and paint and drywall dust. As I've been doing since 2007, I'll drink to the American spirit on each of the 21 days between Flag Day and the Fourth of July. I hope you'll drink along... at home, at the fast-food restaurant, wherever. Cheers!

#2 - FUZZY ELECTRIC

No cocktail shaker? No problem! This bottle of store-bought lemonade served the purpose. I added some peach schnapps, some chopped up frozen peaches, a few lemon slices, some chunks of ice, shook everything up, and... voila! The Fuzzy Electric Lemonade cocktail. An apt drink today, as the tile guy tripped a circuit breaker while installing a kitchen backsplash, and discovered some old crappy wiring in the one power outlet near my countertop. It also turned out to be the circuit that powers the refrigerator, so... until the electrician can get out, the fridge is connected to an extension cord running to the outlet in my liquor cabinet. (Don't you all have power outlets in your liquor cabinets?) It's just Day 2 of my 21 Drink Salute to America, and I'm making boozy lemonade out of life's little lemons. Cheers!

#3 - SPICY ICY CHAI-QUILA

I was feeling a little stir crazy and helpless around the house today, so I ducked out for a bit to grab an iced chai at a nearby coffee shop that shall remain nameless. Customers probably aren't supposed to smuggle in little bottles of booze to spike their drinks, but sometimes you just gotta break the rules, ya know? The Icy Spicy Jose Chai-quila cocktail was awesome; tequila really pairs nicely with the spiciness of chai tea. (Not to mention the spiciness of surreptitious drinking.) And THAT cocktail fortified me to also try what I'm calling the Coconut Espresso Rum Runner. Also pretty darn tasty. Some rebellion, some tea, some liberty hooch... I'm sure America's founders would heartily approve. Cheers!

#4 - FROZEN CHERRY DAIQUIRI

Tartness in a glass! This afternoon, I'm back in the kitchen (such as it is; at least I have a sink now!), mixing up a Frozen Cherry Daiquiri. A daiquiri, of course, is light rum with lime juice and some sugar. You may want to change that "some" sugar to "copious sugar" if you're gonna make an already tart daiquiri with tart frozen cherries. But whatever you do, don't stave off the summer heat with iced milk and cherries, like our 12th U.S. President Zachary Taylor did on July 4, 1850. He fell gravely ill and died after consuming his weird cherry concoction, just 18 months into his presidency. If only Zachary had had a daiquiri. Cheers!

#5 - DUTCH OLD FASHIONED

Honoring the memory of my kinda old fashioned Dutch father on this Father's Day, I'm having a Dutch Old Fashioned. The classic Old Fashioned is just bourbon whiskey with orange bitters and a little sugar. This version uses a Dutch spirit that, amazingly, I only just recently learned about: jenever. According to the good people at Bols, jenever is "the original spirit of Amsterdam," and is "a delightfully complex triple grain spirit made of corn, rye and wheat" (so kinda like whiskey), "blended with botanicals, including juniper, hops, ginger, coriander, and apricot kernels" (so kinda like gin). Further research into this traditional drink of my ancestors taught me that the spirit should be drunk in a tulip-shaped glass. Damn, I don't have one of those. And if drunk as a beer chaser, it's called a "kopstoot" -- in English, head-butt. Damn, I'm all out of Heineken. But what I do have today is a wonderfully simple cocktail, and a deep appreciation for all that my Dutch father did for me. Hope you've been able to appreciate your old man today -- even if he didn't have the good fortune to be Dutch. Cheers!

#6 - COCO-CRAN

The Coco-Cran! Ever since my free-wheeling days of swilling Cape Cods on the beach at Padre Island, I've dabbled pretty consistently in a variety of cranberry-based cocktails. If you recall, the Cape Cod is just cranberry juice and vodka; add some pineapple juice, and you've got the Bay Breeze. Swap out the vodka for coconut rum, and you've got the Malibu Bay Breeze. What I'm calling the Coco-Cran cocktail is kinda like a Malibu Bay Breeze, minus the pineapple juice, with a splash of orange liqueur for sweetness, and blended together with ice. I drizzled some almond milk on top to accentuate the coconutty flavor of the rum (and make it look nice and pretty for the pic). It's refreshing, not too fruity or tart, and gets you servings in three of the food groups: grains, fruits, and dairy. Enjoy one by the beach, by the pool, or (like me today) just by yourself. Cheers!

#7 - DR. PEPPERMINT

Waco, Texas. On summer days like this, it gets hotter than a two-dollar pistol. Hotter than a stolen tamale. Hotter'n a blister bug in a pepper patch. Speaking of peppers, Waco is also the birthplace of Dr Pepper, the centerpiece of today's offering in our ongoing "21 Drink Salute to America." The Dr Peppermint cocktail is just a fat ol' shot of peppermint schnapps (go ahead and use lots... it's been sitting in the liquor cabinet since three Christmases ago) and ice-cold Dr Pepper. Weirdly, I discovered this cocktail on the Website of the Orthodox Union, an organization in New York that certifies things as kosher. The Dr Peppermint by itself is kosher, but because I like to be a little unorthodox -- and because my niece who attends college in Waco introduced me awhile back to the wonders of the Dr Pepper ice cream float -- I added a scoop of vanilla ice cream to mine. Makes it a little less Christmasy and a little more summery. Yee-haw! Cheers, y'all.

#8 - BERRY-GUAVA MOJITO

Work smarter, not harder. From the steel plow to the cotton gin to the automotive assembly line, in many ways America was built by good ol' Yankee ingenuity (which, let's be honest, is just a nice way of saying work-avoidance). If, as happened today, I discover a pre-made strawberry-guava mojito mix in the juice aisle of my grocery store, why not give it a try? Just add some light rum and a mint garnish, give it a shake, and you've just saved a bunch of time. Time that you can spend painting your kitchen or something. The mix was a bit sweet for my palate. You may want to cut it with a little splash of club soda for bubbles. You could also muddle in your mint, slice and toss in some of those big juicy strawberries that were on sale in the produce aisle, maybe put some granulated sugar on the rim of your pre-chilled glass. But damn, that's starting to sound an awful lot like work. How patriotic even are you? Cheers!

#9 - MIDORI COLADA/SPLICE

Midori may be getting a reprieve. I was planning to retire my bottle of the bright green Japanese melon liqueur after the completion of this summer's 21 Drink Salute. (Gotta downsize to free up kitchen cabinet space.) And how often REALLY do you need a delicious, mildly sweet booze that tastes reminiscent of honeydew melon? I'm rethinking that question. Both of today's cocktails were quite tasty. The Midori Colada is blended up like a pina colada, with ice, light rum, juice -- in this case, melon liqueur rather than pineapple juice -- and coconut milk. I used coconut rum and the vanilla almond milk I had in my fridge. The Midori Splice is our melon liqueur with coconut rum, pineapple juice, and a splash of something creamy and frothy on top. My lawn may be turning brown in this summer heat, but my cocktails can still be delightfully green. Cheers!

#10 - BLUEBERRY OLD FASHIONED

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It's been less than a week since my last Old Fashioned, and this was my drink: the Blueberry Old Fashioned. The handful of blueberries in my fridge was the near-occasion of this cocktail; I made a simple syrup by boiling the blueberries with some sugar and water, then adding a teaspoon of the sweet nectar to a double pour of bourbon and a few dashes of orange bitters. And while I'm clearing my conscience, let me just admit that I added maybe an extra ounce or so of bourbon into the glass, but only because it made for a better pic. Plus it was Friday, I'd been doing a lot of chores around the house, I didn't want those blueberries to go to waste (wasting food is a sin), and well... who wouldn't have done what I did? I ask pardon, peace, and reconciliation. But, really, I'm not sorry at all that I made this cocktail. American corn whiskey and the American blueberry. A berry wonderful way to wind down the week and celebrate the bounty of this land on Day Ten of our 21 Drink Salute to America. Cheers!

#11 - CAIPIRINHA

Clear the patio, you'll want to samba around after you get a few Caipirinhas in your belly. Made with cachaça, a fermented sugar liquor, the Caiprinha is the national cocktail of Brazil. This cocktail was featured in last summer's 21 Drink Salute, but that one was prepared at a local cocktail lounge. I forgot that I had a bottle of cachaça stashed away in the back of my liquor cabinet, so I decided to make my own this year. You just muddle some lime slices together with a few teaspoons of granulated sugar, then mix in with your cachaça and a suitable quantity of ice. The perfect balance of tangy lime and sugary booze for relaxing -- or dancing -- on your patio on a warm summer evening. As they say in Brazil: saúde!

#12 - CAMPARI GRAPEFRUIT FIZZ

The Website Biography.com lists ten Italian Americans who have changed history. Their list includes: a crooner, a Nobel-winning physicist, an automaker, a canonized saint, a baseball player, a one-time vice presidential candidate, a mobster, a mobster novelist... and some others. (A free cannoli if you can name all of them.) Tonight I'm drinking a bittersweet Italian cocktail in their honor, on the bittersweet occasion of the midpoint in our 21 Drink Salute to America. Let's call it the In-Campari-ble Grapefruit Fizz. It's a couple ounces of Campari herbal liqueur shaken together with juice from half a grapefruit and a quarter orange, some orange bitters, and topped off with some sparkling grapefruit juice. A beautiful cocktail to celebrate la bella vita on a beautiful summer night like this. Cheers!

#13 - MINTY MONDAY MARTINI

A Minty Monday Martini. It's equal parts vodka, Irish cream liqueur, and creme de menthe; shaken, not stirred. Imagine my horror on discovering that the only creme de menthe I had on hand was NOT GREEN. Hopefully, the mint garnish and greenish background make up for the otherwise non-photogenic nature of this cocktail. Also, my martini glasses are somewhere in storage, so I'm using this lovely orphan glass that I purchased at a thrift store for 49 cents, just for this year's 21 Drink Salute. Mondays always bring special challenges, don't they? Fun fact: the USA produces a whopping 70% of the world's mint, with most of that -- both peppermint and spearmint -- coming from the Pacific Northwest; Washington, Oregon and Idaho are are the top 3 mint-producing states. Washington alone produces enough mint oil to supply every American with 135 sticks of gum. Chew on that!

#14 - AVIATION COCKTAIL

The birthplace of aviation is either North Carolina or Ohio, depending on who you ask. The Aviation cocktail, if you ask me, is a lovely pink thing that is as much enjoyed by the eyes and nose as it is by the tongue. It's gin with lemon juice, cherry liqueur, and some very floral liqueur de violettes -- made with honest-to-goodness French violets! I used the Tempus Fugit brand, which is more pinkish than violet, but it's lovely just the same. Orville and Wilbur likely didn't celebrate their invention of aviation with an Aviation cocktail, as it wasn't invented until at least a decade after they invented the airplane in 1903. In either Ohio or North Carolina... take your pick. Cheers!

#15 - B-52 BOMBER SHOT

It's not even noon yet, and we're doing shots here in Morton Meadows. Come on over for a B-52: a layer of coffee liqueur, a layer of Irish cream liqueur, and a layer of Grand Marnier, which is an orange liqueur with cognac. The B-52 Bomber, of course, has been part of America's air defenses for the past 60 years. There are still 72 of them in active duty, and you can see the very first one ever built on display near the gate to Offut Air Force Base here in Nebraska. If you wanna get bombed -- at any time of the day or night -- a few strategic B-52s will do the trick. Let's fire off some shots while we drink to peace on this 15th day of our 21 Drink Salute to America. Cheers!

#16 - SURFER ON ACID

Aloha! For tonight's cocktail I donned my Ray-Bans and my favorite Hawaiian shirt, since a flight to Maui just for a cocktail was not in my "21 Drink Salute" budget. The Surfer on Acid is a sort of tiki cocktail made with two expected ingredients -- pineapple juice and coconut rum -- and one very unexpected ingredient: Jagermeister. I believe my first drink when I turned 21 was a Jagermeister shot, and honestly it's a miracle that I ever had another drink after that. I've always hated black licorice, and that's kinda what Jagermeister tastes like. But its thick, herbal, astringent bite provides a nice counterbalance to the overt tropicality (it's a word!) of the coconut rum and pineapple juice -- making this a smooth, complex sort of tiki drink. You've probably got all three ingredients on hand, and there's probably a loud Hawaiian shirt somewhere in your closet, so why not make a Surfer on Acid and strum on your ukulele tonight? There's a reason the USA annexed/stole Hawaii, people. Cheers!

#17 - HONEY APPLE FIZZ

For Day 17 of our 21 Drink Salute to America, I'm drinking a cocktail that's as American as apple... cider. Turns out apple cider (the hard stuff) is more deeply embedded in American culture than apple pie. By the mid-1700s, Americans were consuming an average of 35 gallons of hard apple cider each year, largely because it was safer to drink than plain water, and easier to produce in America than beer or wine. Apples back then were drunk, not eaten; nor were they routinely baked into pies. The fabled frontiersman and Swedeborgian missionary John Chapman -- better-known as Johnny Appleseed -- made a small fortune selling apple seedlings to pioneer families. My cocktail today -- the Honey Apple Fizz -- features a shot of Evan Williams Kentucky cider (which is essentially apple-infused bourbon), a teaspoon of locally-produced cinnamon honey, topped off with some sparkling white wine for fizz. There's been a recent resurgence of popularity in craft ciders, so if you'd rather not bother mixing up one of these, I'm sure there's a good cidery near you that would appreciate a visit. Tell 'em Johnny Appleseed sent you. Cheers!

#18 - BOOZY KC FREEZER POPS

OK, super not-proud of this entry for Day 18 of the 21 Drink Salute to America, but it's late, I'm out bar hopping... and what's more American than freezer pops in the summer? Perhaps... boozy freezer pops? These claim to contain cognac and "other than standard orange wine." I usually only drink standard orange wine... but I've gotta make this post before midnight, and there are more freezer pops to consume before I turn into a pumpkin. Cheers!

#19 - PICKLE-TINI

Pickle-tini time. It's three parts vodka with one part pickle juice... and that one part pickle juice is probably too much. Despite being all the rage, the pickle martini is every bit as disgusting as it sounds. Pickles, I like. Martinis, I like. America may be a big melting pot, but not everything necessarily blends together nicely. I may try making one of these with gin and vermouth for comparison. Or... I may just leave well enough alone. Those boozy freezer pops from last night are sounding pretty good right about now. Cheers!

#20 - LIBER-TEA

On this, the eve of Independence Day (and thus, the penultimate celebration of our annual 21 Drink Salute to America), I'm crying out, full-throatedly: GIVE ME LIBER-TEA OR GIVE ME DEATH! Patrick Henry -- the slave-holding Virginian who unironically said something to that effect on the eve of the American Revolution -- probably quaffed his fair share of tea... in protest, naturally. But whether he drank delicious peppermint iced tea, brewed in the sun, and spiked with gin and elderflower liqueur, is another question. If he didn't, he was a damn fool, because this stuff is soooo refreshing. I'm gonna sit in my backyard and sip a few as I enjoy the sounds and smells of artillery shells tonight, gearing up for America's big shebang tomorrow... and gearing up for my final 21 Drink Salute cocktail. Until then, cheers!

#21 - JELLO, AMERICA!

Hello, America. Happy Independence Day! Or, as we commonly refer to it, the Fourth of July. Is today a good day to talk about eponyms? An eponym, you probably know, is a commonly-used word that is derived from a specific name or brand. Thus, we call a flying disc toy a "Frisbee" after the proprietary brand... and we refer to the New World between Asia and Europe as "America" after the Italian map-maker Amerigo Vespucci. In the 21 Drink Salute Style Book, the preference is to use generic terms for ingredients rather than their eponyms. Thus, "coffee liqueur" is preferred to "Kahlua," and "elderflower liqueur" is preferred to "St Germain," etc. So, it is with some consternation that today's cocktail cannot -- with a straight face, anyway -- be called the "Layered Alcohol-infused Gelatinous Colloid," but must instead be referred to as the "Jello, America! Shot." Two, maybe three, eponyms there. To be fair, the gelatin I used for this concoction isn't even Jello brand gelatin. I used a Mexican brand called D'Gari for the red and blue layers, and used unflavored store-brand gelatin with sugar and coconut milk for the white layer. The boozy soul of the shot is provided by Malibu -- I mean, coconut rum -- as well as cahaca (the rum-like fermented and distilled sugar cane we saw in the Caiprinha cocktail), and the French violet liqueur we used in the Aviation cocktail. My Jello, America! Shots are not really shots, either... who the hell knows where my shot glasses are stored away? So it's called a shot, but it's not. It's called Jello, but it's not. It's called America after some Italian dude who never set foot in North America. And I'm drinking (eating?) it on a holiday we call for the calendar date rather than for the actual commemoration. Also, have you ever noticed that a "21-Gun Salute" is really just seven guns fired three times? Well, we've for sure done 21 drinks this summer in salute of this land we call America. I've enjoyed creating and imbibing, and I hope you've enjoyed following along. Now it's time to go light a sparkler and slug back some of these layered alcohol-infused gelatinous colloid things. Until next time... cheers!