Brightest Young Things

The 4th of July is almost upon us, and to me that means blue curacao and grenadine-based drinks. Nothing says "patriotic" quite like Red #40 and blue food coloring mixed with strong spirits (for this reason I generally avoid blue curacao the rest of the year as I imbibe way too much of it around July 4th).

Bluejacket

• 1/2 Dry gin
• 1/4 Blue curacao
• 1/4 Orange bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. It's a little syrupy sweet, like mixing gin and snow-cone syrup or Slurpee remnants. Not bad, actually. I mean, I'd rather drink this at a barbecue than Corona any day of the week.