the friday feed: orange crush (the adult version 🧡)

As a child, I loved Orange Crush, the carbonated soft drink with its sweet, tangy, bold citrus flavor.

This past week while vacationing in Maryland, we went out to dinner a couple of evenings. On both nights, I noticed an Orange Crush on the adult drink menu. After a day of pool and beach time with the grandkids, an adult version of that familiar orange flavor sounded refreshing.

This Orange Crush is definitely more adult than the one I remembered as a child. It’s a popular Maryland beach cocktail made with orange vodka, triple sec, freshly squeezed orange juice, and Sprite, served over crushed ice. It was a very refreshing drink after a day in the sun.

This drink was invented in 1995 at Harborside Bar & Grill in Ocean City and was officially designated Maryland’s state cocktail in June 2025.

From the soda I enjoyed as a kid to the cocktail I discovered on a Maryland beach vacation as a grandma, the Orange Crush turned out to be a refreshing little taste of nostalgia.