Orange Crush Cocktail Sparks Battle Over Booze

June brings the start of summer and in Maryland, it means it is Orange Crush season.

The Orange Crush was named Maryland's official cocktail starting June 1, after lawmakers in the 2025 General Assembly took action.

The drink of orange juice, vodka, triple sec and Sprite was invented in Ocean City, but Delaware previously passed a law declaring it the official state cocktail, noting the drink was invented in Maryland but perfected in adjacent Delaware.

Maryland responded this year and passed a law making it the official state cocktail, one of the 849 bills adopted in the 2025 legislative session.

The drink was created 30 years ago at the Harborside Bar and Grill in Ocean City. “They’ve been coming in and asking for them for years,” co-owner Wall told WTOP. “We are the original creators.”

(Scroll down for a copycat recipe you can make at home.)

Maryland Del. Wayne Hartman represents Wicomico and Worcester counties, and had to push back on Delaware's incursion into the summer beach drink. He pushed the law through the legislature in Annapolis.

“I want the Orange Crush to be as synonymous as the Maryland crab cake,” Hartman told WTOP.

Many states have an official — or signature — drink or cocktail. A sampling includes:

• Wisconsin's official cocktail: The brandy old-fashioned, made with brandy, sugar, bitters
• Delaware: Orange Crush, made with orange juice, vodka, triple sec, and lemon-lime soda
• Virginia: Appalachian Manhattan, made with Boar Creek whiskey, vermouth, and bitters
• Georgia: Scarlet O’Hara, made with Southern Comfort, cranberry juice and a dash of lime juice
• Florida: Sex on the Beach, made with orange juice, cranberry juice, vodka, and peach schnapps; or the Rum Runner, made with pineapple juice, orange juice, blackberry liqueur, banana liqueur, light rum, dark rum and grenadine
• Pennsylvania: Yuengling or any local craft beer
• Arizona: Tequila Sunrise, made with tequila, orange juice and grenadine
• California: Mai Tai made with rum, orange curaçao, orgeat, simple syrup, and lime; or Napa Valley wine
• New York: Manhattan, made with rye whiskey, vermouth and orange bitters; or Long Island Iced Tea, made with vodka, gin, tequila, rum, triple sec, lemon juice, and cola
• Illinois: Malort bitter liqueur

State drink designations come from the Tasting Table, Spoon University and the Daily Meal.

Last summer, Democratic colleagues in the U.S. Senate Ben Cardin of Maryland and Chris Coons of Delaware battled to see who could make the best Orange Crush cocktail after Delaware lawmakers adopted — or stole, depending on where you live — the official state cocktail.

“I really do want to thank Delaware for the flattery. We know imitation is the best form of flattery,” Cardin said, according to Scripps News.

A four-judge panel that included a Washington Post Food reporter named Cardin the winner for whipping up the tastiest Orange Crush.

Pickles Pub near Camden Yards uses more than 5,000 oranges on a typical Friday to make its 32-ounce Crushes.

Tom Leonard, part owner of the pub, told WYPR that the fresh juice is key to the drink.

“I would say five years ago that we were a beer bar and we are a crush pub, 100% now,” Leonard said. “I mean, it's like, it's like the number one thing is the Orange Crush. It's the juice.”

The Punch drink website published Harborside Bar's official bartender recipe for the Orange Crush:

• 2 ounces orange vodka, preferably Smirnoff
• 2 ounces triple sec, preferably La Quinta
• juice of one orange
• lemon-lime soda, to top, preferably Sierra Mist

Directions

1. Combine vodka and triple sec in a pint glass with ice.
2. Fresh-squeezed orange juice directly into glass.
3. Top with a splash of lemon-lime soda and drink immediately.

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