Drinks With Orange Soda: Vodka, Rum, Bourbon and the Creamsicle Highball

Worst Saturday I ever worked, the soda gun died at nine. Every line. Cola, tonic, lemon-lime, all of it. In the back we had a few cases of cans. Ginger ale, club soda, and about forty cans of orange soda nobody had touched since spring.

So for three hours, everything was orange. Vodka orange. Rum orange. Bourbon orange. I braced for complaints. Got repeat orders instead.

Orange soda is a better mixer than people think. It’s sweet, sure. It’s also tart. And it smells like candied orange peel, which covers a cheap pour nicely. Most of what follows is two ingredients. That’s the appeal.

Fanta, Sunkist, Crush, Orangina

Not the same soda. Pick on purpose.

Fanta is the cleanest. Bright, sharp, very sweet. My default with vodka.

Sunkist is rounder and heavier, more orange candy. It also has caffeine in the US version, and Fanta and Crush don’t. Remember that at midnight.

Crush sits between them. Lots of fizz. A little less syrupy on the finish.

Orangina is the grown-up. Real juice, real pulp, softer bubbles. Shake the bottle first. It’s printed on the label for a reason.

Italian aranciata, like San Pellegrino’s, is the driest. Treat it like fresh juice with bubbles.

Store brand? Fine. Nobody can tell in a highball with ice.

The ratio table

Two ounces of liquor, four to six of soda. Ice to the top. Liquor first, soda down the side, one lift with the spoon. Here’s what I’d actually pour.

Don’t batch a pitcher an hour early. It goes flat and the sugar takes over. Pour to order.

Vodka and orange soda

Most-asked pairing. Short answer: it works.

Plain vodka and Fanta is a drink. Not an exciting one. I add a squeeze of lime and move on. The Hacksaw is smarter. One ounce of vodka, one of orange juice, two of orange soda. Juice gives it body. Soda gives it lift. The Orange Soda Driver is the same idea with a bigger pour. Fizzy screwdriver.

Vanilla vodka is the upgrade. That’s the creamsicle. Vanilla rounds off the sugar and you get the ice cream bar off the truck. If Crush is what you’ve got, the Orange Creamsicle #2 is two ounces of Smirnoff Vanilla to eight of Crush. Same drink. Longer.

Then the Oki Sun. Vodka, orange soda, and twelve ounces of mint chocolate chip ice cream. It’s a float. I doubted mint with orange. I was wrong. Tastes like one of those chocolate oranges you whack on the table.

Rum, whiskey, amaretto

Spiced rum loves orange. The cinnamon and clove plus orange taste like something mulled, only cold. One for the Bums is exactly that. Want coconut in there too? Anna’s Tropical Getaway stacks Captain Morgan and Malibu over six ounces of orange soda.

Bourbon with orange soda. People make a face. Then they taste it. Think about an Old Fashioned. Orange, sugar, whiskey. Same idea, louder. The vanilla in the barrel does the rest.

Orange Beam is Jim Beam and orange soda. The Kist from Jim is the Sunkist version with a five-ounce pour of bourbon. Five. Share it. Old Sunkist does it with Old Grand-Dad. Fruitier? The Lynyrd Skynyrd splits the mixer between orange soda and orange juice. Southern band, Southern whiskey.

Amaretto I didn’t see coming. The Lynchmob is amaretto with three ounces each of orange soda and sweet and sour. Amaretto sour that fizzes. Sold a lot of those to people who claim they don’t like sweet drinks.

Orangina and aranciata

These two deserve better than a well pour.

The French Screwdriver is Grey Goose orange vodka topped with five or six ounces of Orangina. Orange wheel. Tall glass. That’s a real cocktail and you can charge for it.

The French Monkey is one-third Orangina, two-thirds red wine. Spain does this with cola and calls it a kalimotxo. Cheap red only. Don’t you dare open the good bottle.

The International Akbar is aranciata, a quarter lime and two ounces of Havana Club añejo. Driest drink on the page. Closest to a proper highball.

The other Orange Crush

Same name as the soda. Different drink. Confuses everyone.

The Ocean City, Maryland, Orange Crush is vodka, orange liqueur and fresh-squeezed orange juice, usually topped with lemon-lime soda. Our Orange Crush keeps the vodka, liqueur and juice. On the boardwalk they squeeze the oranges in front of you.

Swap the lemon-lime for orange soda and it’s a double-orange Crush. Sweeter. Some people swear by it. I still top mine with Sprite, and our drinks with Sprite list has plenty more like it. If you’d rather skip soda and stay with juice, here’s the whole run of cocktails with orange juice.

Nights like that dead-gun Saturday are why I like having a list of what my shelf can actually make. Back then I was guessing.

We fixed the gun Sunday morning. Tuesday, a regular asked if we could keep the orange thing on the menu. We did. All summer.

Last modified on October 19, 2026