As you’re contemplating your liquor run for the holiday weekend beach and BBQs, here are two suggestions – one for the boozers and one for the beer drinkers, both with an Americana theme.

Iced tea and vodka go together like peas and carrots

Up first, ICED TEA FLAVORED VODKA. This is a discovery made at the raw bar at Martell’s Tiki Bar a few weeks back. We usually go straight for the fresh squeezed and vodka, but the bartender recommended Sweet Carolina, which they’re plugging pretty hard, and with good reason. Iced tea + booze all in one. It just makes so much sense that you wonder how it got to be 2009 and we’d never been exposed to this on a mass scale here at the Jersey Shore.

The basic formula is about as simple as can be, lots of ice, two fingers of the stuff, and soda water and lemon or lime wedge. The end result is a light and refreshing bubbly version of iced tea that tastes more like real brewed tea than the powdered stuff. Google search brought up a Chow hound thread where someone suggests a little simple syrup if you like it a little sweeter. Good idea. You can also go the Arnold Palmer route and put it in some lemonade.

I picked up two bottles last weekend for some taste testing. The first didn’t make it through the weekend, and the latter my father-in-law apparently took a liking to during the week here, so it looks like I’m heading back for another. Sweet Carolina ($18) was a little cheaper than Firefly ($21). There wasn’t enough differentiation between them that I wouldn’t just grab the cheaper one.

This is perfect for putting in a pitcher and serving at a party, or sneaking onto your beach in a plastic jug if you have the misfortune of having a beach that doesn’t allow you to drink. And what’s more American than iced tea?

Dale's red, white & blue can is 4th-friendly

My second pick is Dale’s Pale Ale that comes in 12 pack ($18), which is a part of a new-ish trend of craft and microbrewed beers coming in a can. Mostly because it’s good, but also because of it’s 4th-friendly red, white and blue can (ok, so my Americana theme is a little weak here, so what).

Dale’s tastes a bit like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, only leaning a bit more in the India Pale Ale direction, a little darker and more bitter of a finish, but not in a bad way. It’s brewed by Oscar Blues in Colorado. I’m into this “Canned Beer Apocalypse” they’re touting. Keep the micro-can-craft beers coming! And we’ll go back to Chow again for an article on Canned Beer That’s Actually Good.

Details magazine said: ”Canned beer has many virtues. It weighs less than bottled beer, chills faster, and stays fresh longer. Unfortunately most of it is also plonk. But not the pale ale from the smart folks at Oskar Blues brewing company in Lyons, Colorado. It’s supremely thirst-quenching, as canned beer should be, yet bitter enough to keep things interesting.”

I’m going to be packing the beach cooler with these all summer!