Cointreau? Or Pine Mountain Orange Blossom Gin? Or would you make your own infusion?

Bob

edit: What is the garnish?

In the States, today is National Margarita Day.

Really? Well, I suppose we could do that ...

... wait ... I didn't know anything about National Margarita Day, but a quick Google comes up with a consistent message that it's on 22nd February each year. I've missed it.

I'm guessing the 22nd of February must be British National Margarita Day, then. Yank NMD was yesterday, on the 24th.

This could be made at home, but it's definitely a bar drink from its inception, and a Nano Original (in that despite it being dirt-basic, no one seems to have ever encountered or heard of it before me): Basically it's just whiskey, seven (lemon-lime), and bitters. This mix has the curious attribute of seeming to benefit best the more pedestrian its ingredients are. Once they ran out of rail whiskey and substituted Jameson, and IMO it didn't work. So I warn you beforehand: It MUST be made with rail whiskey, the seven from the devil-may-care tap (for atmosphere), and the bitters should be not designer, but Angostura. As I said, pedestrian as hell, but the result is surprisingly satisfying. When it's made right, the taste reminds me of honey. A tall glass filled with ice, an ounce of detestable-grade whiskey, fill it with the lemon-lime soda, and top it off with three to five slugs of bitters, depending on the timidity of your wrist. Now, you could build it with the bitters first so that it all mixes together beforehand, and I'm okay with that, but if you want the Nano-authentic classic, it is bitters last for presentation, and that gives the drink its name: Blood in the Water. You admire the ghoulish vision before you (and assess the proportion of bitters thereby), and then mix it after the fact with your straw (hopefully an eco-friendly one). Mixing done, the Nano way is to ditch the straw. Like all cocktails, a Blood in the Water isn't for everyone, but I think it's pretty good, and it's my go-to when I'm out on the town.

I might have to try this, if I can bring myself to buy cheap whiskey.

Nobody has mentioned a hot toddy - AKA whisky punch!

It's said that the Jacobites in retreat always had a string-bag for the lemons for their hot toddies, whatever else they left behind.

For that one day each year in the Isles when it gets intolerably warm, try a mint julep. Simple syrup, mint leaves and bourbon over ice with a mint garnish. Here is one site of many that google will turn up. Ignore the optional bitters. Only heathens do that.

It's like drinking a salad.

Lettuce with a gladsome mind? (Not sure if the reference stands crossing the pond?)