Being a northern transfer to the south, I used to tailgate in the snow and the freezing rain.On an early football morning, you’d be bundled in 7 layers (yes, exactly 7 layers!), trying to huddle around a BBQ that can’t possible be hot enough to cook meat while wind baring fangs of ice tear through you with so much freezing force you’d swear your liver ices over.You take shivering sips of whiskey from metal flasks frozen to your hand while trying to figure out how many different colors your fingers can turn and which one is indicative of frostbite. Down here, it’s a little different, as cold doesn’t really figure in to your pregame.

So I’ve poured over the archives and brought together the tastiest of the Gator themed drinks we have available for your consumption this tailgating season, because variety is the spice of life and Floridians need to keep cool anyway they can, regardless of the color of their beverage.

Let’s start with something topical, a drink that touches on something that has been on our minds since the Tennessee game (and probably beyond if you went to Cancun last year)…

5. Swine Flu and The Vaccine

These are meant to be made in stand up coolers, with the swine flu being your basic Long Island Iced Tea, and the vaccine also known as Gator Whiz.

The Swine Flu part should come as no surprise, we’ve all encountered it before and know of its strength and side effects, but the Gator Whiz is just phenomenal to fight the heat.Light and refreshing, it just fizzes out of the glass, cooling you with tequila/vodka infused bubbles of sweet lime.Better than your average Gatorade coolers, these combine a lot of liquor into two delicious concoctions sure to keep you cool while you pass out.

4. Gator Bombs/Swamp Bombs

Popular shots down south are very often mixed drinks in a shot glass, not really enough to get you buzzed like a few fingers of whiskey will, but with relatively the same cost to you in a bar.When coming up with Gator themed shots, you have to take into account the limited amount of blue liquors out there and work with the fruity flavors available to you.The bombs here, will give you a choice…

Gator BombSwamp Bomb

• 2oz UV Raspberry Vodka2oz Blue Curacao
• Rocks glass of Sunkist (no rocks)Rocks glass of Sunkist (no rocks)

It’s like a Car Bomb, only without the Guinness, Jameson, or Bailey’s…It is a bomb, though.Okay, for the amateurs who haven’t spent half their drinking life in Irish Pubs, a bomb is done by dropping a shot glass, here full of UV or Curacao (pronunciation check, please), into another glass, here a rocks glass rocking some delicious Sunkist.If the amount of orange soda isn’t overpoured, the blue and orange stay separate and look like alcoholic bliss, which it will become the more you drink. Refreshing and pleasing to the eye of a Gator fan.

3. Orange and Blue

For those who don’t want to do a Bomb, another fruity beverage that showcases our school colors is this rummy island sensation, which requires…

Orange and Blue

• 3 parts Mountain Dew High Voltage
• 1 part Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum
• An orange slice

Mountain Dew has gone through the trouble of creating a raspberry flavored, ginseng infused blue soda for us, which tastes absolutely fantastic with a shot (or so) of the Captain in it.Put an orange wheel on the rim and you have yourself a pep rally in a glass.Plus, it’s got ginseng in it, which means that it not only cools you perfectly, but gives you little boosts of energy in every liquory gulp.Warning about the portions, though, as the blue color does not hold up well to larger amounts of Captain and neither will you.This is one of those drinks that sneaks up on you, meaning it doesn’t taste much like alcohol at first, but then the Captain beats you over the head with his first mate’s peg leg and you’re passed out before you know it.

2. The Swamp Thang

ATTENTION MEN: This drink contains peach schnapps, which almost guarantees a testosterone reaction in your system and may be more appropriate to keep your girl cool, though it is tasty none the less.

Swamp Thang

• 3oz Bacardi
• 1oz Peach Schnapps
• 1oz Blue Curacoa
• 1oz Orange Juice
• 1oz Pineapple Juice
• Splash of Grenadine

Having not had an opportunity to try this drink myself, I put it up here at number 2 for the express purpose of giving the ladies something high up on the list.Mix all the ingredients over ice, with the grenadine for color, and you have a slightly feminine drink that will keep her interested as you split your time between the BBQ and the pregame shenanigans (isn’t it always nice to find room for that word).Put an umbrella or a cute straw in it for her if you want.

1. Bourbon Meyer

Perhaps the most manly of the beverages, this one is a southern specific gatortailgating.com favorite and deserves the top spot on the list.

Bourbon Meyer

• 3 parts Sweet Tea
• 1 part Jim Beam

This drink depends on the sweet tea being real, southern, brewed tea with sugar added to it, not the Nestea or powder derived versions you get in jugs.Southern sweet tea is a different beast than its northern brethren and the syrupy goodness of this concoction just isn’t the same with brown iced tea flavored water.You mix this drink over ice, put a lemon in it if you wish, and enjoy a drink as classy as the coach it was named for.Granted, the mix (as Rusty will attest to) does start to weigh more heavily towards the Jim Beam side as the day progresses, but does that really hurt it? Nope, just hurts you in the best way possible.Though it may not show your colors with every sip, once you get it in you in large enough amounts, the gator in you comes out.

So, if you’re taking the party trail all the way to LSU this weekend, you can show your Gator pride not only in the clothes you wear, but in the gatortailgating.com approved booze you imbibe.

Josh Bauer is a Columnist for GatorTailgating.com