Maryland is happy to share a coastal peninsula, Interstate 95 and a robust poultry industry with Delaware.

But we’ll be damned if we let them have our preferred cocktail.

This week, lawmakers will consider a bill to name the orange crush Maryland’s state cocktail after another Delmarva state — no, it wasn’t Virginia — recently tried to claim the beloved beverage.

Delaware made the orange crush its state cocktail last year, even as it begrudgingly acknowledged the drink’s birthplace is Ocean City, Maryland.

And legislators there went further, passing these fighting words into law: “The orange crush has been made famous and become synonymous with Dewey Beach, Delaware,” the law states. “The Starboard in Dewey Beach, Delaware perfected the orange crush and serves the most orange crush cocktails of any bar in Delaware every beach season.”

It was perhaps the greatest blow to interstate relations since Charles Calvert and William Penn clashed over ownership of the three counties that now make up our small, small (so small) neighbor. Maryland will not let this aggression stand.

“Delaware stole this from Maryland,” said Del. Wayne Hartman, an Eastern Shore Republican whose district includes Ocean City. He is sponsoring the orange crush bill.

“It truly belongs to Maryland, just like the Maryland crab cake,” he said.

Despite the First State’s best efforts, Marylanders know who really made the orange crush, said Chris Wall, one of the owners of the Harborside Bar & Grill in Ocean City.

He’s one of the people who developed the crush, a combination of vodka, fresh-squeezed orange juice and triple sec topped with a little lemon-lime soda. On a rainy Saturday in October 1995, Wall, a bartender and a customer put their heads together to make cocktail magic, he recalled.

They had some orange-flavored vodka, fresh oranges and a dream. The end result was the original Maryland orange crush.

Wall doesn’t take it personally that Delaware wanted in on the action.

“We got a lot of free advertising out of it, and I thank them for that,” he said. “Imitation is the highest form of flattery.”

About 30 years after its creation, the orange crush is Maryland’s go-to summer drink, both unofficially and by state proclamation — Gov. Wes Moore declared it so last year, after Sen. Ben Cardin faced off against Delaware Sen. Chris Coons in an orange crush competition.

Cardin crushed him, of course, and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who helped judge, poked fun at Maryland’s vanquished adversary this week.

“Even if other states attempt to claim or copy it — we’re looking at you, Delaware — everyone knows you go to Ocean City to get the best. As the place where it was invented and perfected, it’s only right for Maryland to declare the orange crush its official state cocktail,” he said.

Now the General Assembly could give the designation the force of law. While we have a state spirit (Maryland rye whiskey) and a state drink (... milk), there is no official state cocktail.

A group of lawmakers — all Republicans, though they say they are open to bipartisan sponsors — is pushing a straightforward bill that directs only a little shade at Delaware: “The original Maryland orange crush is the state cocktail.”

Supporters say the bill could have an outsize economic impact by generating tourism in Maryland and encouraging orange crush purchases, which are taxed at 9%.

“Designating the original Maryland orange crush as the State’s official cocktail may seem small, but it opens the possibility of inspirational new marketing messages to bring visitors to places like Ocean City to try an orange crush where it originated,” the Maryland Department of Commerce wrote in support of the legislation. The Maryland Department of Agriculture also supports the bill.

Hartman said the bill also offers a moment of relief during an unusually busy and difficult legislative session.

“It’s such a tough session,” he said. “It’s nice to have a bill that’s going to be fun.”

Hartman is certainly having fun with the bill. He posted a sign outside his legislative office that features a bottle of orange vodka and a bottle of triple sec on either side of two round orange slices, spelling out the House bill number, 1001.

And don’t worry, lawmakers will also get to sip the cocktail before making this momentous decision. Harborside Bar & Grill will offer a demonstration and samples on Thursday, Hartman said, the day the Senate and House versions of the bill will get committee hearings.

The fun may spill over to another branch of Maryland’s government, too. A spokesman for Moore said the governor’s office usually doesn’t comment on bill signing decisions this early.

“But Gov. Moore will surely be having an orange crush to celebrate if this bill makes it to his desk,” he added.