Kate Upton has become the quintessential American blonde bombshell, so it's no wonder GQ chose her to stir up some patriotic, er, excitement on the cover of their July 2012 issue.

After steaming up the covers of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and Esquire , the 20-year-old model poses in a star-spangled string bikini while sucking on a red, white and blue popsicle. Pretty heavy on the Americana, huh?

The modern-day pin-up has been a fascination for GQ (and all men in general, it seems), earning their "Body of the Year" title and appearing in editorials that flaunt her award-winning assets . But this cover really seems to drive home her stateside prominence.

On a related note, we couldn't help but notice the popsicle and ice cream trend on the covers of fashion mags. From Beyonce with dripping ice cream on the cover of Dazed & Confused to Lindsay Wixon shoving a cone into her face on i-D , frozen desserts have become almost as ubiquitous as Ms. Upton herself.

Check out some pics from Kate's shoot below, and see more sartorial sweet treats (er, desserts, not hot models) in our slideshow.

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