The Ultimate Bourbon Peach Smash: Your Perfect Summer Cocktail Guide
Experience the vibrant flavors of summer with the Bourbon Peach Smash – a refreshing, subtly spicy cocktail ideal for warm evenings. This guide includes a delightful non-alcoholic variation to ensure everyone can enjoy!
There are few things as quintessentially summer as a ripe, juicy peach. Their sweet aroma and succulent flesh instantly transport you to sun-drenched orchards and long, leisurely days. Couple that with the smooth, warming notes of bourbon and the invigorating kick of fresh mint, and you have a cocktail that’s nothing short of extraordinary: the Bourbon Peach Smash.
My own journey with this delightful drink began on a serene summer evening in Maine, during a visit to the charming Wiggly Bridge Distillery in York. The air was crisp yet comfortably warm, the sky a canvas of clear blues, and a gentle ocean breeze carried the scent of salty coast. Having just indulged in a delicious lobster dinner, my spirits were high, and I was in search of the perfect libation to cap off the day.
Perusing Wiggly Bridge’s carefully curated craft cocktail menu, one drink immediately caught my eye: the Bourbon Peach Smash. Its description promised a harmonious blend of fruity sweetness and a hint of spice, and it delivered on every count. Each sip was a mini-celebration, a perfect prelude to an evening by a beach bonfire. Before departing, I made sure to acquire a bottle of their acclaimed bourbon, determined to recreate that magical York-inspired experience for my friends back home. It’s truly a taste of vacation you can enjoy anytime!
Decoding the Smash: More Than Just a Drink
The “smash” cocktail, while a beloved staple on many craft cocktail menus, holds a delightful ambiguity in its definition. Unlike more rigid cocktail categories, the smash embraces improvisation and seasonality, making it a favorite for bartenders and home mixologists alike. At its heart, a smash is a simple yet incredibly versatile drink, celebrating fresh ingredients and a refreshing finish.
Key Elements of a Classic Smash
While the exact recipe can vary widely, a true smash cocktail typically includes these core components:
- Seasonal Fruit and/or Herb: This is where the smash truly shines. It’s all about leveraging the freshest produce available. Peaches are a fantastic choice, but berries like blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries are also popular. Herbs such as mint (the most common), basil, or rosemary can add an aromatic layer. These ingredients are gently muddled to release their juices and essential oils, forming the flavor base.
- Sweetener: To balance the fruit and spirit, a sweetener is essential. Simple syrup (a 1:1 mixture of sugar and water) is the most common choice as it blends seamlessly into the drink. Brown sugar simple syrup, honey syrup, or even maple syrup can introduce unique depth and complexity.
- Spirit: Often, the smash features a base spirit like bourbon or whiskey, giving it a comforting warmth. However, gin, vodka, or even rum can be excellent alternatives, each lending a different character to the finished cocktail. The choice of spirit allows for endless experimentation and personalization.
- Plenty of Ice: A smash is meant to be enjoyed icy cold. It’s typically shaken with ice and then served over a generous amount of fresh ice in a rocks glass, ensuring a consistently chilled and invigorating experience.
- A “Splash” of Something Fizzy: To brighten the drink and add effervescence, a splash of seltzer water, club soda, or ginger beer is often added as a topping. Ginger beer, with its spicy kick, is particularly complementary to bourbon and peach flavors, while seltzer offers a crisp, clean finish.
The beauty of the smash lies in its adaptability. It’s a canvas for highlighting the best of each season, allowing you to create countless variations. From a vibrant Blackberry-Lemon Mint Julep to a Cherry Basil Smash, the possibilities are limited only by your imagination and the availability of fresh ingredients.
For those eager to delve deeper into the rich history and evolution of this cocktail, resources like History of the Smash from Imbibe Magazine offer fascinating insights into its origins, tracing its lineage back to the mint juleps of the 19th century.
Bourbon: The Soul of the Smash
If you’ve spent any time exploring cocktail recipes, you’ve likely noticed bourbon’s prominent role, especially on this site. There’s a good reason for its widespread appeal. Bourbon brings a rich, warm, and inviting depth to a vast array of dishes and drinks. Whether it’s infusing a classic cocktail, enriching a sweet potato pie, adding complexity to barbecue sauce, or creating a luscious glaze for bacon-wrapped shrimp, bourbon consistently elevates flavors.
What Defines Bourbon?
To be legally called bourbon, a whiskey must meet several strict criteria:
- It must be made in the United States.
- The grain mixture (mash bill) must be at least 51% corn.
- It must be aged in new, charred oak containers (almost always barrels).
- It must be distilled to no more than 160 proof (80% alcohol by volume).
- It must be entered into the barrel for aging at no more than 125 proof (62.5% alcohol by volume).
- It must be bottled at no less than 80 proof (40% alcohol by volume).
These regulations contribute to bourbon’s distinctive character.
Flavor Profile: Bourbon vs. Rye
In terms of flavor, bourbon whiskey is generally renowned for its sweeter and milder profile compared to rye whiskey. This sweetness largely stems from its high corn content, which imparts notes of caramel, vanilla, and toasted oak. You might also detect hints of dried fruit, honey, and a subtle spiciness, depending on the specific mash bill and aging process.
Rye whiskey, on the other hand, is characterized by its spicier, drier, and often fruitier notes. It frequently presents flavors of black pepper, cinnamon, and mint, making it a more assertive spirit. While an over-generalization, rye often stands up to more robust and complex flavor pairings. However, it’s worth noting that the vast world of bourbon offers a spectrum of flavors; some bourbons, particularly those with a higher rye content in their mash bill, can exhibit a more robust and spicier edge.
Choosing Your Bourbon
For cooking and cocktail making, I frequently rely on readily available and reliable bourbons. Maker’s Mark, with its smooth, approachable profile, is a perennial favorite. Lately, Buffalo Trace and Knob Creek have become my go-to all-purpose bourbons for crafting cocktails. I tend to reach for Knob Creek when I desire a cocktail with a touch more spice and intensity.
However, nothing quite compares to the experience of discovering an exceptional small-barrel craft bourbon during your travels, such as the one from Wiggly Bridge. These special bottles are more than just spirits; they’re memories. Meeting the distillers, witnessing their passion, and seeing firsthand where these exquisite spirits are produced adds a unique narrative to each sip. They become cherished additions to any home bar or bourbon collection, offering a story with every pour.
Essential Tools and Ingredients for Your Bourbon Peach Smash
The beauty of the Bourbon Peach Smash lies not only in its delightful flavor but also in its straightforward preparation. It’s a cocktail perfectly suited for the relaxed vibe of summer, requiring minimal specialized equipment. Let’s break down what you’ll need to create this refreshing drink.
Key Tools for Success
For a perfect smash, a few basic bar tools are indispensable:
- Cocktail Shaker with a Strainer: This is crucial for properly chilling and mixing your ingredients. The strainer ensures a smooth pour, separating the muddled fruit and mint from the liquid.
- Muddler: A muddler is used to gently press and crush fruits and herbs at the bottom of the shaker. The key is to extract the juices and essential oils without pulverizing the ingredients, which can release bitter flavors, especially from mint.
- Rocks Glass: Also known as an Old Fashioned glass, this sturdy, wide-mouthed glass is perfect for serving the smash over plenty of ice.
- Jigger (Optional, but Recommended): While not strictly necessary if you have good judgment, a jigger ensures precise measurements of your spirits and syrups, leading to consistently delicious cocktails.
Beyond the Bourbon and Peaches: Supporting Ingredients
While bourbon and peaches are the stars, a few other components elevate this smash to perfection:
Simple Syrup: The Essential Sweetener
Simple syrup is a foundational ingredient in many cocktails, and for good reason. It’s a 1:1 ratio of sugar and hot water, stirred until the sugar completely dissolves, then cooled. This liquid sweetener integrates far more smoothly into cold drinks than granulated sugar, preventing grittiness and ensuring even sweetness throughout. It’s incredibly easy to make at home and can be stored in the refrigerator for about a month.
While white granulated sugar is most commonly used for simple syrup, feel free to experiment with other sweeteners. For this Bourbon Peach Smash, I highly recommend using light brown sugar simple syrup. The subtle molasses notes in brown sugar beautifully complement the sweetness of the peaches and the warmth of the bourbon, adding another layer of complex flavor. You can also make simple syrup with honey for a different nuance.
To make Brown Sugar Simple Syrup: Combine equal parts (e.g., 1 cup) light brown sugar with equal parts (e.g., 1 cup) hot water in a heat-proof container. Stir continuously until all the sugar crystals have dissolved. Allow the syrup to cool completely to room temperature before using. Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three weeks.
Selecting Your Peaches
Choose ripe, fragrant peaches. They should yield slightly to gentle pressure and have a sweet aroma. Both freestone and clingstone peaches work well. For muddling, leave the skin on – it adds color, texture, and additional flavor. Just make sure to wash them thoroughly before dicing.
Fresh Mint: Aromatic Brilliance
The mint in a smash is more than just a garnish; it’s a critical flavor component. Always use fresh, vibrant mint leaves. When muddling, be gentle! The goal is to release the aromatic oils, not to shred the leaves into tiny pieces. Over-muddling mint can release chlorophyll, leading to a bitter, grassy taste.
The Fizzy Finish: Ginger Beer or Seltzer
To top off your smash, a splash of something bubbly adds lightness and effervescence. Ginger beer is my preferred choice for its spicy, warming kick that beautifully intertwines with the bourbon and peach. If you prefer a lighter, crisper finish that allows the peach and bourbon flavors to shine unadulterated, chilled seltzer water is an excellent alternative. If using seltzer, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice (about ½ ounce) in the shaker can help brighten and balance the flavors.
The Importance of Ice
When it comes to the Bourbon Peach Smash, the key word for ice is plentiful. This cocktail is best enjoyed icy cold. Filling your glass to the brim with ice ensures a perfectly chilled drink from the first sip to the last. You can use standard ice cubes, but crushed ice is often preferred for a smash. Crushed ice chills the drink more rapidly and provides a more even dilution as it melts, contributing to the cocktail’s refreshing character. If you want to make crushed ice at home without a fancy machine, a Lewis bag and a mallet are excellent tools to have.
With these elements in place, you’re ready to craft your own perfect Bourbon Peach Smash. Fill up the glass with ice, pour, put your feet up, and savor every invigorating sip!
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Bourbon Peach Smash
Ingredients
- ½ to 1 ounce brown sugar simple syrup (see note)
- ½ large peach, diced (about 1/2 cup)
- 3-4 large mint leaves
- 2 ounces bourbon
- Splash ginger beer (preferred) or seltzer water, chilled
- Ice
- Fresh mint and peach slices, for garnish
Instructions
- Add peaches, mint leaves, and simple syrup to the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Gently muddle to release the peach juices and mint oils. (Over-muddling the mint will cause it to become bitter.)
- Add bourbon, fill the shaker with ice, and shake until well-chilled. Strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice.
- Top with ginger beer or seltzer water. Garnish with fresh mint sprigs and a peach slice.
Notes
*We prefer a nice spicy ginger beer to finish this cocktail. Note that if you’re using seltzer water, you might enjoy adding a little lemon juice (about 1/2 ounce) to the shaker to balance the flavors.
About the Brown Sugar Simple Syrup:
The quantity of syrup you need will depend on the sweetness/juiciness of your peaches, the bourbon you’re using, and your personal tastes. We typically make this cocktail with 1 ounce of simple syrup, but when I’ve gotten very sweet peaches at the market, I’ve reduced it to 1/2 to 3/4 ounce.
To make Brown Sugar Simple Syrup, combine equal parts brown sugar and hot water until sugar is dissolved. Cool to room temperature and store, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.
Non-alcoholic Variation:
Omit bourbon and simple syrup. Muddle the peaches and mint with 1-1/2 ounces of peach juice and 1/2 ounce of lemon juice. Strain over ice, and top with ginger beer or ginger ale. Add simple syrup only to taste, if desired.
Nutrition Estimate (Approximate)
Calories: 242 kcal | Carbohydrates: 29 g | Sodium: 17 mg | Potassium: 166 mg | Fiber: 1 g | Sugar: 28 g | Vitamin A: 370 IU | Vitamin C: 5.8 mg | Iron: 1.2 mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
About our recipes
Please note that our recipes have been developed using the US Customary measurement system and have not been tested for high altitude/elevation cooking and baking.