It's A Peach!

For me, two fruit have always signified the height of summer: The peach and the cherry. Today, I am tackling peaches, and cherries will have to wait for another day. The peach, along with it's half sister, the nectarine, were always around in our house during the summer. I picked up a half dozen peaches the other day at the grocery, and, naturally, I felt a need to make stewed peaches. The recipe is very simple. Take a syrup of two parts water to one part sugar, and add one other flavour element that plays well with peaches, in this case a healthy splash of vanilla extract (yes, yes, the bean is better, but being a poor college student, I have extract). Bring the syrup to a simmer and toss in halved or quartered peaches, and let them cook in the syrup until somewhat softened. Pull out the peaches, and reduce the syrup by half to a quarter (giving you 1-1 or 2-1 syrup). Serve the peaches with vanilla ice cream and a splash of syrup. Store the remaining peaches in syrup.

But what to do with the syrup? Well, peaches are a southern thing. What else is a s'uth'n thing? Bourbon. What takes syrup and bourbon? An old fashioned! Sooo....

Scrivenal Peach Old Fashioned

• 2 oz. - Bourbon (A smooth bourbon with nice vanilla notes would work great, but all I had was Boulleit.)
• .5 oz - Vanilla Peach Syrup (described above)
• 2-3 dashes - Bitters (I used Angustura Aromatic, but Fee's Peach might be nice.)

Build in a tumbler as you would a normal old fashioned. If you can think of an appropriate garnish, let me know, but maybe a peach wedge.

Unfortunately, I didn't get an opportunity to photograph the drink, but it was darn tasty. And yes, I don't really garnish drinks for my own personal consumption. I make them how I like them, so I don't need the ability to customize the drink.

Pleasant drinking,
The Scribe