Its picnic time. The weather is HOT and I have no air conditioning, which means I’ll have the best luck enduring the heat in the shade of a big tree. Its been birthday time the last few weeks as well for us Dirty Girls. My birthday present to Mai-Yan was this cocktail at her Birthday Barbecue Beach Bash. It was invented, however, for a picnic. And that is how it will be used for the rest of the summer- especially since I was given a beautiful picnic basket for my birthday last week.
I had decided that I wanted to make a ginger peach cocktail for a 4th of July picnic. I didn’t know what kind of alcohol to use, but I suspected it would be something frou-frou like rum – the kind of alcohol you normally find in a girly spritzer. Instead, I found this recipe for Ginger Peach Juleps. It is a hilarious recipe requiring morning dew on the mint, and ice the size of “April corn snow in Northern Vermont.” Plus, I loved the idea of bourbon. It took some of the girliness out of the drink, and a lot of men ended up happily drinking the cocktail at the party (even demanding that I post the drink on my blog immediately!). I substituted ginger ale for ginger syrup, hoping its sparkling nature would be able to replace the “morning dew” on the mint for freshness. The mint in my yard won’t have much dew left on it past about 6 am, which is when I won’t be drinking this. I also think that ginger ale is easily carried separate to a picnic, making it easy to make a virgin version.
The recipe would be great camping too, of course. Whiskey is always a popular lightweight choice for an overnight, and it won’t be a problem if you bruise up the peaches in your backpack, since you have to do just that eventually anyway.
Luckily, it’s late afternoon by now. I have some leftover ratatouille that came from the tomatoes and squash in my garden, and I have the ingredients for this cocktail. I’m gonna head over to my big shady tree.
Ginger Peach Julep
Yield
1 drinkPrep Time / Cook Time
/Activity Guide
Car Camping, PicnicIngredients
- 1 ounce bourbon whiskey
- 2 slices ripe peach
- 8-10 mint leaves
- ginger ale
- ice
Tools
- Knife
- Tall glass (or jar or plastic mug)
- Muddler (plastic spoon or long handle)
Method
- Throw the peach slices and mint into the tall glass with the whiskey. Use one shot for a single, or two shots for a double. Muddle it all together well so that the peach and mint flavors get into the whiskey.
- Fill the glass to the top with ice.
- Fill the glass to the top with ginger ale. A good gingery micro-brewed ginger ale would work really well here.
- Sip and relax, and do chew on a mint leaf or peach slice here and there.
This recipe frickin’ rocks. I made it with “good” ginger ale & didn’t use ice – just had everything but bourbon really cold. I liked the peaches very ripe – more juicy. I even added a few “ginger curls” for garnish & extra zing. I was so popular w/ this recipe over the weekend, I had to lie that I didn’t have any more bourbon (we were in a dry county).