Life’s a Peach
It’s peach season in the South, and that means cobblers, pies, ice cream—and a Georgia Sunset, a peachy concoction that’ll drop you right into the middle of the orchard.
Fancy a peach? Fancy a cocktail? Fancy a peach cocktail?
Perhaps nothing quite captivates us like a plump, tree-ripened, sun-matured Georgia peach, its fuzzy skin striated in hues of deep red, mellow orange, and blush yellow. Just the pure seduction of its floral flavor, creamy texture and nectar-like fragrance is enough to send you to a roadside stand, a back-roads farm, or even a pick-your-own orchard in a frenzied search for the Peach State’s signature fruit.
In deep South Georgia, when I was growing up, there were only a few peach orchards around, nothing like the endless acres of trees in the Peach Belt of Peach, Macon, Crawford, and Taylor counties. Even though I was quite the tomboy, I still harbored romantic notions and adored walking through a peach orchard and taking in its incredible beauty and delicious scents—just as much as I loved tromping through the piney woods and watching squirrels, rabbits and deer skittering here and there. Back then, as a good church-and-Sunday-School-going Baptist child, I thought only of eating peaches or churning them in ice cream—certainly not blending them with firewater like vodka and rum into fruity, flavorful cocktails.
Nowadays, I savor weekends of driving to the Peach Belt in spring to see the gazillions of peach blossoms, veritable clouds of them, their dappled pink and white petals shining as brightly as diamonds underneath the cathedral of blue sky. And then later, in summer when the peaches are ripe, I make the same journey and find the branches of the trees, laden with heavy fruit, bent almost to the ground and practically heaving with weightiness. In all its simplicity, nothing quite epitomizes the beauty of Georgia like a peach orchard in full bloom.
If you’ve ever picked and eaten peaches right off the tree on a fricassee-hot summer day, then you know how it feels to be all warm and sticky and practically smothered with peach juice. Messy or not, Georgia peaches are divine and the ideal ingredient to take home for cocktail time for those who enjoy sweet libations. These harmonious ingredients in the Georgia Sunset, a luscious concoction if there ever was one, are enticingly tasty with the richness of peach flavor. Go ahead and try one, because after all, life’s a peach.
Ingredients
—1½ ounces peach vodka
—3 ounces orange juice
—3/4 ounce peach schnapps
—2 ounces peach nectar
—Splash of grenadine
Instructions
Shake all ingredients except grenadine together with crushed ice and pour into a tall, frosted glass with more fresh crushed ice. Add splash of grenadine and stir gently two or three times, letting the syrup settle and swirl at the bottom of the glass. Garnish with a strawberry, lime wheel, mint sprig and/or peach slice.
About the author
For almost a decade, Mary Ann Anderson wrote a nationally syndicated cocktails-and-spirits column entitled “On the Rocks” for McClatchy-Tribune News Service, now Tribune News Service. These days, she writes mostly about travel, nature, and Southern culture, but occasionally about great cocktails.