Grilled Peach Old Fashioned Recipe

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Though it's a simple drink, the old fashioned has quite a few varieties out there. Some involve simple swaps like demurara sugar instead of white or rye instead of bourbon. Other iterations are more complex, combining flavorful bitters with sugared fruits or fresh herbs. Still, the drink never loses its old-fashioned charm, always maintaining the same smooth flavor of its brown base liquor. Even the Wisconsin old fashioned, often ridiculed for its unique spin on the drink, has all the same qualities that make it a comfort in a glass.

For a summertime spin on the classic whiskey drink, turn to one the season's most popular fruits: the peach. Juicy, sweet, and ripe with fruity vanilla flavor, peach pairs perfectly with bourbon and sugar. Grilled, peaches take on an even richer flavor, complemented by the smoky char of the grill's flames. To recreate this flavor profile in my grilled peach old fashioned recipe, I mixed bourbon with toasted almond bitters and homemade peach simple syrup for a toasty, nutty, fruity flavor that can be garnished with freshly grilled peaches — perfect for enjoying after a long day manning the grill.

To make peach simple syrup, you'll need fresh peaches (the riper the better), and granulated sugar. To make the cocktail itself, you'll need toasted almond bitters and bourbon, and to garnish, I recommend grabbing an extra peach to char on the grill.

To make the simple syrup, add 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water to a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk well to dissolve sugar into water.

Once dissolved, add peach slices and bring to a boil. Once boiling, remove from the heat and steep for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Strain the syrup (pressing down on the fruit to get extra juices) into a glass jar.

In the meantime, heat the grill to 350 F.

Place the peach slices on the grill (you can grill as many slices as you want, depending on how many cocktails you're making at once). Grill the peach slices over indirect heat for 2 minutes, until just charred. Remove from the heat and set aside for garnishing.

To make the cocktail, add an ice cube to a rocks glass. Pour the bourbon and simple syrup over the ice, then add the bitters.

Gently stir for 10 seconds to combine.

Add the grilled peach slices to garnish and serve.

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The peach garnish in this recipe does more heavy lifting than you'd think. The char from the grill adds a subtle but direct layer of smoky flavor, truly adding a certain depth that most cocktails don't have. The garnish is added directly into the drink for this reason, much like how some iterations of old fashioned add orange peels or cherries. If you don't have a grill to make the garnishes with, there are other ways to achieve a similar flavor using other kitchen gadgets.

The next best thing beyond a grill is a grill pan, which is made of cast iron and has grates shaped like those on a grill. Heated over the stove, the cast iron gets ripping hot and effectively grills the peaches, leaving char marks behind. This still brings out some of the caramel flavors in the peach and leaves obvious grill marks, but this method is mostly for the visual; the smokiness of the flames wouldn't be as obvious here. Another method you can use is direct flame from a kitchen torch or direct heat from the broiler. For these methods, lightly sprinkle the peaches with sugar, then gently brulee them under the heat of a torch or broiler. This will be a sweet, smokey peach garnish with plenty of flavor.

An old fashioned traditionally calls for bourbon, which is sweeter than rye whiskey, with more notes of caramel and vanilla. It is used in the old fashioned for its mild flavor, which pairs well with the sugar and citrus that otherwise makes up the drink. Rye whiskey, typically used in the darker, sharper Manhattan, has a spicier flavor that tastes stronger when served simpler over ice. It still makes a great old fashioned, and is a good swap to make if you want to taste a sharper, more intense whiskey flavor from your cocktail.

Beyond experimenting with various brands of bourbons and ryes, you can also swap for brandy, which is an even sweeter brown spirit often used in Wisconsin old fashioneds. Brandy is actually a distilled wine or juice, not a whiskey, and as such has a sweeter flavor profile perfect for pairing with peaches and almonds. Even though it is a wine, it still makes a good substitute for bourbon in both baked goods and cocktails because it has such a similar flavor profile.

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