Créme de Pêche
Créme de pêche, or peach liqueur as it is known, slightly less excitingly, in English, is flavoured as you might expect by peaches. It is one of the more unusual fruit liqueurs, though all the main liqueur companies like Giffard and Briottet produce at least one form of it. Créme de pêche tends to be very sweet, with a strong ripe peach taste and sometimes a mild aromatic flavour which comes from including the peach stone in the production process.
In addition to regular créme de pêche there is also a liqueur called créme de pêche de vigne, which is made from the vine peach. This variety of peach is commonly found in vineyards, particularly in Burgundy in France, and has a more intense, aromatic flavour than regular peaches. The resulting liqueur tends to me more aromatic and complex than plain Créme de Pêche, though paradoxically also has a certain delicateness that is hard to quantify.
For the two cocktails here I am using the excellent Edmond Briottet Créme de Pêche de Vigne. While créme de pêche and créme de pêche de vigne have notable differences they are broadly interchangeable, though you may have to change ratios to take in to account the subtleties of each liqueur.
Corkscrew
- 1½ shots / 45 ml / 1½ oz light rum
- ½ shot / 15 ml / ½ oz dry vermouth
- ½ shot / 15 ml / ½ oz créme de pêche
- ¼ shot / 7.5 ml / ¼ oz lime juice
- Shake well with ice and fine strain in to a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.
The combination of rum and vermouth is already a favourite of mine thanks to the El Presidente, so this cocktail immediately jumped out at me amongst the few cocktails using créme de pêche on CocktailDB. The original recipe calls for a “squeeze” of lime which seemed a little imprecise, so after a little experimentation I decided upon ¼ oz. I also ended up using a lightly aged rum (Havana Club Añejo Especial) as I was out of white rum.
The initial taste of the Corkscrew is dominated by the créme de pêche, along with a slight lime undertone, though as this subsides a combination of vanilla and delicate floral flavours becomes apparent. It has a dry and mildly tart finish but the overall impression is somewhat one dimensional. A fair cocktail which frames rum well with complementary flavours, it’s not unenjoyable but ultimately is a bit dull. That said, probably a good gateway cocktail for those who find some of the more aromatic cocktails a bit much.
Violacé
- 1½ shots / 45 ml / 1½ oz gin
- ¾ shot / 22.5 ml / ¾ oz cranberry juice
- ¼ shot / 7.5 ml / ¼ oz créme de pêche de vigne
- ¼ shot / 7.5 ml / ¼ oz blue curaçao
- ¼ shot / 7.5 ml / ¼ oz lime juice
- 1 dash orange bitters
- Shake well with ice and fine strain in to a cocktail glass. Garnish with a slice of peach.
One of the first gin cocktails I ever tried was the Ink Martini, a drink created by Gentian Naci consisting of gin, blue curaçao, peach schnapps and cranberry juice. It was a very sweet concoction, but the combination of blue curaçao and cranberry made for an amazing deep blue/purple colour which always looked really great. I had the idea of adapting this recipe to create something a little more delicate and suited to créme de pêche, and the Violacé is the result.
I dialled the amount of curaçao, peach liqueur and cranberry way back from the original recipe, which allowed gin to take more of the spotlight and better balanced the fruit flavours. I also added a small amount of lime which helped brighten the drink up a little, and orange bitters which bring all the flavours together and reinforce the aromatic suggestions of the peach liqueur. The result is a subtle drink, starting with prominent gin notes which then reveal the peachy aromatics of the créme de pêche de vigne and a sweet fruity tang.
I’m pretty pleased with the resulting drink. While the colour isn’t nearly as vivid as the Ink Martini I think the flavour is a lot more balanced and while still a sweet drink, it has a greater depth to offer. Unfortunately peach liqueur cocktails seem few and far between, so if anyone knows of any more worth trying do let me know…
Posted in Blue Curaçao, Cranberry, Créme de Pêche, Gin, Lime, Orange Bitters, Recipes, Rum, Vermouth
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August 4th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
What does a “You and Me” contain? Or “Tu y Yo”, I tasted the peach liqueur and rum, but what are all the ingredients?
Thanks,
Annie from NYC
August 15th, 2008 at 5:34 am
Here’s the Pêche de Resistance, a variation on the Sidecar.
September 19th, 2008 at 3:19 am
there’s a nice fruity drink, generally called a mitch martini. you use zubrowka with a touch of creme de peche, passionfruit, lemon and cloudy apple juice. shake it hard and it gets a great creamy froth. serve in a martini glass with half a passionfruit floating in top. girls love it! although fruity and sweet it has a lovely balance- the zubrowka and apple provides that great spice and depth, you get sweetness from the peche and tangy zest with the lemon and passionfruit.
i also find creme de peche, suprisingly works really well with bourbon. mint juleps with fesh peach and a little creme de peche are totally divine.
September 19th, 2008 at 9:54 am
I may just try that Mitch, I’ve barely used my bottle of Zubrowka since I went to Poland a few years back (hope it’s still ok!). Do you have an actual recipe for it?
Peach does indeed work very nicely with bourbon. I really love using the Fee Brothers peach bitters with it, they work very nicely. Jamie Boudreau’s Whiskey Cobbler is a great example of this.