Georgia grows peaches and Georgia drinks sweet tea. Putting peach brandy into sweet tea is less a cocktail than an inevitability, and it's the easiest long drink in this shop.
The whole recipe
A tall glass, full of ice. An ounce and a half of peach brandy. Fill with sweet tea. A wedge of lemon over the top. That's it - there is nothing to shake, nothing to measure twice and nothing else to buy.
Why it works
Tea is tannic and slightly bitter, which is exactly what a sweet brandy needs pushing against it. Without that bitterness the drink would be cloying; with it, it finishes clean. It's the same reason lemon goes in tea in the first place.
The cost of one
A 750ml bottle pours sixteen drinks, so a full glass costs well under a dollar before the tea. For a porch in August or a table full of people in December, there's nothing cheaper that tastes like somebody made it on purpose.
Where else the bottle goes
Into lemonade. Into a jug of sangria with sliced peaches. Over vanilla ice cream. Into hot cider when it turns cold. And a splash in a whiskey sour turns it into something closer to a peach sour.
The apple one does the same job
Apple brandy with hot cider and cinnamon is the winter version of this drink, and it's the one to make when somebody asks for something warm. Same arithmetic, same price, different season.
Beverage World Package Store
6731 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, Doraville, GA 30360. (770) 441-0001. Open 10am to 9pm Monday to Wednesday, 10am to 11pm Thursday to Saturday, and 11am to 9pm Sunday. Delivery from $4.99.
On our shelf right now
Prices and stock read from our own inventory when this page was built.