Peach Simple Syrup

Peach Simple Syrup makes your drinks and desserts, well, just peachy. Made from fresh or frozen peaches, this easy-to-make mixer is summer’s nectar.

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Peach Simple Syrup recipe

Fresh peaches in the summertime are like a good song you can’t get out of your head. Must hear it again!

From peach cobbler to roasted peaches to peach ice cream, I can never get enough of these beauties.

But the peach cocktails? Oh, they’re just the best — like liquid gold. And peach mocktails too, like peach lemonade and peach iced tea. So refreshing!

On a Friday night during peach season, you can catch me on the back porch with something like a peach old-fashioned in hand, made with peach simple syrup and my favorite bourbon.

Why you’ll love this recipe

There’s a lot to love about this homemade peach syrup recipe:

• You can make it with fresh or frozen peaches.
• Made with just three ingredients, it comes together in just 20 minutes.
• It’s a low-cost and healthy alternative to store-bought cocktail syrups.

What is simple syrup?

You know how pure sugar can be difficult to stir into a drink? It dissolves more easily into a warm drink, but if it’s iced? Good luck — you’ll be stirring a while.

Simple syrup is the answer to this age-old problem. It’s a mixture of sugar and water that can be made in just a few minutes.

It has many uses: Use it to sweeten drinks, drizzle it over pancakes, pour it over ice cream. Bakers even use it to moisten cake before decorating.

Simple syrups can be made with just two ingredients: sugar and water. Most are made with granulated white sugar, but other types of sugar can be used, such as in this brown sugar syrup and demerara syrup.

Once you’ve mastered homemade simple syrups, there’s a whole world of flavor to explore. Infuse herbs like rosemary, basil or mint or spices like cinnamon, vanilla and pumpkin spice.

You can even make syrups with fruit like strawberries. And peaches, of course!

Ingredients

Peach Simple Syrup is a simple recipe that can be made with just three ingredients.

Fresh peaches

If you can get your hands on some fresh peaches, those will have the best flavor. Simple syrups are a great way to use up fresh produce.

Make sure you have ripe peaches for this recipe. Firm peaches aren’t ripe enough. Ripe peaches will have a little give to them when you give them a light squeeze in your hand.

If you have bruised peaches or ones that are about to turn, don’t toss them! They will give the most flavor to this syrup.

But if fresh fruit is out of season or not available near you, you can use frozen peaches. Though it’s hard to beat that fresh peach flavor, frozen peaches will still taste great.

There are a number of types of peaches that will work in this recipe:

• yellow peaches
• white peaches
• donut peaches
• nectarines (technically a type of peach!)

Sugar

Granulated sugar is what I used in this syrup, but you can use either cane sugar or brown sugar instead.

Honey can also be used — honey simple syrup is delicious. Follow the recipe below as is, and stir in the honey at the end when you’d as the sugar.

However, using brown sugar or honey will affect the color of the syrup.

Water

Filtered water or distilled water will give you the best, purest results, but tap water is totally fine.

For simple syrup, you typically need as much sugar as you do water, but this recipe is a little different.

We will first boil water and chopped peaches together to get a reduced peach juice, then we will stir in sugar.

For a thicker syrup, you can use a greater sugar-to-water ratio. Stir in 1 cup or 1 ½ cups of sugar instead of the ½ cup this recipe calls for.

How to make Peach Simple Syrup

Though you can buy peach simple syrup, it’s so easy to make and is not worth buying in my opinion. This sweet peach syrup is an easy recipe to follow. Here’s what to do:

First, wash the peaches. Remove the pits and cut them into small pieces. There is no need to peel the peaches for this recipe.

In a medium saucepan, bring cold water and fruit to a boil. Lower the heat and bring to a simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat.

Use a fine-mesh strainer to remove the cooked peaches and strain the hot liquid into a bowl or jar.

While still warm, stir in sugar until dissolved. Let cool to room temperature.

Store in an airtight container, such as a mason jar, for up to two weeks.

Variations and substitutions

This delicious peach syrup is a perfect canvas for more flavors. Try one of these ideas for infusing more flavor into your drinks and desserts:

• Nectarine syrup: Use fresh nectarines instead for a tangier twist. Or use a mixture of both to make a peach nectarine syrup.
• Cinnamon peach syrup: Add a cinnamon stick to the peaches while you cook them on the stove.
• Peach mint syrup: Add about 20 mint leaves to the finished peach syrup while it’s still warm and let infuse for 30 minutes, then remove the mint leaves.
• Vanilla peach syrup: Stir in ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract to your syrup after adding the sugar.
• Peach blackberry syrup: Add ½ cup of blackberries to the peaches and water.
• Make peach honey syrup: Use your favorite local honey instead of sugar.
• Sugar-free peach syrup: Use your favorite sugar substitute such as Stevia or coconut sugar.

Cocktails with fresh peach syrup

Cocktails are the perfect way to enjoy the flavor of fresh summer peaches via this easy peach syrup:

A peach old-fashioned would be so good! Try it in a classic old-fashioned cocktail with cinnamon or clove bitters.

Use it in a peach whiskey smash, with bourbon, ginger beer, mint and lemon juice.

Stir it into a peach mule with lime juice and ginger beer.

Muddle the syrup with sliced peaches, mint and bourbon to make a peach mint julep.

For a mocktail, make an Italian soda with peach syrup and club soda. A French soda would be like a peaches & cream soda, so good!

You can also use it in cocktails that call for peach-flavored whiskey — just use a little of this syrup and your favorite bourbon instead.

Other uses for peach simple syrup

There are tons of ways to use homemade fruit syrups besides stirring them into cocktails.

• Stir it into lemonade or iced tea.
• Pour it over vanilla ice cream, fresh peach pie or other desserts.
• Drizzle it over pancakes, waffles or French toast.

More peach cocktails

• Blackberry Peach Whiskey Sour
• Peach Blueberry Margarita
• Peach Raspberry Sangria