This twist on a classic margarita made with freshly mashed peaches and peach schnapps will transport you to the beach in an instant.
Fresh, juicy summer peaches are the star of this take on a classic margarita cocktail.
Aged tequila adds a caramel and toffee background to complement the fruit. Peach schnapps instead of the traditional triple sec enhances the stone fruit even more. Lime zest brightens the salt rim for a citrus blast with every sip.
What is a margarita?
A margarita is a cocktail of tequila, triple sec, and lime juice sipped from a salt-rimmed glass.
Over time, this basic formula has undergone many variations from the ingredients used to the way it’s served. Fruits like mango, strawberry, melon, and peaches, like the ones I use here, add a sweet, fruity flavor.
Adding cucumbers or jalapeno chilies can also make the drink hearty and flavorful. Fresh herbs such as basil or coriander can also enhance the experience. Then there’s the ever-popular Frozen Margarita, where the selected ingredients are mixed with ice to form a slush. Pretty refreshing!
An ode to peaches
Although Georgia is known as the peach state and boasts the peach as the official state fruit, New Jersey, where I live, also grows some pretty darn good peaches, and lots of them. Some reports place the Garden State third for production.
If you get carried away and have more ripe peaches than you can fit into pies, this is the perfect way to use them up. Here are a few things to remember about stone fruit to make a great peach margarita:
- The peaches will be jumbled in the drink, so you can use a peach that has a little bruise on it.
- The cocktail is strained, so leave the skin on.
- I’m mumbling a little more aggressively here because I want the fruit to really break down and spill all of its juice.
- Some of the pulp will get into the drink, but if you’ve mashed the peach well, it shouldn’t be more mushy than orange juice.
All about tequila
You can’t have a margarita without it tequila, a distillate of the agave plant primarily from Jalisco, Mexico (there are a few other Mexican states that produce it). There are three main types: blanco (or silver), reposado, and añejo tequila.
The differences lie in their aging. Blanco is unaged, Reposado must be aged at least 2 months and up to 1 year in oak barrels and Añejo must be aged at least 1 year and up to 3 years in the barrels.
You can also find Joven Tequila, which is Blanco mixed with some aged tequila, and Extra Añejo aged at least 3 years. If you’re interested in learning more about tequila, here’s a guide that will make you an expert!
A note on peach schnapps
The classic margarita recipe uses triple sec, a generic term for orange liqueur. I use peach schnapps instead to enhance the stone fruit notes throughout the cocktail while adding sweetness.
Schnaps can mean different things to different people. The liquor you find in Europe is a brandy distilled from fermented fruit juices and bottled without aging to preserve the top flavors and aromas. No additional sweeteners are added.
It is usually enjoyed slightly chilled as a digestif. What we have in the US is a product where fruit is pickled in alcohol, strained and then sweetened, making it more suitable for mixing cocktails.
Margarita topping options
I only salted part of the rim because I don’t want a salt hit with every sip. I also think it looks nice. But there are no rules here, and if you want salt all around the rim, do it! And if you prefer to leave the lime zest out of the salt, that’s totally acceptable too.
The fresh lime juice still adds citrus flavor to the cocktail. Lots of rods line the top of the glass, which is easy to do. I use a trick I learned that keeps the salt out of the drink itself, which is to wet the outside of the glass just below the rim and then press into the salt.
How to make a peach margarita
Peach margaritas are pretty easy to make.
- Muddle a peach in a cocktail shaker
- Add tequila, lime juice, schnapps and ice
- Rim the glass with salt and fill with ice
- Pour the drink through a strainer over the ice
- Enjoy!
How to scale the cocktail
The muddled peaches take up quite a bit of space in the shaker, so you’ll have to make this drink individually (if you’re making it for you and a friend or two).
If you plan to make this cocktail for a crowd, you can scale the recipe as needed and combine everything in the blender to save time. Pour into a pitcher when you feel like it, or simply pour into glasses over ice and get cocktails to your thirsty friends faster.
More margarita recipes
- Frozen Strawberry Margarita
- Frozen Cucumber Margarita
- Watermelon Pitcher Margarita
- Pitcher Frozen Margaritas
- Classic margaritas
Peach Margarita
ingredients
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1 lime
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1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
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1 Middle ripe to slightly overripe peach
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2 ounces añjeo tequila
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2 ounces peach snap
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Ice
method
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Grate and squeeze the lime:
Use a microplane to grate the lime onto a small plate. Halve the lime and juice into a pourable container. A Pyrex measuring cup would work well.
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Prepare Lime Zest Salt:
Combine 1/4 teaspoon lime zest and salt. Blend it together with your fingers.
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Rim the rocks glass:
Dip your finger in the lime juice and rub it around the glass, just below the rim of the Rocks glass. Press the rim into the lime salt until it sticks to the glass.
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Muddle the peach:
Halve the peach and remove the stone. Cut the peach into about 8 (1-inch) slices. Put the peach slices in a cocktail shaker. Using a cocktail pestle or the handle of a wooden spoon, puree the peach slices until smooth.
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Pour spirits and lime juice into shaker:
Pour the tequila, peach schnapps and 30 ml lime juice into the cocktail shaker. Fill the shaker halfway with ice and shake for about 20 seconds to cool.
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Serve cocktail:
Carefully fill the rimmed Rocks glass with a handful of ice. Strain the cocktail into the glass and swirl the shaker back and forth a few times to make sure all the liquid goes through the peach pulp and doesn’t clog the strainer. Surcharge.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 329 | calories |
| 1g | Fat |
| 43g | carbohydrates |
| 2g | protein |
