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How to make a Peach Julep cocktail, this weekend’s drink of choice in ATL

A cocktail inspired by the Derby and the South

By Mark Stock Published May 1, 2026

Peach Julep cocktail. — The Americano

The Kentucky Derby is tomorrow. Soon, the big hats will be flying and the spring cocktail recipes will be put to work. We’re putting our money on a more creative drink this year, one inspired by equal parts classic cocktail and the state of Georgia.

Imagine if a Mint Julep got the Atlanta treatment. That’s what we have here, a peach of a drink courtesy of The Americano. It’s a colorful number and offers a nice twist on a familiar beverage.

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Bar manager Katie Billinger details the drink. “For our Peach Julep, we use ASW’s Fiddler Wheated Bourbon, macerated brandy peaches, mint demerara syrup, and a touch of citrus to round it out. Then it gets garnished with fresh mint. We use the ASW because that is a local Atlanta bourbon and it’s also delicious,” she says.

Read on for the full recipe.

Peach Julep

Just remember to use pebble ice for this drink to bring everything together. There’s a little more prep work but there’s also a lot more payoff.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 ounces ASW Fiddler Wheated bourbon
1 ounce peach brandy puree*
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1/4 ounce mint demerara syrup**

*Peach brandy puree or macerated brandy peaches: “Take 5 pounds of sliced peaches and soak them in 2 bottles of peach brandy. Any brand will do but we happen to use E&J Peach brandy. We let that soak minimum overnight but the longer the better. Strain and take half the peaches and the infused brandy and puree them together. Then strain again,” she says.

**Mint demerara syrup: “Use roughly a pound of fresh mint leaves and cook them in our rich demerara syrup which is a 2:1 syrup, meaning 2 parts demerara sugar to 1 part water. If you can’t find demerara sugar, brown sugar or sugar in the raw can be substituted,” she says.

Method:

Build ingredients in cocktail glass and top with pebble ice.
Garnish with mint buoquet.

Keep it here for related news. We’ve got the latest on new beer releases, the best chef recipes, and more.

Contributor

Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since…

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