Recipe: Southern Sweet Peach Tea Cocktail

Now that the markets are brimming with stone fruit, it's time to get your cocktail on. Building a drink is much cooler than baking a pie from scratch, after all. We've concocted this recipe for a cocktail that will keep you cool all weekend long.

Instead of using bourbon like we did in our recent mojito recipe, we opted to use white wine. Consider it an update on your mom's wine spritzer.

You can snarkily say that pinot grigio is for the Real Housewives all you want; once you've tried this summer sipper you'll be just peachy associating with the dames of the OC.

Here's how it's made:

Southern Sweet Tea Wine Cocktail

Ingredients for cocktail:

3 dashes Angostura Bitters
1 oz extra-strong black tea, brought to room temperature
1 oz peach simple syrup (see below)
¾ cup (6 oz) Woodbridge pinot grigio
½ oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
slices of fresh peaches for garish

Ingredients for peach simple syrup:

2 peaches, sliced
2 cups sugar
1 cup water

Method for simple syrup:

Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium/low heat until all sugar is dissolved. Allow mixture to cool, with peaches still inside the pan. Once the syrup has cooled, about 30 minutes, remove the peaches with a slotted spoon. Transfer the syrup to a mason jar or a plastic squeeze bottle. You can use this mixture for naturally flavored sodas or other cocktails.

Method for Southern Sweet Tea Cocktail:

Fill a rocks glass with ice, then top with three dashes Angostura Bitters. Then add strongly steeped tea (use two teabags for a cup instead of one when brewing), peach simple syrup, Woodbridge pinot grigio, and lemon juice. Stir with a cocktail spoon, and add slices of peaches to garnish.