Peach Brandy Cocktails

After drinking my way through various cocktails made with Parfait Amour, I looked around my liquor closet for another mixer than generally sits there gathering dust, and my eye fell on the bottle of peach brandy.  That's the only flavored brandy I have at the moment, and it doesn't get tipped very often.  And I thought it was a good question to investigate: What can you do with peach brandy?

The first two cocktails I made are sipping cousins.  The first is called a Bidou cocktail: 1 1/2 oz gin (I used Bombay), 1/2 oz dry vermouth, 1/2 oz PB.  (PB doesn't mean peanut butter.)  My notes say this drink was 'kinda blah'.  I wouldn't bother with it again.

Its relation is the Judgette cocktail:  equal parts gin (Bombay again), dry vermouth, and PB, with 1/3 as much lime juice (e.g., 1/4 oz if each of the others is 3/4 oz).  The first time I made it I was out of limes, so I used Rose's.  This is better than the Bidou, considerably stronger, and the Rose's adds sweetness.  Too much for me.

I bought some limes, and the second attempt using the real stuff was an improvement: not as sweet, and the lime is actually pretty subtle--it doesn't make the drink overly acidic or overpower the other ingredients.  Not a bad cocktail.

Cocktail #3 was the Bacardi Peach cocktail, though I used Tommy Bahama light rum instead of Bacardi: 2 to 1 light rum to PB (I started with 1 1/2 oz rum), 1/2 oz lemon juice and 1/2 tablespoon sugar, shaken, strained, etc.  This one was pretty good.  It doesn't taste overly rummy; the rum and PB play well together.  The 1/2 oz (1 Tb) lemon juice made this a tad on the tart side though; using half as much would make this a better cocktail. 

Last was the Hotel Bristol Special cocktail: equal parts cointreau and PB shaken on ice, then strained over shaved/crushed ice in a cocktail glass.  This tastes like a snow cone with a buzz.  As an alternative, I tried PB with Mandarin Napoleon, and it was even better:  more orangey than the cointreau, and it blends well with the peach.  I bet using apricot brandy would work well for this too.  A nice summertime cocktail.