Why You’ll Love This Cocktail
It’s easy to make a big batch of this peachy summer cocktail! Cook down peaches with honey, then pair with bourbon, lemon juice, fresh basil, and sparkling water for the ultimate late summer drink.
Juicy, late summer peaches are popping off at the stores and farmers markets right now, and this Peach Basil Highball honors what is definitely my favorite time of year when it comes to fresh produce. For this cocktail, I pair them up with an easy drinking bourbon, honey, lemon juice, and basil. It’s all a match made in heaven, tbh. It gets topped off with sparkling water to make it a tall, bubbly drink that’s perfectly refreshing during the dog days of summer.
Note: this recipe was updated in 2026 with some recipe adjustments for better balance of flavor, including now calling for bourbon instead of rye as the recommended spirit. I also changed the name from spritzer to highball to more accurately reflect the recipe’s roots.
Peach basil highball
Bourbon Recommendations
Now, I’m no bourbon connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination. I mostly enjoy it in mixed drinks and while I always want to enjoy sipping bourbon by itself, I just don’t. My recommendations are based on years of playing with bourbon in mixer-forward cocktails and learning from bourbon enthusiasts on the internet. All that said, here are a few bottles that I think are worth the $$$:
- Basil Hayden ($29) – This has been my go-to bottle of bourbon for a few years now. The burn is gentle and flavors balanced, which makes it great for mixed drinks but still perfectly suitable for sipping (according to experts who are not me).
- Maker’s Mark ($23) – Made with wheat instead of rye, this bourbon tends to be mellower and sweeter than ones that use rye. This makes it great for cocktails like this one since it’s less likely to overpower the peach flavor.
- Buffalo Trace ($25) – This one can be hard to find since it’s sold in limited quantities, but it’s a well respected bourbon that’s well priced and perfect for mixing or sipping. It’s gentle enough to let the peach flavor shine but complex enough that you won’t forget this is a bourbon cocktail.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Here’s what you’ll need to make this Peach Basil Highball recipe:
- Peaches – Use the juiciest, sweetest peaches you’ve got! Ones that border on overripe are perfect here – they’re easy to peel and break down quickly over heat.
- Bourbon – Check out my recs above! If you don’t like bourbon, this would also be great with rum (light or dark) or vodka.
- Honey – I like the flavor of the honey paired with peaches, but brown sugar would work well too.
- Lemon juice – Be sure to use the freshly squeezed stuff, it makes all the difference! If you’re making a big batch and don’t have time to squeeze a bunch of lemons, try a cold pressed lemon juice like this that you can find in the produce section of some nicer grocery stores.
- Basil – I love grabbing a big bunch fresh from the garden this time of year! This drink could also work with mint if you don’t love basil.
- Sparkling water – I actually made mine with sparkling mineral water (Topo Chico), but plain old carbonated water is all you really need to make this a highball.
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Peach Basil Highball
Ingredients
- 8 oz sparkling water
- 6 oz bourbon
- 5 oz lemon juice, divided
- 2 small peaches, peeled and sliced, 250 grams
- 3 tbsp honey, 1.5 fl oz
- 1 bunch of fresh basil (2-3 stems with leaves), divided
Instructions
- Add 2 small peaches, peeled and sliced, 3 tbsp honey, and 1 oz lemon juice to a small pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, add 1 basil stem, and lower heat to a simmer for 10-15 minutes.
- Remove peaches from heat, remove basil stem, and blend the peaches with an immersion blender until smooth. Cool in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes.
- Divide peach mash into 4 Collins glasses. Top with ice, 6 oz bourbon, remaining lemon juice, and 8 oz sparkling water. Garnish with more basil leaves and peach slices and serve with a straw.
Tips & Tricks
Nutrition Information
For my macro trackers out there, I wasn’t able to create a My Fitness Pal barcode for this recipe since I would have had to decide for you whether to put the alcohol calories in as carbs or fats – that’s up to you! The carbs listed here are just for the lemon juice, peaches, and honey. For my non-macro trackers, here’s more info on what I’m talking about.
Here are some of the original photos of this recipe from 2018!
