Peach and Honey
Brandy made from fruit cues some strong expectations—that the natural fructose in a cherry, apple, plum or peach will impart a sweetness and fragrance to the sip. But spirits made from fruit—what the French called eau de vie—in actuality convey only a ghost of the fruit from which it was made. The process of distillation is a purifying process and the volatile chemistry that makes a peach perfumed or a plum tart is in great measure taken out of the clear liquid that drips from the coil. Some distillers tweak the process to preserve more the fruitiness, but there is only so much one can do in the distilling process. Early American distillers who didn’t want imbibers asking ‘where’s the fruit’ resorted to tricks to fulfill customers’ expectations. One antebellum distilling manual recommended added a jar of peach jelly to the cask.
In Europe the desire to give back fruit flavor to spirits resulted in what was referred to as Ratafia. This is a spirit in which sugar and some essence of fruit is added to a eau de vie, and was regarded as a special drink to mark special occasions such as the ratification of treaties (hence the name). What has often been sold as peach or apple brandy in the United States historically has been a ratafia, a supplementation of a distilled fruit spirit to give it more flavor and sweetness.
If I were to nominate the most loved and splendid fruit brandy/ratafia produced in the United States it would be what was called as peach and honey. As the name suggests, it is peach spirits with honey admixed after the distillation This was the favorite home concoction of peach growers, who in many southern states aggreagated their harvests at the local distillers on a share system, taking the finished spirits and adding the honey for home consumption or local distribution. When Ben Tillman shut down South Carolina’s distilleries in 1893 the states many orchardists bewailed the loss of their favorite “peach and honey”—see article below.
My thoughts have turned to peach and honey because Cincinnati’s excellent mixologist and beverage historian Molly Wellman sent an inquiry about an old bottle she encountered. She is in the midst of a crusade to revive the full panoply of Cincinnati’s tavern heritage. She found a bottle produced by an early liquor company of the region. Yes—it was part of the product line of numbers of spirits companies.
The beverage had a genteel reputation. Edgar Allan Poet famously gave a peach and honey party for his friends during his freshman year at the University of Virginia. Judge Cole of Austin Texas in the 1860s famously let off one of two drunks involved in a street brawl; the first had been fined because he was drunk on rye whiskey, the second denied drinking rye, rather peach and honey. “Peach and honey, eh? That’s a gentleman’s drink, sir! The court sympathizes with you and doesn’t regard you offense as very serious.”
There was two ways to encounter peach and honey—one was to mix it yourself at the time of consumption. I attach an 1888 account of how this was done. The other was to mix the ingredients shortly after distillation and age it in a barrel made of fruit wood to impart more perfume to the mix. This path produced the bottle that Molly Wellman found.
We should note here that Peach and Honey differs from what is sold as Peach Ratafia in 2021. That product derives its flavor intensification from the extract of peach kernels—the seeds contained within pits. It has an almond, not peach, flavor.
I finally must observe that the extraordinary range of flavors found in honeys—from eucalyptus to sourwood—suggests that peach and honey could generate a similar range of sensation. But let me suggest that you try Schnepf Farms Peach Blossom Honey first.