What Bourbon Should I Use For The Mint Julep Peaches?

Our answer

Nigella's Pink Julep Peaches (from NIGELLA SUMMER) takes inspiration from the Kentucky Derby cocktail by coating poached peaches with a bourbon-spiked syrup and sprinkling them with fresh mint.

Bourbon is an American whiskey. It has to be made with at least 51% corn (with rye, wheat and malted barley) and aged in new charred oak barrels. Whilst it can be made anywhere, if made in a certain state, such as Kentucky or Tennessee, then it may be labelled as such. There are lots of different types of bourbon, but straight bourbon is aged, single barrel bourbon comes from one barrel and small batch bourbon is smaller production quantities and these are all usually premium products. As you are using quite a lot of bourbon and boiling it down with sugar syrup, we would tend to suggest saving the premium brands for sipping and instead going for a not too expensive mainstream brand as the nuanced flavours of some of the premium brands will be masked by the sweetness of the syrup. Beyond that, we can't really recommend any particular brand and would suggest using the one that suits both your palate and purse. If you don't have bourbon then you could also substitute a Scotch whisky or an Irish whiskey instead.