Bourbon Peach Sweet Tea

Second week of June. Father's Day is coming, and Marcus is planning his proposal for Angela's birthday, which is June 24th, ten days from now. He calls me every other night with questions I can't answer — "Should I do it at dinner?" "Should I do it at home?" "What if she says no?" — and I answer each one the same way: "Do it from the heart and she'll say yes." He doesn't believe me because he's twenty-seven and nervous and can't see what I can see, which is that Angela Foster has been saying yes to him for a year already, in the way she laughs at his jokes and sits in our pew and brings her casserole to our table. The proposal is just the word. The yes has been there all along.

Father's Day itself was Sunday — another year of the day that belongs to dads, though this year felt different because Marcus is about to become something new: not a father yet, but a husband, a step closer to the fatherhood that I believe is coming, and the thought of my son holding his own child the way I held him fills me with a joy so large it has no edges.

All three living children called. Walter Jr. first, as always. Marcus second, nervous about the ring in his sock drawer. Charlie last, from Nashville, and she said, "Happy Father's Day, Big Daddy," and there was Denise's name for me, carried across the phone line by the sister who keeps Denise alive in the small ways — the nickname, the habits, the echoes that bounce through a family long after the voice that made them is silent.

I smoked a pork shoulder for the family — the king, the classic, the dish I return to on every significant occasion because pork shoulder is the foundation of my cooking the way family is the foundation of my life: reliable, rich, rewarding patience, and always enough. Fourteen hours, hickory, the vinegar mop, pulled by hand. The family ate in the backyard and the Memphis evening was warm and the smoke lingered and I sat in my chair and thought: This is what fatherhood is. Not the title. The table. The food. The people who show up year after year to eat what you've spent all night making, and the love that makes the spending worthwhile.

That evening in the backyard, after the pork shoulder was pulled and the plates were filled and the smoke was still hanging in the warm Memphis air, what I wanted in my hand was something cold, sweet, and Southern — something that tasted like the occasion deserved. Bourbon Peach Sweet Tea is exactly that drink: it carries the fruit and warmth of a June evening and it sits right alongside hickory smoke the way a good song sits alongside a good memory. I’ve made it every Father’s Day since I first put the two together, and I don’t intend to stop.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 5 minutes | Total Time: 15 minutes (plus chilling) | Servings: 6

Ingredients

4 cups water, divided
4 black tea bags
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large ripe peaches, pitted and sliced (or 1 cup frozen peach slices)
1/2 cup bourbon
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 cups cold water (to finish the pitcher)
Ice, for serving
Fresh peach slices and mint sprigs, for garnish

Instructions

Brew the tea. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Remove from heat, add the 4 tea bags, and steep for 5 minutes. Remove bags without squeezing and set the brewed tea aside to cool slightly.
Make the peach simple syrup. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the remaining 2 cups of water, the sugar, and the sliced peaches. Stir until sugar dissolves, then simmer for 5 minutes until the peaches have softened and the syrup is fragrant. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes.
Strain the syrup. Pour the peach syrup through a fine-mesh strainer into a large pitcher, pressing the softened peaches gently with a spoon to extract all the juice. Discard the solids.
Combine. Add the brewed tea to the pitcher with the peach syrup. Stir in the bourbon and the fresh lemon juice.
Chill and finish. Add 2 cups of cold water to the pitcher and stir to combine. Refrigerate until fully chilled, at least 1 hour.
Serve. Pour over ice in tall glasses. Garnish each glass with a fresh peach slice and a sprig of mint.

Nutrition (per serving)

Bourbon Peach Sweet Tea — The Backyard Drink That Belongs Beside the Smoker