Plum and Ginger Bourbon Smash
Muddled plums and fresh ginger cut with bourbon and lemon — a pitcher drink for the last stretch of stone fruit season.
- Serves
- 6
- Prep
- 15 min
- Written
Method
-
Muddle the plums, ginger, and sugar in the bottom of a pitcher until the plums have broken down to a rough pulp and the sugar looks wet.
-
Let stand for 10 minutes, until the sugar has drawn enough juice out of the fruit to pool in the bottom of the pitcher.
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Add the bourbon and lemon juice and stir well, scraping up any sugar stuck to the bottom.
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Strain into a second pitcher through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing hard on the solids to force out as much liquid as possible; discard the spent plums and ginger.
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Fill six glasses with ice, pour the smash over, and top each with a mint sprig.
Notes
The muddling matters more than the recipe makes it look — bruising the plums and ginger together, then letting them sit in the sugar, pulls out juice and oil that a quick shake over ice never would. Straining hard afterward is the other non-negotiable step; skip the pressure and you lose half the drink to the discard pile.
Nectarines or peaches take the same treatment if plums aren’t around, and the ratio holds through the swap. For a crowd that isn’t drinking, leave out the bourbon and top the strained syrup with soda water instead — the ginger and plum carry it fine on their own.