Cocktail Recipe Ideas For Your Leftover Summer Peaches

We'll 'fess up: This time of year, the peaches we buy at the farmers' market don't always make it into pie.

Come 5 o'clock (or earlier), we're eyeing the stone fruit with cocktails on our mind.

And now that peaches are on cocktail menus around the country, our focus has been legitimized. Rather than baking your haul, try drinking it.

Pickled: At the new Husk in Nashville, beverage manager Kenny Lyons uses pickled-peach liquid in a cocktail with bourbon, mint and Dimmi, an Italian liqueur, while the bar at Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, Colorado, offers a cocktail of pickled peaches, raspberries, bourbon and vanilla (see the recipe). In New York, The Meatball Shop mixes pickled peaches with peach shrub, peach bitters and Prosecco for a sophisticated twist on a Bellini.

Fresh: In Philadelphia, Jose Garces' Amada uses fresh peaches to sweeten a sangria with lemongrass, white wine and brandy. At Mateo Bar de Tapas in Durham, peaches are quickly charred on the grill before meeting mint and rye whiskey in a Julep variation.