Peach thyme water
The one to make with the peaches that have gone too soft to eat.
A peach that has gone past the point of being pleasant to bite is exactly right for this. Soft fruit gives up its sugar and perfume readily, and you were not going to eat it anyway.
Thyme is the surprise. It is gentler than rosemary and less obvious than mint, and it turns what would be a sweet drink into something with a savoury edge.
How to make it
- Hands on
- 5 min
- Total
- 2 h 5 min
- Makes
- 4 servings
- Per glass
- 10 kcal
Ingredients
Method
-
Slice the peaches
Stone them and slice thinly, skin on. The skin carries a lot of the colour and none of the bitterness that citrus peel brings.
-
Add the thyme whole
Drop the sprigs in intact — do not strip the leaves. Loose thyme leaves are impossible to strain out and unpleasant to drink.
-
Chill for two hours
Top with cold water and refrigerate. Ripe fruit works fast; two hours is enough.
-
Serve over ice
It keeps for two days, though the peach softens further.
Worth knowing
- Tinned peaches work in a pinch but bring syrup with them — rinse them first or the jug turns sickly.
- Nectarines are a straight swap and hold their shape slightly better.
What it actually does for you
- Calories
- 10 kcal
Ripe fruit transfers more sugar than firm fruit, so this sits at the sweeter end of the cluster — still around 10 kcal a glass, which is nothing. Peaches carry a decent amount of potassium, and almost all of it stays in the peach. Flavoured water, not a functional drink.
How this was worked out: Two medium peaches (about 300 g) hold roughly 117 kcal, 25 g sugar and 570 mg potassium (USDA FoodData Central, peaches, raw). Only a fraction crosses into the water, so the 10 kcal per glass is an approximation and no mineral figure is claimed.
Variations
- Swap thyme for basil for something sweeter.
- Add a splash of sparkling water in the glass for a Bellini that is not a Bellini.
Making it is the easy part
Remembering to drink it is the hard part. Honk watches your webcam with on-device AI and honks until you do, as gently or as loudly as you like.
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Do you need to peel the peaches?
No. The skin is where a lot of the colour lives, it adds no bitterness, and peeling a soft peach is a miserable job. Wash them and slice.
