Best Fuzzy Navel Cocktail Recipe

The fuzzy navel cocktail is a brilliant colored super easy to make drink. It’s bright color pairs well with its sweet and bright fruity flavor.

What is a Fuzzy Navel Cocktail?

A fuzzy navel cocktail is a combination of peach schnapps and orange juice. The resulting drink tastes like the sweet tart flavor of orange juice mixed with a sweet bang of peach.

This cocktail became popular in the 1980s. It’s easy to make with only two ingredients and also has a low liquor content so it’s easy to sip.

A fuzzy navel is very similar to a screwball. However, instead of using vodka peach schnapps is added instead. This leads to an even fruitier, sweeter and a lower liquor content drink.

Peach schnapps is a clear schnapps. It is typically made by infusing a neutral green-based spirit with a strong peach flavoring. The resulting schnapps is a very sweet intensely peach flavored drink.

One of the more popular brands of peach schnapps is DeKuyper. They introduced therapy schnapps in the early 1980s. But, there are mentions of homemade peach schnapps back as early as the early 1900s.

The percentage of alcohol in peach schnapps does vary from brand to brand, however it tends to be a pretty low liquor content. Most brands clock in around 15% alcohol by volume or 30 proof.

When using orange juice for this cocktail, it’s best to use as fresh as possible. Additionally, it’s best to use pulp free orange juice. Orange juice with pulp can lead to a grainy less desirable texture in the cocktail.

When to Make This Drink:

With how easy it is two ingredient cocktail is to make and it’s delicious flavor, it’s well suited for a variety of occasions such as:

• brunch
• poolside sipping
• summer or spring get togethers
• barbecues
• afternoon drinks

Variations:

Though this cocktail is considered a classic, there are a few ways to change it up including:

• Change the ratio. A lot of fuzzy navel recipes actually call for equal parts of peach schnapps and orange juice. However, most highballs are a two to one ratio which is what we have used below. You can certainly use a one-to-one ratio which will increase the intense peach flavor of the cocktail.
• Add some vodka. You can make this the hairy navel cocktail by adding some vodka to the drink as well.
• Homemade orange juice. While store-bought orange juice works fine for this cocktail, hand squeezing your own orange juice will lend to a much sweeter and fresher flavor.
• Make it into an adult capri sun. Use this recipe but mix it in capri sun-like pouches for easy sipping.
• Make a pitcher. This cocktail is great for serving at large informal get togethers. And it’s easy to make in bulk. You can multiply the ingredients by 3 to 6 times in order to make several drinks from one batch.
• Make a fuzzy leprechaun. Add some blue curacao for a green drink with a similar flavor.

A few similar orange juice based cocktails are: the black eyed susan cocktail, vodka screwdriver and whiskey crush.

How to make this drink:

This cocktail is about as easy as they come. With only two super simple and easy ingredients you can toss this one together in 2 minutes or less.

Equipment:

• Rocks/Scotch/Bourbon glass
• jigger
• cocktail shaker
• Hawthorne strainer
• bar spoon

Ingredients:

• 4 oz Orange Juice
• 2 oz Peach schnapps
• Ice

Instructions:

Step one

Start out by making sure you have everything you need to make this drink including a rocks or highball glass, ice, orange juice, cocktail shaker and Hawthorne strainer and peach schnapps.

Note: You can you use either a rocks glass or a highball glass for this drink.

Step two

Go ahead and get both your glass and cocktail shaker filled almost to the top with ice.

Pro tip: for our step-by-step instructions below will be building this cocktail in a cocktail shaker. However, you can build it directly in the glass.

If you desire to build it in the glass, pour your ingredients directly into the glass instead of the shaker. Then, when it comes time to mix the drink up you can use either a bar spoon or you can gently pour all the contents from the glass into the cocktail shaker and then back into the glass.

Step three

Pick up your jigger as well as your peach schnapps. Measure out 2 oz of peach schnapps and dump it into your cocktail shaker.

Step four

Pick up your jigger as well as your orange juice. Measure out 4 oz of orange juice and dump it into your cocktail shaker with the peach schnapps and ice.

Step Five

Place the lid on your cocktail shaker and shake it well. This typically will take around 15 to 20 seconds. The outside of the shaker should be cold to the touch when you are finished.

Remove the top of your cocktail shaker and replace it with a Hawthorne strainer. Then, strain your drink from your shaker into your glass.

Recipe