Me and the Mint Julep

I thought this post was timely as the Kentucky Derby is being run on May 4 and 5 and the Mint Julep is the official unofficial drink of the two-day extravaganza.

I grew up with a rather romanticized notion of the mint julep. After all, Daisy and Gatsby sipped them in one of my all-time favorite books, "The Great Gatsby." And Daisy was oh-so-glamorous (mental illness and delusion aside), so, by association, so was the mint julep.

The mint julep is the drink I imagined Scarlett O'Hara would sip, sitting on the steps of Tara in her sweeping white day dress, her shoulders protected from freckling by the shade of her emerald parasol, a breeze blowing....But that's only if Scarlett were allowed to drink in public instead of nipping brandy from a hidden swoon bottle.

My first exposure to the mint julep in real life, instead of in my imagination, was at a reception for the Governor of Virginia at the Virgina Museum of Fine Arts, in Richmond. I was covering the event for the Petersburg Progress-Index. Actually, I have no recollection of what the event was for, but I do remember meeting dreamy Governor Allen and trying my first mint julep, which I almost spewed onto the Governor. I had been so excited to finally taste the drink I'd read about for years.

The drink was NOT the stuff dreams are made of, let me  just tell you. I expected something sweet and light, airy and effervescent. Instead I got a mouthful of...well...let's just say I Do. Not. Like. Bourbon. At all. I seriously had a hard time swallowing that first (and last) sip. Had I not been in public, at a reception, wearing a very cute navy blue raw silk cocktail dress accented with a sweeping smattering of small rhinestones (why can I remember the dress and not the event's purpose?), I would have spit it out. Promptly.

But in honor of my friends who love the tried and true, Southern-born-and-bred-staple, and in celebration of an event I will neither be watching nor participating in (oh the irony), I share with you the quintessential recipe for the Kentucky Derby mint julep. Silver cup optional.

The Kentucky Derby Early Times Mint Julep

 

 

2 Cups sugar
2 Cups water
Sprigs of fresh mint
Crushed ice
Early Times Kentucky Bourbon
Silver Julep Cups

No Derby Party is complete without the Mint Julep which has been the traditional beverage of Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby for nearly a century. Each year, almost 120,000 Early Times Mint Juleps are served over the two-day period of the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby. This is a feat that requires over 10,000 bottles of Early Times Mint Julep Ready-to-Serve Cocktail, 1,000 pounds of freshly harvested mint and 60,000 pounds of ice.

Make a simple syrup by boiling sugar and water together for five minutes. Cool and place in a covered container with six or eight sprigs of fresh mint, then refrigerate overnight. Make one julep at a time by filling a julep cup with crushed ice, adding one tablespoon mint syrup and two ounces of Early Times Kentucky Bourbon. Stir rapidly with a spoon to frost the outside of the cup. Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint.