The Julep
by Binoy Fernandez
E
very year, on the first weekend of May, the horses race. It’s the
day for Churchill Downs, for floppy hats and sundresses, for
an off-white suit, fedora, and pocket-watch, and it’s a day for Juleps.
The exact reasons why Churchill Downs adopted the Georgia Mint
Julep as the official cocktail of the Kentucky Derby are probably lost
to the mists of antiquity, yet, for at least one day a year, the martini
requests fall silent, and the nation pays homage to a piece of history.
Consider that when most drinks are inspired by the theater, big
screen, a celebrity or sports star, the julep is a drink that inspires
poems and passionate letters. It is a drink that defines a time and
a culture in American history. F. Scott Fitzgerald makes special
mention of it in The Great Gatsby, and, in 1937, S.J. Buckner, Jr.
describes, in detail, the steps to craft a julep to General Connor in a
letter suddenly cut short because he inspired himself to make one.
We often talk about the copper mug and the Moscow Mule, but
before the mule there was the silver julep cup. Oftentimes handed
down through the generations where each successive generation
adds to the dings and dents, each one containing what is, likely, a
forgotten memory.
The version we all know is the Georgia Mint Julep, where we use
a good (make sure it’s good), American whisky as our base with
muddled mint and sugar. We take out our hammer and lewis bag,
powder up some ice, packing it in until we have a nice dome over
the top of the cup. We then slip a straw through the fresh mint
garnish, wait until we have a nice layer of frost over the silver, and
then sip through the straw a veritable nectar even the gods
would envy.
So, what’s the deal with this excessively boozy,
tasty, libation? Well, if whisky isn’t your thing, fear
not, because the julep doesn’t describe one drink,
but rather a type of drink. You can use any
spirit in a julep: rum, gin, brandy, tequila,
even vodka. Almost all julep recipes
I’ve come across have a few elements
in common, though: first, you want to
use a silver cup. The reason why isn’t
clear, but, traditionally, a julep always
gets served in a silver cup. Second, they
all have mint to them, the fresher the
better. Third, we always powder the
ice. The garnish can include anything
from a fresh sprig of mint to a
fruit salad.
I generally reserve
straws for stirring
and doing my
taste to make sure
I made the drink
fsmomaha.com
“The Julep is a drink that inspires
poems and passionate letters,
a drink that defines a time
and a culture in American History.”
properly, but this drink
must be consumed through
the straw. If you sip this beverage
as you would any other you’ll have
two things happen: the first is that all you’ll
get is the booze and none of the mint or sugar,
you’ll lose the dimensionality of the drink. The second
reason is you’ll get that metallic tang to the drink. The first
time I had this drink I couldn’t stand it. It tasted only of
bourbon, and finished extremely sweet.
I’ll close this out with a story about how I came to love
the julep. It was May 5, 2012, and it was Derby day. Being
a bartender I felt compelled to place a bet on the horse I’ll
Have Another, and having placed the bet that morning I
decided that it was appropriate to fix myself a Georgia Mint
Julep. I didn’t have the silver cups at the time, but I did
have Collins glasses, and so I grabbed one of those, swung by the
Farmer’s Market to get some fresh mint, and fixed some up for my
friends and me.
It was a warm day, the powdered ice was frosting the glass nicely,
and we were chatting on the patio, waiting for post. Anyway,
first sip was off the rim of the glass, as always, and it lived up
to expectations: pure bourbon on the palate. Then conversation
starts and I’m not paying attention and I sip through the straw. A
mistake I do not make most of the time. Oh. My. God. Perceptions
transformed, my mid-western drawl became a little southern, stars
aligned in the heavens, and I understood! This drink truly is one of
the classics, a drink that stands alongside the Old Fashioned, the
Manhattan, and martini. This summer I invite you to try a Mint
Julep.
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