Today’s post has a soundtrack: Ray Charles’ cover of the Clovers’ “One Mint Julep.” Play the embedded video, then scroll down and keep reading.
Saturday is the Kentucky Derby, and at Churchill Downs in Louisville and Derby parties everywhere, people will try a mint julep because that’s what you’re supposed to drink on Derby Day.
Some people, out of kindness or maybe because they’re drunk, will say to love it, but others won’t, and they’ll quietly set down their glasses and ignore them the rest of the afternoon.
I was born in Kentucky, and, living in Lexington, I always enjoyed the traditions surrounding the Derby, but I tend to agree with an old newspaper man I knew who believed a mint julep is a terrible waste of good bourbon.
Juleps are a Southern thing, a concoction of bourbon, water, spearmint leaves and sugar. No one’s sure who invented it or when, but a Londoner who worked as a tutor on a Southern plantation wrote a book in 1803 and described the drink as “a dram of spirituous liquor that has mint steeped in it, taken by Virginians of a morning.”
I suspect people drank mint juleps at the first Kentucky Derby in 1875, but juleps didn’t really become a Derby tradition until Churchill Downs began selling souvenir mint julep glasses in 1938.
On paper, a mint julep sounds like it would work. You have bourbon, sugar, water and spearmint — not a bad ingredient in the bunch.
Mint juleps look good, too, when they’re done right. You’re supposed to serve mint juleps in silver cups filled with crushed ice; you stir the drink quickly to frost the cup and garnish with a mint sprig.
It really is a handsome drink.
Juleps aren’t especially handsome in those sweaty souvenir glasses at the Derby, and some purists would argue the things at Churchill Downs aren’t really juleps. By tradition, juleps are made of bourbon, but Churchill Downs has a contract with Early Times, which is technically a whisky, not a bourbon. Bourbon must be aged in new barrels, but Early Times is aged in used barrels. It may be a small distinction, but these things matter in Kentucky.
But a drink isn’t about the look. It’s about the taste, and this is where things fall apart.
Mint juleps aren’t awful. Once you find the sweet spot where the ingredients are balanced just right, they’re pretty good, but finding that sweet spot can be tricky. Not enough sugar and water, and it packs a wallop you’re not expecting from a supposedly genteel drink. Too much sugar and water, and it’s too sweet.
Here’s something else to consider: People in Kentucky only drink mint juleps at the races.
Once the Derby’s over, you’ll be hard pressed to find a mint julep anywhere in the commonwealth. In Kentucky, you know it’s spring because Kroger starts stocking fresh mint sprigs.
On Derby Day, if you really want to drink what the locals drink, have a sweet tea or a beer or a glass of wine.
But if you’re wondering, here’s how to make a mint julep:
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups water
- 5 fresh mint sprigs for the syrup, plus extra for garnish
- bourbon
- crushed ice
Directions
- Boil the sugar and water together until the sugar dissolves
- Pour the syrup into a container with the mint sprigs and refrigerate overnight
- Fill a small cup with crushed ice
- Add a tablespoon of syrup and four tablespoons of bourbon and stir. Garnish with a fresh mint sprig
I’ve never had one, but generally, I don’t like drinks with leaves in them. Like mojitos…and tea.
It’s a lot like a mojito, actually. If you don’t like mojitos, you’d hate mint juleps.
Sounds like the Kentucky equivalent of Christmas fruit cake.
I had a good fruitcake once — made by the Trappist monks at the Abbey of Gethsemini in Kentucky, which is where Thomas Merton lived. The fruitcake was delicious and made me realize how awful most fruitcakes really are.
Probably Kentucky fruit cake is heavily laced with bourbon. Thomas Merton was quite the partier in his day – he probably gave them the recipe
And yes, you are right – most fruit cakes are truly awful.
By contrast, Natty Boh is the drink of choice by many Preakness-goers (at least on the infield) and that same demographic drinks it year ’round, “hon.”
My toes are tapping to the soundtrack — a most excellent choice.
And, finally, I believe you have described this before, but would you consider a post on your Kentucky colonel-ization? I’d be most interested in a refresher.
On the inflield at the Derby, they drink whatever they can sneak in.
I think the IDEA of a mint julep is more appealing (at least to those of us in Yankee-land) than the actual drink. Nothing wrong with any of the ingredients, mind you — it’s the combination (and getting to the sweet spot) that’s tough!
Of course, after a couple failed attempts at finding the perfect julep, who cares, because you’ve had 2 bourbon drinks!
Yes, I believe much like the mojito, it’s all about the proper ingredients and proportions. I have had some sublime mojitos (best one = Blue Heaven in Key West, FL) and some dreadful ones (I have blocked those locations from my mind).
The Preakness has a drink called the Black Eyed Susan. Much like the julip, you wil not find this anywhere but at the racetrack. Which is why my first experience with it was a couple years ago when the hubs and I went to the Preakness and we tried it. Theoretically, it would seem to be the same as the julip, with ingredients that should work. Vodka, whiskey, sweet & sour and OJ. But let me tell you, it was nasty. I tried it, took home the souvenir glass, and spent the rest of the event drinking wine from a local winery. Raspberry wine as a matter of fact, which has nothing to do with MD (except to be noted that same wine is served at the MD Ren Fest . . . Thoughtsy, holla!!).
In fairness to the Black Eyed Susan (which I’d never heard of until you mentioned it), I didn’t like coffee the first time I tried it. Now, I can’t live without out. I’m just sayin’.
I guess the whole is less than the sum of its parts. When I lived in Cleveland a contingent of friends would religiously drive down to Louisville for the Derby (as a warm up for the Indy 500). Invariably someone would come back with an appendage in a cast and blame the mint juleps.
When I was a reporter in Kentucky, I helped cover several Derbys. I was usually stationed in the infield. I’m not surprised your friends when home with injuries.
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