National Mint Julep Day on May 30th each year sets up a refreshing toast to summer. Each year, people around the country gather for a glass of mint julep! This refreshing southern classic is a traditional drink of the Kentucky Derby.
A classic mint julep is made with a mint leaf, bourbon, sugar, and water. In the Southern states, where mint julep is more associated with the cuisine, spearmint is the mint of choice. Preparation of the drink may vary from one bartender to another.
- Some believe the mint julep originated in the southern United States sometime during the 18th century.
- The term “julep” is generally defined as a sweet drink, particularly one used as a vehicle for medicine.
- During the 19th century, Americans also enjoyed a gin-based julep.
- Each year, Churchill Downs serves almost 120,000 mint juleps over the two-day period of the Kentucky Oaks and the Kentucky Derby.
- May 2008 – Churchill Downs unveiled the world’s largest mint julep glass (6-foot tall).
- At Churchill Downs Premium versions of the drink are served in gold-plated cups with silver straws at a cost of $1000,
- The mint julep may be considered as one of a loosely associated family of drinks called “smashes” (the brandy smash is another example, as well as the mojito), in which fresh mint and other ingredients are muddled or crushed in preparation for flavoring the finished drink.
- Proper preparation of the cocktail is commonly debated, as methods may vary considerably from one bartender to another.
- The term “julep” is generally defined as a sweet drink, particularly one used as a vehicle for medicine.
- In the late 1700’s, Mint Juleps were used to treat upset stomachs
- The first appearance of a mint julep in print came in a book by John Davis published in London in 1803, where it was described as “a dram of spirituous liquor that has mint steeped in it, taken by Virginians of a morning.”
- It takes 7,800 liters of bourbon and 2,250 pounds of locally grown mint to make the 120,000 Mint Juleps sold at Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby weekend.
- Woodford Reserve’s master distiller, Chris Morris, points out that “centuries ago, there was an Arabic drink called julab, made with water and rose petals. The beverage had a delicate and refreshing scent that people thought would instantly enhance the quality of their lives.” In the Mediterranean, indigenous mint replaced the rose petals and the “mint julep” rose in popularity.
- Henry Clay introduced the drink to Washington, D.C. in 1850. The U.S. senator from Kentucky supposedly made the mint julep popular in Washington, D.C. at the Round Robin Bar.
- It became the official drink of the Kentucky Derby in 1983.
- Scarlett O’Hara approved of the smell. That the mint julep is an icon of Dixie was not lost upon Margaret Mitchell when she knocked out her blockbuster Civil War novel Gone With The Wind in 1936.
- Although the drink is generally thought to have hit its popular stride in the 19th Century, Andrew Jackson’s earliest biographer (James Parton) claims in his book that Ol’ Hickory (long before he was a famous general or president) “were drinking quantities of mint-julep” while he and an acquaintance gambled on a cockfight in Nashville in 1795!
- Theodore Roosevelt slyly used mint juleps as an enticement to get his various cabinet members to play tennis with him. In fact, TR’s advisors were sometimes referred to as “the Tennis Cabinet”—though one muses that “the Mint Julep Cabinet” would not have been entirely far-fetched.
- Married to a southern belle, F. Scott Fitzgerald was certainly no stranger to the cocktail (though he himself probably preferred a good Gin Rickey). In fact, what is now his most famous novel—The Great Gatsby—works the mint julep into a simmering hotel-room argument at the Plaza between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan’s husband, Tom.
- The Drink Was First Mentioned in Print in 1803. According to John Davis’ 1803 book “Travels of Four and a Half Years in the United States of America,” a mint julep was said to be a “dram of spirituous liquor that has mint steeped in it, taken by Virginians of a morning.”
- Juleps and Similar Libations Were Called Antifogmatics and Were Often Consumed in the Morning. American author Samuel Goodrich explains that “in the Southern states, where the ague is so common and troublesome a malady, where fogs are frequent and dews heavy, it has grown the custom to fortify the body from attacks of the disease, by means of Juleps, or what are called antifogmatics.”
- The word julep was used as early as the late 14th century to refer to “a syrupy drink in which medicine was given.”
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