Is there a recipe you would brawl over? A cherished tradition you would provoke the masses for? A way of doing things that, if averted from, you would shake a fist at your own mother?
And one of the most popular, rage invoking, passionately cherished, and dearly held southern staples that evokes such emotion is none other than the classic Mint Julep.
That’s right folks, take a seat, and lend me your eyeballs as I take you through a brief journey of the famed cocktail, and hopefully share with you a thing or two that you didn’t know about it before.
Hot Shots: George Washington may have enjoyed them It’s a smash hit at the Kentucky Derby Its roots stretch back over 1,000 years Theodore Roosevelt once publicly claimed he once failed to finish a Mint Julep
The term “julep” is generally defined as a sweet drink, particularly one used as a vehicle for medicine. The word itself is derived from the Spanish “julepe”, from Spanish Arabic, and this from the Persian word گلاب (Golâb), meaning rosewater.
A Decline in Popularity
It’s hard to offer up one specific recipe for the Mint Julep as there are, literally, so many. There are infinite rules that some people hold as Holy as the bible, while some people insist on a remix of an old classic.
To muddle the mint, or let it sit for 15 minutes? To serve in a pewter cup or an icy glass? Shaved ice or crushed? My god, what is the truth?!
The Mint Julep is said to be properly enjoyed only if you have time to wait for its preparation. It was not meant for a patron in a hurry, as the preparation and consumption of The Mint Julep is meant to be sacred.
Why, the matters of the freshness of the mint, allowing your sugar proper time to dissolve, and ensuring the cup you sip it from is as icy as earthly possible are no small feats to ensure.
City Slickers were not welcome to behold the majesty of the Mint Julep. This is a drink for the more relaxed southern lifestyle.
Unfortunately, this is why the Mint Julep fell out of popularity around the mid-1900s. As the world got busier, the customers got antsier, and they just didn’t have the time or the patience revolving around the Mint Juleps care and preparation.
The Mint Julep was also considered a drink solely for the elite as it was offered only at expensive hotel bars post-civil war.
There was also the issue of crushed ice being a CRUCIAL component of the drink, and ice was considered an elusive and expensive luxury to come by at the time.
It was also basically considered LAW to drink it from a silver cup so that you can see the frostiness of the drink on the outside. And, come on, who has money lying around for a silver-plated cup during The Great Depression?
Now we can’t talk about The famed Mint Julep without talking about the bartenders that made them famous. There were many enslaved and freed black people who took up trades in the hospitality industry to safeguard and/or obtain their freedom.
Naturally, many of them became bartenders. Cato Alexander, Tom Bullock, and John Dabney are just three of the many bartenders during the 19th century who brought many cocktails, including the Mint Julep, to fame.
John Dabney was a slave who worked at the Sweet Springs Resort in West Virginia. During his time there he served an infamous cocktail called The Julep a la Dabney. Kind of catchy, right? His cocktail became a flayout tourist attraction in the 1860’s.
The Julep a la Dabney was served in a MASSIVE tin bucket with bourbon, mint, and sugar, stuffed with almost a gallon of ice, and the bucket itself was also sat in a massive amount of ice to ensure that it never melted, and topped with several layers of mint and fruit.
This beverage was meant to serve multiple people, and patrons from far and wide came to see what all the fuss was about.
One of those patrons was none other than Edward VII, Prince of Wales. I mean, come on, how many Princes do YOU know?
With the money he earned while bartending, Dabney was able to freedom for himself and his wife. Wait, that’s a Prince and a happy ending in one story – did I just write a Disney movie?
Cato Alexander was a freed slave who opened a bar in New York which was notorious for his food and drink mixes.
Some historians believe that Cato is the one who created the Mint Julep, as he was notorious for creating all sorts of wacky cocktails that were made popular all over the U.S including his South Carolina Milk Punch and Virginia EggNog.
One of Cato’s famed regulars was one George Washington, who raved about Cato’s impeccable service, food, and atmospheric flourish.
Cato was known to brag about this…quite often. I’d have a thought or two to brag about myself if I had the pleasure of serving the first President of the United States.
Tom Bullock was a bartender at the St. Louis Country Club, and was the 1st black man to write and publish a mixology book.
As with Cato Alexander, some historians also credit Tim Bullock for creating the Mint Julep as his preparation of the cocktail was said to be the most undeniable and irresistible among men.
So much so that he was held as a witness in a libel case for one Colonel Theodore Roosevelt against the media.
A KNOWN lover of Mint Juleps, Roosevelt was pissed because the media repeatedly called him a drunk who couldn’t keep it together. He denied all of these allegations, naturally, even going as far to say that he had never been intoxicated in his life.
The proof? Roosevelt claimed that he once ordered a Mint Julep prepared by Tom Bullock and didn’t finish it.
However, a local newspaper, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, claimed the President was a liar because it was impossible to not finish a cocktail crafted by the incomparable Tom Bullock. They stated:
Woah, man. Talk about shots fired. But hey, a man who can be shot while giving a speech and just keep on talking is as close to Superman as I’ve seeen.
No doubt you’ve heard of The one and only Kentucky Derby; the annual horse race held at the Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky since 1875. But did you know that the Mint Julep has been the staple drink consumed at this event since 1938?
Rumor has it that it all started in 1877 when famed Polish actress Helena Modjeska, an esteemed guest of the owner, Merriwether Lewis Clark Jr., was offered a Mint Julep meant to be passed around amongst the guests.
But she loved the drink so much that she kept the whole drink to herself. She even ordered two more to boot!
It’s said that soon after making the Mint Julep the staple beverage, Merriwether Lewis Clark Jr. would grow mint leaves around the racetrack to ensure that the drinks and good times would never stop flowing.
Today, an estimated 120,000 Mint Juleps are sold each year at the Kentucky Derby. That’s using roughly over 2,000 pounds of mint, 60,000 pounds of ice, and 10,000 bottles of Old Forester bourbon mix. Talk about throwing a party you won’t forget!
There is also a specialty Mint Julep that is sold in Kentucky for the low, low price of $1,000+ a glass. Don’t be too alarmed, though.
The specialty ingredients for that cocktail include specialty mint from Ireland, ice from the bavarian alps, and sugar flown in first-class from Australia. The proceeds of the epic libations are donated to charities shortly after the end of the Derby.
Not to mention that the glorious concoction would be served inside of a silver-plated cup and slurped through a golden straw. Swanky!
But man, what a name! “Schlep” is the only other (not totally obscure) word in the English language that ends in -lep, and even that wears its Yiddishness on its sleeve. So how did the julep trot into our native tongue?
Our favorite julep, the Prescription Julep, is a throwback to those 19th-century recipes, with Cognac and rye replacing the typical bourbon (and a nod to the drinks medicinal roots in the name), but theres clearly a final frontier to cross for any true julep traditionalists out there: going back to the drinks rosy roots. If you can convince your neighbor to let you chop off a few flowers for your Derby party this weekend (etymology is famously persuasive), let us know how it tastes!
As far as were concerned, the mint julep is as important to the Kentucky Derby as the horses, or the jockeys, or whatever it is everyone seems to be cheering about while we launch our faces into another leafy sprig of mint. Its the quintessential Southern drink–the sweaty climate calls for a serious cool-down, and only a region with a sentimental attachment to its landed gentry would think to drink booze out of silver cups.
In the beginning (and likely a very early beginning, at that), the word was gul-ab, and the drink was Persian rosewater (gul=rose, ab=water). Gul-ab then moved through the normal channels (Arabic>Italian>French), until finally “julep” shows up in English, around 1400, in a surgical textbook called Lanfrancs Chirurgie (the old-timey word for “surgery”). There, its described as a “sirup maad oonly of water & of sugre,” mixed with more medicinal ingredients to make them easier to swallow. So by the 15th century, “julep” had lost its floral notes, and had moved into meaning any kind of soothing, sweet drink.
While the popular idea of a mint julep may have dwindled into a bourbon-only drink these days, there is still some linguistic innovation going on: Andrew Knowlton, BAs Restaurant and Drinks Editor, named his daughter Julep. (But it was more for the history of the word than anything–he and his wife were thinking of naming her “Rose,” but decided to go for a more ancient version of the same. That said, he is a man who likes mint juleps.)
Why is it called a mint julep?
FAQ
Why is there a mint julep at the Kentucky Derby?
What was the original mint julep?
What is the difference between a mint julep and a mojito?
What is the history of the julep cup?
What does Julep mean?
Subscribe to America’s largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! The meaning of JULEP is a drink consisting of a liquor (such as bourbon or brandy) and sugar poured over crushed ice and garnished with mint. How to use julep in a sentence.
Where did the word Julep come from?
The word itself is derived from the Spanish “julepe”, from Spanish Arabic, and this from the Persian word گلاب ( Golâb ), meaning rosewater. English juleps, as opposed to later American mint juleps, were primarily medicinal, lightly alcoholic, and often contained camphor .
What is a Bourbon Julep?
As a bourbon-based cocktail, it is associated with the American South and the cuisine of the Southern United States in general, and the Kentucky Derby in particular. A mint julep is traditionally made with four ingredients: mint leaf, bourbon, simple syrup, and crushed ice.
What is a mint julep?
Woodford Reserve introduced the concept of Mint Julep innovation that now can be seen in bars and restaurants across the globe. Now the Mint Julep is a standard cocktail offering in many fine establishments around the world.”