Mint julep

A mint julep (or mint julip) is generally defined as a cocktail consisting of bourbon whiskey, sugar, mint leaves, water, and crushed or shaved ice. However, many authors or bartenders have variants of the bourbon-based mint julep, and some non-alcoholic mocktails with mint are sometimes called mint juleps.

Quotes

Daisy rose, smiling faintly, and went to the table.
"Open the whiskey, Tom," she ordered, "and I'll make you a mint julep. Then you won't seem so stupid to yourself. . . . Look at the mint!"
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby: The Only Authorized Edition. Simon and Schuster. 2003. p. 129. ISBN 074324639X.

... There are many varieties, such as those composed of claret, Madeira, &c.; but the ingredients of the real mint julep are as follows. I learned how to make them, and succeeded pretty well. Put into a tumbler about a dozen of the tender sprigs of mint, upon them put a spoonful of white sugar, and equal proportions of peach and common brandy, so as to fill it up one-third, or perhaps a little less. Then take rasped or pounded ice, and fill up the tumbler. Epicures rub the lips of the tumbler with a piece of fresh pineapple, and the tumbler itself is very often incrusted outside with stalactites of ice. As the ice cools, you drink. ...
- Captain Marryat in Diary of America (1839), as quoted by Jerry Thomas in: How to Mix Drinks: Or, The Bon-vivant's Companion, Containing ... Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States, Together with the Most Popular British, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish Recipes. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald. 1862. pp. 43–44.

Bourbon figures heavily in the Derby experience; the mint julep has become the traditional drink of the Kentucky Derby and the most celebrated bourbon-based cocktail in the world. ... The mint julep had been served at Churchill Downs from the beginning, but were not available in the now-famous souvenir glasses until the late 1930s.
- James C. Nicholson, The Kentucky Derby: How the Run for the Roses Became America's Premier Sporting Event. University Press of Kentucky. 2012. p. 104. ISBN 0813135761. (Foreword by Chris McCarron)

The essential mint julep is made with bourbon and mint syrup poured over ice and garnished with a spring of fresh mint. ... Variations abound, some of them so far from the Kentucky julep as to be unrecognizable to traditionalists.
On the first Saturday in May, Kentucky Derby day, juleps are served at parties nationwide, yet few people know its history, and even many experienced bartenders do not know has to properly mix this celebrated drink.
- Joe Nickell, The Kentucky Mint Julep. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. 2003. p. 3. ISBN 0-8131-2275-9.

... I arose early in the morning and made him a Mint Julep, thinking it would refresh him after the restlessness of the hot night. ... Holding up the cooling beverage, I said to him: "Well, Professor, I have been entertaining you for two weeks on our simple Confederate fare; I could do no better, but I should have been glad had it been in my power to have treated you in the old Virginia style. Still, I cannot let you leave Virginia without taking a taste of the old lady, as she was known in ante-bellum days."
- Francis Henney Smith, West Point Fifty Years Ago: An Address Delivered Before the Association of Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, at the Annual Reunion, June 12, 1879. Van Nostrand. 1879. (F. H. Smith speaking, in 1875, to Professor Charles Davies)

External links

Encyclopedic article on Mint julep on Wikipedia