The Long, Strange, Southern History of the Mint Julep

Just like its signature mint leaves, the cocktail’s origins are muddled at best.

The Mint Julep : there ’s a sure swagger involve in the order — a certain southerly gravitas derived from the day that its legendary cordial reception dictated the offering of elaborate cocktail like the mint julep to Guest .

Like all cocktails as honest-to-god as this one is , its origins are addle at well . Since its beginning , the Mint Julephas become more classless , you do n’t have to be sitting in a rocking chair with a flyswat to enjoy one , for example . But you do n’t become the prescribed adult beverage of the fancy day in sport by being any old cocktail : it takes a certain amount of self-confidence to order one .

Prohibition popularity

The julep became the official drink of the Kentucky Derby in the thirties after more than a decade of prohibition ’s inferior homemade spirits gave wage increase to elaborate cocktails to dissemble the pigwash . But its bloodline go much further back than the Volstead Act .

unobjective story say the Mint Julep made its debut when an 18th - hundred Kentucky man searching near the Mississippi River for water to add to his bourbon found barbaric mint instead . He add some to his cocktail and began a southern tradition . How did we get to mint leaves in a mobile canteen to $ 1,000 mint julep in ash grey cups with gold plated shuck ? Oddly enough , it ’s moderation crusaders .

From the 1890s , when zealots made it their business to visit themselves on America ’s pleasures , to the 1950s , when America ’s tastes for cocktails were still informed by the dense mixers of the prohibition age , the Mint Julep was the unofficial drink of the entire South .

Cameron Whitman/Stocksy

Indian roots

derive from the same Persian root give-and-take ( gulab ) as the gulab jamun you may have go out on the computer menu at your local Indian restaurant , julep was once a catchall terminus for a variety of sugary cocktails whose American history goes back to the Revolutionary War .

Enjoyed as a breakfast drink for Virginia farmers before their daily chores , juleps were made with whatever sprightliness were usable and mixed with local fruits or herbs . By the time the child of those enterprising Virginia farmers made it to Kentucky , the story goes , the hereditary julep got the minty kick it require to become something more than just a drinkable .

Ode to mint

By the close of the 19th 100 , the mint variety had so become a part of Louisville ’s solid food and drink refinement that one author , Joshua Soule Smith of theLexington Herald , wrote an ode to the drink that begins with the portentous lines , “ Then derive the zenith of mankind ’s pleasure . Then comes the Mint Julep . ”

The piece is to Mint Juleps asCasey at the Batis to baseball , and it ’s hard to reason against the stately tone with which Smith makes a billet for the beverage in sporting chronicle .

His piece of music is particularly important to mint julep lore for two reason : first , it exemplify just how popular the cocktail had become by the number of the century ( he was writing in 1891 ) , and 2nd , it illustrate exactly how everyone carry a Mint Julep — either by the flange or at the bottom , take into account a icing to work up up on the traditional julep cup — feels , just for a brief moment . His speech resonate for the julep juicer , even a C after the fact .

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“ When it is made , sip it lento , ” the final paragraph set out . “ August suns are shine , the breath of the south tip is upon you . It is fragrant insensate and sweet — it is seductive . No maiden ’s candy kiss is tenderer or more refreshing , no maiden over ’s skin senses could be more passionate . Sip it and daydream — it is a dream itself .

No other land can give you so much angelic consolation for your care ; no other liquor console you in melancholy days . Sip it and say there is no solace for the mortal , no pop for the torso like quondam Bourbon whiskey . ” In our experience , he could n’t have relayed the feeling better .