It’s hot, and you don’t like to drink the chilled rice-based swill that passes for “beer”. What do? Perhaps the mint julep…is right for you.
Mint julep recipes are highly variable, but have several things in common: mint, sugar, bourbon, and ice. The IBA recipe:
6 cL Bourbon whiskey
4 mint leaves
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
2 teaspoons water
In a highball glass gently muddle the mint, sugar and water. Fill the glass with cracked ice, add Bourbon and stir well until the glass is well frosted. Garnish with a mint sprig.
Aside from the fact that this is a triple-strong drink — which may or may not be what you want — it’s light on the mint. I’m not sold on powdered sugar either. By the way, in this and other julep recipes it’s assumed that the highball glass is metal, hence the “until frosted” direction. Don’t wait for glass glasses to frost. Silver straw optional.
Most mint julep recipes call for a stirred drink packed with ice. This is great for hiding the fact that you’ve only got ~2oz of liquid in the glass and giving the drinker something to do (drinking icemelt) aside from getting another drink.
I actually prefer to shake juleps. While the drink is vulnerable to being watered down, the aeration effect of shaking works well. You can optionally add the mint to the shake. This completely macerates the mint and maximizes the mint taste of the drink, although I don’t like it because the resulting mint fragments get stuck to teeth, glassware, etc.
My preferred recipe:
2oz Bourbon
Splash of simple syrup
4-8 fresh mint leaves
Mint Sprig
Lightly muddle the mint at the bottom of a lowball glass. Use at least one mint leaf to smear the rim of the glass.
Add the bourbon and syrup to the shaker with ice, strain or dump into glass as preferred.
Garnish with mint sprig.
This is a “tincture” cocktail in which trace amounts of other ingredients are added to a spirit, as in a martini or old fashioned. It is absolutely vital to use good bourbon and fresh mint if you want this to prepare this properly. I typically use Woodford Reserve and have a hydroponic grow kit to source the mint.
Mint added to shake, on the rocks
Undisciplined drinkers will put this away within seconds. The easiest way to extend the drink is to dump the ice and serve it on the rocks instead of straight up, as in the picture above. Another way, if you’re going all out, is just to double the drink.
You can also serve it in an opaque glass, preferably of metal. I keep a complete set of Korean kitchenware (that’s a whole other subject), which means I have several small metal cups available at all times (the long-handled spoons are also excellent for stirring). These not only frost up nicely, they’re a more appropriate package for a relatively low-volume drink.
The cup on the right would be at least half full, a double would make it look almost full.
If you feel the need to add more ingredients, put in more mint leaves. Do not overdo it on the sugar or you’ll end up with a bourbon-flavored snowcone.
Poor Man’s Julep
What all you’ve got is bad whisky and you’re not growing mint anywhere? This julep recipe, rather than accentuating the taste of good bourbon, will help hide the taste of questionable stuff:
2oz Whisky
.75oz Simple syrup
1 capful Creme de Menthe
Shake and dump into glass
If you’re going to go lower than 2:1 spirit:syrup with this recipe, just give up and mix it with Coke. You’re going for more dilution as well as aeration on the shake here, too, so shake it a bit longer than with the recipe above. I’ve had excellent luck with this recipe; you can enjoy it while taking a break from shoveling out the stables for the people drinking the real thing in the veranda.
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