Mint Julep
A Mint Julep is a Cocktail which consists of Rum or Brandy or Bourbon, Mint Leaves, Sugar, and Crushed Ice.
Autobiography of an Irish traveller By Irish traveller
Historical References
"Letters from North America: Written During a Tour in the United States and Canada ...", By Adam Hodgson, 1824
"Under the denominations of anti-fogmatics, mint julep, and gin sling, copius libations are poured out on the altars of Bacchus..."
Transatlantic Sketches: Comprising Visits to the Most Interesting Scenes in North and South... By James Edward Alexander, 1833
"Put four or five stalks of unbruised mint into a tumbler, on them place a lump of ice; add brandy, water, and sugar."
"Autobiography of an Irish traveller", By Irish traveller, 1835
""Sir, you've only to ask me for what you may want, for father to-morrow will be all mops and brooms with his voters, and not know a glass of grog from a mint julep.*"
- Fresh mint pounded and the juice mixed with rum and sugar."
"Memoirs of a Water Drinker", By William Dunlap, 1837
"The mint-julep before breakfast in summer, and the egg-nogg in winter; the enticing toddy, with ice, at one season, and smoking hot at the other, as a prelude to dinner..."
"Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine", 1841
"At Boston he learned to drink mint julep, which he pronounces one of the best gifts of providence, in such a hothouse climate as this. This preparation, of which we hear so perpetually in American tours, consists of layers of mint leaves placed among chipped ice, sprinkled over with two table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar, and a small glass of brandy to crown the whole. This is to be drunk as it becomes fluid, through the medium of a quill or a macaroni pipe."
"Drayton: A Story of American Life", By Thomas H. Shreve 1851
"Get a tumbler, fill it half full of brandy, put sugar and mint in it, and then fill it up with ice, for I'm famishing for a julep."
"On the etiology, pathology, and treatment of fibro-bronchitis and rheumatic pneumonia", By Thomas Hepburn Buckler, 1853
"...take occasionally though the day a sip of mint-julep, made with good old brandy."
"Medical Lexicon", By Robley Dunglison, 1856
"Mint Julep. A drink, consisting of brandy, sugar, and pounded ice, flavoured by sprigs of mint. It is an agreeable alcoholic excitant."
Something for everybody (and a garland for the year), by John Timbs, 1861
"Mint Julep is brandy-and-water, sweetened with pounded white sugar, in which are stuck leaves of mint"
Jerry Thomas, 1862
- Take 1 table-spoonful of white pulverized sugar.
- 1/2 table-spoonfuls of water, mix well with a spoon.
- 1 1/2 wine-glass full of brandy.
Take three or four sprigs of fresh mint, and press them well in the sugar and water, until the flavor of the mint is extracted ; add the brandy, and fill the glass with fine shaved ice, then draw out the sprigs of mint and insert them in the ice with the stems downward, so that the leaves will be above, in the shape of a bouquet; arrange berries, and small pieces of sliced orange on top in a tasty manner, dash with Jamaica rum, and serve with a straw.
Whiskey Julep. (Use large bar-glass.) The whiskey julep is made the same as the mint julep, omitting all fruits and berries.
"Cups and their customs," By Henry Porter, George Edwin Roberts, 1863
Julep, derived from the Persian word Julap (a sweetened draught), is a beverage spoken of by John Quincey, the physician, who died in 1723, and also mentioned by Milton in the lines--
....."Behold this cordial Julep here, Thats foams and dances in his crystal bounds, With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mix'd."
This drink is now made by pounding ice and white sugar together, and adding to it a wine-glass of brandy, half a wine-glass of rum, and a piece of the out rind of a lemon; these ingredients are shaken violently, and two or three sprigs of fresh mint are stuck in the glass; it is then usually imbibed through a straw, or a stick of maccaroni.
"Fort Wayne News," 28th May 1913
- The Roosevelt Julep
"Henry Pinkney...who acted as general factotum with the Roosevelts, mixed the mint juleps T. R. said he drank while president. His recipe was a lump of sugar, a teaspoonful of water, some mint leaves stirred in with the liquid, a dash of brandy, a slug of rye, plenty of cracked ice and mint sprigs."
Other Recipes
The Real Georgia Mint Julep.
- Take 1 tea-spoonful of white powered sugar.
- 3/4 wine-glass of Cognac brandy.
- 3/4 wine glass of peach brandy.
- About 12 sprigs of the tender shoots of mint.
Put the mint in the tumbler, add the sugar, having previously dissolved it in a little water, then the brandy, and lastly, fill up the glass with shaved ice. Stir with a spoon but do not crush the mint. This is the genuine method of concocting a Southern mint julep, but whiskey may be substituted for brandy if preferred.
Mint Julep History
"Chris Morris from Woodford Reserve Bourbon says "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." When the julab was introduced to the Mediterranean region, the native population replaced the rose petals with mint, a plant indigenous to the area. The mint julep, as it was now called, grew in popularity throughout Europe."
"The main ingredient of the Mint Julep is Bourbon Whiskey. "The biggest change for the julep was the addition of American whiskey to the recipe," says Morris. "The julep was quickly transformed into a mixture of water, sugar, mint leaves, and good American whiskey.""
Mint Julep Quotes
The Buckner Mint Julep Ceremony
The following is a copy of a letter from Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., USA [(VMI-1906, West Point-1908) killed on Okinawa June 18, 1945] to Major General William D. Connor, [Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point] dated March 30, 1937. Buckner Jr. was the son of General Simon Bolivar Buckner of the Confederate army who surrendered Fort Donelson to General Grant, thus giving Grant his nickname of "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. This letter clearly demonstrates the esteem in which a "Mint Julep" is held.
My Dear General Connor:
Your letter requesting my formula for mixing mint juleps leaves me in the same position in which Captain Barber found himself when asked how he was able to carve the image of an elephant from a block of wood. He said that it was a simple process consisting merely of whittling off the part that didn't look like an elephant.
The preparation of the quintessence of gentlemanly beverages can be described only in like terms. A mint julep is not a product of a formula. It is a ceremony and must be performed by a gentleman possessing a true sense of the artistic, a deep reverence for the ingredients and a proper appreciation of the occasion. It is a rite that must not be entrusted to a novice, a statistician nor a Yankee. It is a heritage of the Old South, and emblem of hospitality, and a vehicle in which noble minds can travel together upon the flower-strewn paths of a happy and congenial thought.
So far as the mere mechanics of the operation are concerned, the procedure, stripped of its ceremonial embellishments, can be described as follows:
Go to a spring where cool, crystal-clear water bubbles from under a bank of dew-washed ferns. In a consecrated vessel, dip up a little water at the source. Follow the stream thru its banks of green moss and wild flowers until it broadens and trickles thru beds of mint growing in aromatic profusion and waving softly in the summer breeze. Gather the sweetest and tenderest shoots and gently carry them home. Go to the sideboard and select a decanter of Kentucky Bourbon distilled by a master hand, mellowed with age, yet still vigorous and inspiring. An ancestral sugar bowl, a row of silver goblets, some spoons and some ice and you are ready to start.
Into a canvas bag pound twice as much ice as you think you will need. Make it fine as snow, keep it dry and do not allow it to degenerate into slush. Into each goblet, put a slightly heaping teaspoonful of granulated sugar, barely cover this with spring water and slightly bruise one mint leaf into this, leaving the spoon in the goblet. Then pour elixir from the decanter until the goblets are about one-fourth full. Fill the goblets with snowy ice, sprinkling in a small amount of sugar as you fill. Wipe the outside of the goblets dry, and embellish copiously with mint.
Then comes the delicate and important operation of frosting. By proper manipulation of the spoon, the ingredients are circulated and blended until nature, wishing to take a further hand and add another of its beautiful phenomena, encrusts the whole in a glistening coat of white frost.
Thus harmoniously blended by the deft touches of a skilled hand, you have a beverage eminently appropriate for honorable men and beautiful women.
When all is ready, assemble your guests on the porch or in the garden where the aroma of the juleps will rise heavenward and make the birds sing. Propose a worthy toast, raise the goblets to your lips, bury your nose in the mint, inhale a deep breath of its fragrance and sip the nectar of the gods.
Being overcome with thirst, I can write no further.
Sincerely, Lt. Gen. S.B. Buckner, Jr. VMI Class of 1906
Captain Marryat's Mint Julep Recipe (1837)
“Put into a tumbler about a dozen sprigs of the tender shoots of mint; upon them put a spoonful of white sugar, and equal proportions of peach and common brandy, so as to fill 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 encrusted outside with stalactites of ice. As the ice melts, you drink.”
