Derby Day/ Mint Juleps

In honor of the race and traditions, does any one have a good mint julep recipe? I know it is just mint, sugar, ice and bourbon, but give me some particulars, please.

This is a traditional recipe...

http://www.webtender.com/db/drink/611 

A straw!!!

Cheers, John 

just give me the bourbon.

Here is the link to the Woodford Reserve $1000 Julep Cup. These are on sale at the track  right now.

 

Presenting the 2010 Woodford Reserve $1,000 Mint Julep Cup!

Derby Season has arrived, and so have the Woodford Reserve $1,000 Mint Julep Cups!

This marks the 73rd year the mint julep cocktail has been recognized as the traditional beverage of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs®. Therefore, there are 73 total cups this year - each offered on a first come first served basis for immediate purchase of $1,000 each. Proceeds from this year's sale will benefit The Barnstable Brown Diabetes and Obesity Center.

The handmade silver mint julep cups were designed by Tiffany & Co. ®, and come with a sterling silver sipping straw. Each cup will be presented in a unique Tiffany & Co. "blue box" made uniquely for Woodford Reserve. The cups are individually numbered, and feature the Woodford Reserve logo along with a unique horse racing design.

Owners of the Woodford Reserve $1,000 Mint Julep Cup will have the choice to enjoy a mint julep at the race featuring a unique set of ingredients from around the globe:

• Organic Turbinado raw-cane sugar made from 100 percent organic sugar cane grown in Brazil. This sugar provides a smooth, mellow and rounded flavor, perfect for the world's most exotic Mint Julep.
• A special Kentucky Colonel Mint from Louisville, KY which was grown in a used Woodford Reserve Bourbon barrel.
• Ice made of water from a 10,000-year-old glacier in the far northern region of the Pacific Ocean near the Gulf of Alaska. This iceberg is by far the rarest and purest type of water on earth, pre-dating man and pollution.
• A small batch of the Master Distiller's personal selection of Woodford Reserve super-premium bourbon, selected specifically for the $1,000 Mint Julep.
  

How to Purchase

Beginning Monday, April 12th at noon (EDT) consumers 21 years of age and older, can log on to www.woodfordreservemintjulep.com to purchase their cup. Any unsold cups will be available for purchase on Kentucky Derby Day at the Woodford Reserve $1,000 Mint Julep Cup Experience, located near the clubhouse escalator inside Gate 10.Consumers without internet access or in need of assistance may call 1-888-696-4685. Sale ends Wednesday, April 28th at noon (EDT).

See you at the Races!

Your friends at Woodford Reserve

This beverage is sold as a charitable activity by Woodford Reserve and receives a lot of attention in the media in Louisville.

My own personal beverage eliminates the mint ! (Which tends to spoil the overall link to the tradition!!) My father claimed that Southern Comfort was the 'Real" backbone of a Mint Julep, not Bourbon. I tried one made with Southern Comfort several years ago and agree with the majority in saying Dad was Wrong. Southern Comfort in a Julep is like tomatoes in Chowder, a very personal preference !!!!

<message edited by mayor al on Fri, 04/30/10 6:17 AM>

Add-
  As of 6:35 AM on Friday, April 30th,  65 of the total of 73 $1000 Silver Juleps have been sold. The final eight available will probably go today , at the track.

Al, I still have just about enough left of that wonderful mint elixer you gave me a few years ago to make one last round of mint juleps tomorrow afternoon. Looks like a nice bottle of Evan Williams wll the basis of our libations.

Hope you have a winner tmorrow...

Cheers, John 

Al, I still have just about enough left of that wonderful mint elixer you gave me a few years ago to make one last round of mint juleps tomorrow afternoon. Looks like a nice bottle of Evan Williams wll the basis of our libations.

Hope you have a winner tmorrow...

Cheers, John 

John
It is really nice to hear that one of the 'door-prizes' from a meet-n-eat has served its purpose well.
 
    This day has been beautiful (weather-wise). Our local NBC station covers ALL the races from Churchill Downs live on both 'Oaks' and Derby Day.  They have done a two hour early morning coverage for the past week, and started 5am to end of the day of racing coverage today and tomorrow. It is 'almost' like being there! I haven't figured out the legal way to place bets, so any wagers are strictly 'dreams', but Super Saver is looking like my pick for the Derby , as of Friday at 3 PM.

Besides setting out the garden veggie plants, the Horses will get our attention today and tomorrow. We hope the pageantry is not spoiled by the forcasted rains.

P S

My Makers Mark Triple Crown Special bottles sure go up in value during the Derby 'Season' ! On Ebay they are bringing between $90 and $150 each. I wonder what a set of the three would get when sold together?

Jan wants me to sell mine...I want to hold out for the release of the Secretariat Movie later this year...We'll see if they peak any higher on the collector scale.

I have the day-long coverage of the Derby by our local NBC station running on our TV. They are covering literally EVERYTHING they can find at the Downs as they dodge rainshowers all day. One segment interviewed a gentleman who had just purchased 4 of the $1000 Woodford Reserve Special Mint Juleps in the engraved silver cups for a party in his box at the track. That's four Thousand dollars for four 12-14 oz drinks that are at least 60 percent ice. 
 
  I guess I just don't understand how Michael Hoffman and BillyB live that lifestyle !

I tried using sugar one year. Disaster. This year, I made a simple syrup using 2 parts sugar and 1 part water. Bang! What a difference.

in one glass:
Muddle 6-8 leaves of spearmint
Add 2.5 oz bourbon let it steep for a sec while measuring the simple syrup
add 1 oz simple syrup
fill with ice
Squeeze one wedge of lime
pour into the serving glass.

This year, even my wife, who typically does not drink bourbon, enjoyed the drink.  I finally found a winner for our Derby Day.

There's a handy tasty product on the market, Mint julep Elixir, made by A Touch of Kentucky, POBox 20891, Louisville, KY, 40250. It is oil of mint and simple syrup and makes a great julep. (Purists ,please hold your tongues.)

As our garden is over run with mint - the damn stuff is an invasive noxious weed- we have plenty of mint and I used to do the muddling bit until Al the Mayor provided me with the elixir a few years ago. 

And, Scorereader, what the hell is lime doing in a Derby Day Julep? And you forgot to mention the absolutely necessary glassful of crushed ice - otherwise yours is a good recipe...

Cheers, John 

Scorereader,  If it tastes good, then you have succeeded ! Lime or no Lime ! However, The traditional Julep does not include the 'sour citrus' !

John, The prepared Mint mix is widely used when preparation of a large number of Juleps is underway. Sometimes a Mixologist will make the 'batch' with the mixture, then create one from scratch to show his/her skills to the purchasing public...This is an early example of "Bait n Switch" behaviors!!

I have often wondered... when the Derby ocurrs on May 5th (when that is the date of the first Saturday in May) will our new political correctness insist that Cilantro be substituted for the Crushed Mint in the recipe?

seafarer john


There's a handy tasty product on the market, Mint julep Elixir, made by A Touch of Kentucky, POBox 20891, Louisville, KY, 40250. It is oil of mint and simple syrup and makes a great julep. (Purists ,please hold your tongues.)

As our garden is over run with mint - the damn stuff is an invasive noxious weed- we have plenty of mint and I used to do the muddling bit until Al the Mayor provided me with the elixir a few years ago. 

And, Scorereader, what the hell is lime doing in a Derby Day Julep? And you forgot to mention the absolutely necessary glassful of crushed ice - otherwise yours is a good recipe...

Cheers, John 

 
read my recipe again. Ice is there.
 
Also, I liked the lime addition. It wasn't much. Just a bit - at this time of the year, a single wedge of lime added only a little bit of lime juice. Darn things are nearly dry this time of year. More importantly, my wife liked the lime. Anything I can do to get her to sip bourbon with me, I'll take .
 
 

mayor al

I have often wondered... when the Derby ocurrs on May 5th (when that is the date of the first Saturday in May) will our new political correctness insist that Cilantro be substituted for the Crushed Mint in the recipe?

That happened just a few years ago. I know, I had a concert that night, so I had to wait on the juleps 'til nighttime.
 
Here's what I did that year. Had early dinner at Tex-Mex restaurant (which is appropiate, given the "holiday" is celebrated more in Texas than Mexico), watched Derby at said restaurant while sipping a Corona light (I had to perform, so booze was out, and a light beer was all I thought I should do.) Went to concert. Performed, went home, made mint juleps, and drank into the late night watching the replays of the Derby.
 
the mixing of Derby Day and El Cinco de Mayo did present a cultural oddity. But, what the hell - live it up...in moderation.
 
 
 
 

The address I listed yesterday for mint julep elixir does not work. However I found a lot of sources of mint oil on line and have ordered a bottle for myself which I will mix with simple syrup for next years juleps. 

Yesterday being May 5th we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant in Kingston, NY , Rosita's Cantina, and enjoyed a couple of Dos Equus and some fajitas and a knockout flan for dessert. All of this while sitting under a shade tree on their terrace  overlookng the Rondout Creek with a lot of busy small boat traffic and ducks swimming around the dock and warblers in the tree and a lovely breeze on a sunny afternoon.

That's living ,

Cheers, John 

Al...nice call on Super Saver, btw...the time stamping on your post makes it even better....

all is well up here in GR...job and life are good!

Craig,
Any dreams of a triple Crown are obviously long gone....but it was a fine Derby ! Hope all is well in the Great White North.