Mint Julep
Bourbon on a porch
Bourbon poured over crushed ice with muddled mint and sugar creates a frosty, aromatic sipper. The tin cup sweats, the mint blooms, and suddenly you're in Kentucky.
Ingredients
- 2 oz Bourbon
- 8 sprigs Mint Leaves
- 1/2 oz Simple Syrup
Method
Gently muddle mint leaves with simple syrup in a julep cup. Fill the cup with crushed ice. Pour bourbon over. Stir until the cup frosts. Top with more crushed ice and garnish with a generous bouquet of mint.
Documented in John Davis's 1803 *Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of America* as a Virginia morning drink with mint-steeped spirits. Jerry Thomas published the first cocktail book in 1862 (*The Bartender's Guide*), containing the first printed recipes for mixed drinks including the Mint Julep, which called for cognac and Jamaican rum; bourbon became standard in the late 1870s-1880s following phylloxera's impact on French brandy production, Southern economic decline, and the rise of American whiskey. The term "julep" derives from Persian "gulab" (flower water). Per Difford's Guide #1330 and the IBA Contemporary Classics list.
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