Creative Drinking

Happy Derby Day! Here's a delicious old twist on the Mint Julep!

In the 18th century, Juleps were more of a category of sweet with spirit rather than a specific drink. Brandy, rum and gin...all could be a julep. The Julep also went in and out of fashion throughout the times but in 1803, the addition of mint was first notated, but this recipe was with brandy, not bourbon, as is the norm now. The recipe for The Georgia Mint Julep (what we're drinking today) is from around 1862, loosely based on a formula in Jerry Thomas's How To Mix Drinks or The Bon Vivant's Companion.  By 1887, the Julep was, again, out of fashion. 

In 1910, a recipe in the Louisville Courier-Journal used whiskey. This Kentucky Mint Julep has been promoted every year at The Kentucky Derby since 1938 and every year hundreds of gallons are made at Churchill Downs.

This particular recipe comes from the time when brandy was just giving way to bourbon. The "Georgia" was added on later but this is based on the first printed recipe and what some cocktail historians consider the "real" Mint Julep.

Ingredients:

• Fresh mint leaves
• 1/2 2oz simple syrup (minted simple syrup even better)*
• 1.5 oz Brandy (I used Pierre Ferrand's 1840 Cognac as it is modeled on a rare 1840 bottle of cognac- seemed appropriate, but any brandy will do)
• 1.5 oz REAL Peach Brandy
• 2-3 dashes peach bitters (optional)

Muddle mint with the syrup in a highball glass. Add the brandies. Fill glass and swizzle with crushed ice until the outside of the glass is frosted. Add more sprigs of mint for garnish. Stick a straw in and have at it. I added some peach bitters to the top of the crushed ice mound, just cuz.

*Mint Simple Syrup: 
1.5 oz mint leaves. 1 oz sugar. 1 oz water.
Chop mint. In a saucepan bring sugar, water and mint to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Simmer syrup, undisturbed, 2 minutes. Pour syrup through a fine sieve, pressing hard on solids, and cool. Syrup keeps, covered and chilled, 2 weeks.

**Real peach brandy is not the peach-flavored brandy easily available at all liquor stores and very reminiscent of peach schnapps. Real peach brandy was a commonly used ingredient before prohibition. A real brandy, much the peach equivalent of Calvados or Applejack. Trouble is, it didn't survive prohibition. It was lost for several decades and sugary peach-flavored brandy became what was known. Thanks to the classic cocktail renaissance, real peach brandy has found it's way back from the dead thanks to several dedicated distillers. Please seek it out. Dogfish Head in Delaware makes a great peach brandy but there are several available now. If you DO have a bottle of peach-flavored brandy at home and want to try to use it, here is a modified recipe:

• 2 oz brandy
• 1 oz peach brandy
• fresh mint leaves
• a dash of water

Keep everything else the same. 
Enjoy and good luck with your bets!