Louie Armstrong, “Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans.” This is a live performance, but I haven’t been able to figure out where or when. I do know the musicianship on display here is breathtaking.
We have a choice here between a Hurricane or a Mint Julep, but Melissa still has all that mint growing in the garden. So, Mint Julep it is.
We also have to hurry up and play this one — and drink this one — before we lose the very last of the summer weather. Monument Hill cooled off a couple weeks ago, and doesn’t look likely to warm back up very much before the autumn sets in.
You’ll need:
2.5 ounces Kentucky bourbon – Maker’s Mark preferred
2 fresh mint sprigs
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon water
If you happen to have your wife’s grandmother’s old julep glasses, by all means give them a quick polish and use them. If not, a Collins glass will do. My wife likes hers a little weaker and a little sweeter, so I double the water and sugar for her.
Trim your mint sprigs so that they’re the right height to serve as garnish. Trim off all the lower leaves, then muddle them in the bottom of the glass with the sugar and the water. Muddle them hard and release all that minty goodness.
Fill the glass all the way to the top with shaved or crushed ice, pour in the bourbon, then top off with a little more ice. Stick in a straw (we’ve got to get silver ones to go with the glasses!) then garnish with the sprigs.
Here are the two I just made.
Cheers.
AND ANOTHER THING: I’d usually leave it at that, but sipping at my cocktail and listening to Armstrong got me thinking. Or, as close to thinking as one can do on a sunny Saturday afternoon spent sipping at a cocktail and listening to Armstrong. What I’m thinking is, the huge debt we owe to Louis Armstrong.
Without Armstrong, jazz and pop as we know them simply wouldn’t exist. He did more than any other single artist to define them both — and he did so as an instrumentalist of unparalleled talent and as a vocalist of sublime and restrained emotiveness. Without Louis, how do you get to Charlie Parker? Without Louis, how do you get to Ella or Frank? He’s the guy who started it all.
Oh, and he wasn’t a bad actor, either, with 18 movies to his name.
We’re lucky we had him. I’m going back to my cocktail now.
I have fond memories of a few sultry Southern nights, and a cool Mint Julip. Thanks for the reminder.
Meh.
Sweet peach tea with gin to your taste.
Not that I’d turn down an MJ, mind you. 8^)
I wish I liked bourbon better.
I’m presently attempting to duplicate a Martini I had in Santa Fe last summer. Basil/Mint from leaves in the garden. It was soooo good. Wish me luck!
Cheers!
Good luck!
Lazy man’s julep: tumbler, ice, bourbon, splash of peppermint schnapps, stir.
Lazy man’s tip- buy and use simple syrup instead of playing with the sugar and water. Its always right. Also make sure not to use up your best bourbons on a julip. But dont use rotgut either. Makers is a good choice. They use Woodford at Churchill Downs and as much as I appreciate the effort there is no way you can taste the nuances with all that sugar and mint going on. God forbid you waste a 10 year Booker and if you put ANYTHING in a Pappy Van Winkle (including ice) you should be interned as a yankee spy.
+1 to all of it.
I have similar thoughts on margaritas: Anything better than Patron Silver is an absolute waste of a fine, sipping tequila. And, really, you only need the Patron for the first couple rounds. After that, you won’t even notice the cheap stuff.
Yes, any cocktail requiring sugar is better with simple syrup, because you get better diffusion with the sugar already in liquid form. However, it needs to be homemade syrup; the stuff sold in stores is not good. I make two cups of syrup at a time, and store it (it keeps for weeks) in a mason jar in the fridge all summer. Juleps, mojitos, etc., are more likely to me made if all the right tools are ready; a wooden spoon for muddling will work, but a silicon tipped muddler is not expensive, and does a better job.
Oh, and the Armstrong/Fitzgerald collaboration really highlights Armstrong’s huge talents as a vocalist.
As a certified cheapskate (frugal), I use Rebel Yell in mint juleps. I use the recipe above, but often opt for simple syrup. Also, was taught the final step is to dribble a tablespoon of water over top of the ice. Not certain of the purpose, but it now is tradition for me.
You know that Glenn Reynolds declares war in his link to this, don’t you Stephen?
I keep a small bottle of homemade simple syrup in the fridge at all times. Directions: In a medium saucepan combine equal parts sugar and water. Bring to a boil, stirring, until sugar has dissolved. Allow to cool.
Love the silver julip mugs btw. I’m just starting to get into collecting metal mugs since my brother in law sent me some awesome copper ones with some very passable whiskey from Montana. There may be nothing better than how cold you can get a drink in a metal mug. Ice, a little(?) ginger infused whiskey, some mint or lemon verbena from the garden, half a lemon worth of juice, top with ginger ale. Im a bourbon guy but a moscow mule in a copper mug in the summertime is livin.
Time to call a recess for mimosas and horse breeding
Bourbon on the rocks with shrubbery…
I use an idea I stole from Emeril, which is to add a splash of Grand Marnier. It brightens up all the flavors, and adds another flavor note to contrast against the bourbon, mint and sugar, all of which are sweet.
And steeping the leaves overnight in the bourbon, as Glenn mentions, is a winner as well.
You need to brew the mint leaves in Hot water about an hour, stain out the mint then and use that water to make a mint flavored simple syrup by adding a cup of sugar for each cup of water. Heat briefly to ensure sugar fully dissolves. Then you have plenty of mint flavor in the syrup and the mint in the glass is just for aroma and as garnish.
That’s similar to what I do, and you get a nice, bright minty taste and, as mentioned above, the sugar blends smoothly into the bourbon.
Another method is just to put the mint in your hot simple syrup to infuse it and then strain out the mint. I do this and save the mint-flavored syrup in the fridge. You can make juleps instantly and it’s a nice addition to iced tea and limeade.
Yes! This is what I do. I’ll have nice minty syrup for juleps (and mojitos!) all winter long. It weakens over time though, but still better than anything you can buy.
Of course, it’s still better in the summer when mint is profuse and I augment both drinks with freshly muddled mint, and top with a sprig (the top part of the plant).
And to clarify, in the summer, I still use the hot-steeped mint syrup. But I also add the cold steeped/muddled freshly plucked mint. It’s a trick I learned from beer brewing (with hops). It makes a difference.
My mother in law (97 years old and she may just never die) tells the story of having to go out in the dark to pluck mint for julips from the garden at the insistence of her husband and all the other profoundly drunk oilmen one evening. Nobody noticed the slugs infesting the mint until she was doing the dishes the next morning.
This (and the Van Winkle comment) reminded me of a great day each year in NYC, the Big Apple BBQ. 11 Madison Park whips up various bourbon cocktails, all under the auspices of the Van Winkle owners-good guy, and his son, go each year. Maybe it’s just us Yanks they do it for, but this one was delish: http://books.google.com/books?id=fY8y0BtenPIC&pg=PT73&lpg=PT73&dq=11+madison+park+bourbon+cardamom++cocktails+big+apple+bbq&source=bl&ots=fCIy4MNZ49&sig=1plsSaqkZ5GnOxqWHwfxzfcWKJE&hl=en#v=onepage&q=11%20madison%20park%20bourbon%20cardamom%20%20cocktails%20big%20apple%20bbq&f=false
Cardamom infused Honey/ Van Winkle/ ice/ lemon twist rediculously good.
Unless I misread the directions, you left out an important step. The mint flavor has to be **extracted** from the muddled mint, and if I recall my chemistry from long long ago correctly, extracting is a technical term which means using alcohol to pull the flavor out. The recipe I learned in the South was the same as yours, except that you add the bourbon to the muddled mint and use just enough sugar to suit your taste. Let sit for 10-15 minutes for the extraction to work, and only then do you strain into the glass with cracked or shaved ice. Garnish with the mint as you state.
Try it for yourself, er um, I mean conduct your own experiment.
I also use simple syrup rather than water and sugar, although I make my own rather than buying a commercial variety. I also substitute rum for bourbon and call it a “mojito” rather than a “julep.”
Honestly, if you’re gonna be making a cocktail, use Evan Williams. It’s significantly cheaper, and also significantly better than Maker’s Mark. (Though not as good as Woodford Reserve, which is what Churchill Downs uses in their mint juleps.)
I thought I’d share another use for mint that might be so obvious. But BEWARE, once you try it, you’ll never want to order this drink at a bar again.
A renowned summer drink: the gin and tonic. Crush a spearmint leaf between your fingers and add to the bottom of your glass. Add the gin. Wait 5 minutes. Then add your tonic and lime. Garnish either with lime or mint.
You can’t really taste the mint, but the drink sure tastes a lot better, which is saying a lot because it’s really hard to improve on a G&T.
Nota bene: I’ve never tried it with vodka, being partial to gin myself, but it ought to work just fine.
My favorite Mint Julep recipe, from food writer Richard Gehman:
Take the mint and sugar and muddle in the glass.
Pour the contents of the glass down the sink, rinse well.
Add ice and your favorite Bourbon.
Sip.
I get a different set of comments when I come in from the Instapundit link than I do from your original post.
What’s up with that?
Do you know what it means to miss Louis?