CLASSIC SPIRITS: The Mint Julep
From August 20th, 2021
Hello! I am taking a small holiday and meanwhile revisiting some choice summer recipes from the Spirits vault. Here is the Mint Julep recipe w/ variations AND literary references. It’s just the thing for this time of year. I recreated my Equine playlist too in honour of the Mint Julep’s horse racing associations and because horses are much more intelligent than previously thought. Have you notice how all research into animal intelligence tends to the conclusion that octopuses, dogs, ptarmigans, llamas, nematodes etc are much more intelligent than previously thought - whereas research into human intelligence keeps showing how we’re much dumber than previously thought? Honestly they should just make a horse president and be done with it.
~ THE MINT JULEP ~
Five mint leaves plus sprig(s) to garnish
60ml bourbon
15ml golden sugar syrup
A small hillock of crushed ice
Place the mint leaves, bourbon and sugar syrup in the bottom of your julep tin and muddle ever so gently - you don’t want to punish the leaves so much as caress them. Now spoon out and discard the leaves. (This is mostly for ease of drinking, so you don’t end up with bits of mint stuck in your straw). Fill the tin halfway with crushed ice and churn for ten seconds or so. Add some more ice and churn some more. The drink is ready when condensation beads the side of the tin and the bourbon is diluted just enough but not too much (needless to say, add more bourbon if it’s become too watery. Heap a little more ice on top, garnish with an extra sprig of mint - slap it to release the aromas - and serve with a straw.
Please note: if you don’t have fancy julep tin like the one above - purloined from Dishoom, as far as I recall - you can always just use a tin can. As long as you wash it out first. And scroll down for a few ‘twists’ on the recipe.
Well hello there! It is SO good to see you. YES indeed, that is the sweet sound of MUSIC and it is indeed the WEEKEND. Arrest all thoughts of toil! For a few hours at least.
I am Richard Godwin and this is my newsletter. Please consider subscribing for the full experience! 👇 You will find instructions for making sugar syrup, grenadine, orgeat ice, etc here and my 10 RULES FOR MAKING COCKTAILS here. I have also assembled some bottle recommendations here - and here is the full archive of weekly specials. Do please share the Spirits with anyone who might like it - and feel free to tag me with your creations on Instagram or Twitter. Also scroll to the bottom for what to get in for next week!
YOU might also be interested in my book, The Spirits, which being republished thanks in no small part to the success of this newsletter! You can get it from 30th September from Foyles, Blackwells, Hive, Waterstones, Amazon, or best of all, ask your local bookshop to order it for you and all your most interesting friends.
A HANDFUL OF JULEP TWISTS
THE Julep is a classic of the American South, predating the cocktail by several decades. Also a favourite of Daisy Buchanan in the Great Gatsby, who orders “crushed mint and ice” to the room (not crushed ice and mint?) when she wants to make something out of a bourbon situation.
“Open the whisky, Tom,” she ordered, “and I’ll make you a mint julep. Then you won’t seem so stupid to yourself… Look at the mint!”
It’s a booze-heavy, can’t-hide sort of drink, not so far away from the Old Fashioned in that respect: we’re talking alcohol + sugar + bitters vs alcohol + sugar + fresh herb. But thanks to those herbs and all that ice, the Julep is refreshing, approachable and much more suitable for soothing tempers in sultry climates. Such as Bristol, August, 2021. Joke! It could hardly be less sultry and I could hardly feel less Gatsbyesque as I type these words. But wherever you find yourself, the churning should be taken seriously and a julep should only be served when the tin is visibly and tangibly cold. By the same token, you shouldn’t overchurn. Nothing worse than a watery julep.
You can add fresh fruit to a julep - hulled strawberries, watermelon, peach slices, pineapple etc - but technically speaking, this turns it into a ‘smash’. I’ve heard of bona fide Southerners who squeeze lemon into their juleps and even top them up with sodas of various descriptions. I’ve also tasted a very fine julep that involved rose petals. But the essence of the julep, in my opinion, is its simplicity: the oaky complexity of a good aged spirit and the light ticklishness of the mint, maybe a splash of liqueur if you’re feeling debonair. Maraschino is nice. An amaro is hip. I’ve had success with Passoa passion fruit liqueur too, so help me God. And even within this formula there are plenty of nice variations, such as:
THE PEACH JULEP: One of the most influential julep recipes was noted down by a British naval officer, Captain Frederick Maryatt, who discovered the julep while travelling in the Deep South in the 1830s. His specs were copied by Mrs Beeton, Charles Dickens and Harry Craddock of Savoy Cocktail Book fame. The juleps that the Captain enjoyed were made with not bourbon but brandy and peach brandy - an old-time spirit distilled from peach pits and then aged, a bit like apple brandy. Some efforts have been made to revive this delicious-sounding liquid. But simply making a julep with 50ml brandy and 10ml or so of peach (or apricot?) liqueur works quite nicely too. And a dash of Fee Bros. Peach Bitters is outstanding.
THE MAPLE JULEP: Use maple syrup in place of the sugar syrup. Delicious.
THE RUM JULEP: Aged rum in place of the bourbon or perhaps in concert with it… say, 30ml of each. A little brown sugar syrup is good in this version too.
THE MEXICAN JULEP: Tequila reposado in place of the bourbon, maybe a splash of mezcal too. And cinnamon syrup is especially good here (recipe here)
THE APERITIVO JULEP: For lighter julep, try using 50ml French vermouth or dry sherry as the base, with maybe 15ml Campari / Cynar / Amaro Nonino, etc for a little bitter complexity.
THE TEA JULEP: You can make a non-alcoholic julep too! Prepare some black iced tea and make it strong. The best way to make iced tea is the cold-brew method - leave tea leaves to infuse in cold water for 24 hours - but if you’re not that patient, simply make a cup with double the amount of tea you normally would ( be sure to remove the bags/leaves before they start to stew) and then allow it to cool. This super-strength tea makes a fairly decent non-alcoholic sub for brown spirits, I find. Darjeeling is good. As is a nice smoky Lapsang Souchong-type blend.
PLAYLIST
The Mint Julep is the classic drink of the Kentucky Derby, the American equivalent of the Grand National, which takes place in May. So here are some songs about horses! And some other equine creatures too.
THIS PLAYLIST UPDATES AUTOMATICALLY EACH WEEK. Here is an ongoing archive of past songs. Sometimes this formats weirdly - but rest assured, it is all new!
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING
Sally Rooney’s new novel, Beautiful World Where Are You? I don’t think I’m supposed to say anything about it but I will say: it’s extremely depressing... And yet I can’t put it down and nor can I stop thinking about it! Hmm.
Also lots of extremely distressing thing about Afghanistan - particularly good analysis in the New Statesman this week and this piece from the Times is extremely worth reading.
I wrote a little round up of non-alcoholic beers, soda, kombuchas, etc that I like for the Times this week (the link isn’t working right now but will hopefully be fixed soon). I am all for this sort of thing!
Amelia Tait on 50 Years of The Mr Men. (also New Statesman). Which reminded me of these peerless reader reviews of the series - some of the greatest literary criticism you’ll find in the most unlikely of places (Amazon)
Tom Owolade is one of the sharpest and fairest young writers in Britain today imho! Here he is on England football team (Financial Times) and again on Critical Race Theory (UnHerd)
I Don’t Want to Be Like a Family with My Co-Workers! (The Cut). I enjoyed this little critique of the modern imperative to join in with workplace cakes, high-fives, lunch outings, etc.
Sam Knight is always great… here he is on how culture wars hit the National Trust (New Yorker)
SHOPPING LIST
FOR the next archival pick (this is 2024 Richard taking the mic by the way) you will need gin, Italian vermouth and Campari
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