How to Make a Mint Julep

[John Cole]

Read, at least, the confederate soldier's recipe for making the drink at the end of the article. (Might require simple registration.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53592-2003Apr29.html

[nicky g]

Anyone know how to make a good whiskey sour? My favourite cocktail by far and I've never had a good home-made one.

[Ray Zee]

mint julep-- thats for guys that want to be girls or want to sip a drink while on the lawn with an unbrella over their head.
a shot with a beer back is what its all about my man.
if you must drink something with a name try a manhattan.
now ill go to the site you suggest and cry for the world.

[scalf]

/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif reeel answer...go to loooieville...they are wretched..lol..gl /forums/images/icons/shocked.gif /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif

[HDPM]

Have to agree w/ you on this. I tried to get Cole's link to work but couldn't. So I'll have to post my favorite drink recipes without seeing Cole's article.


HDPM version of Mint Julep: Nice glass with some ice. Pour healthy portion of Maker's Mark in. Hold sugar, mint, syrup whatever etc.... Drink.

HDPM version of Old Fashioned: Same as HDPM mint julep.

Occasionally HDPM will steal a maraschino cherry from the bin at a bar and eat it when he is paying for one of the above. It doesn't go in the drink tho.

Other favorie bourbon cocktails: Pour Bookers in a glass. Light a cigar. Drink Booker's and smoke cigar. This recipe works well for malt whisky too.

Drinks with names that are occasionally consumed: Martinis, margaritas. My martini recipe: Boodles, Beefeater, or Bombay Sapphire in a pinch. Vermouth optional. I add some when I make them to say I did. Amount trivial. Shake, never stir. Gin can't be bruised and the shaker is cool. Pour in a glass. I break from tradition and drink them with a twist because olives are gross. So there is my radical streak. Then drink. I rarely make them at home, but have had martini parties.

Margarita: I have never made one at home. Too hard. Only at Mexican restaurants. Best example of one is the Rio Grande restaurant in Boulder, CO. You CO. guys should have one if you haven't and find yourself in Boulder. They have a lot of tequila in them.

So I am to the left of z on cocktail theory, but not by much. /forums/images/icons/tongue.gif

[John Cole]

HDPM,

Link worked fine for me after simple registration. I'm a Bourbon drinker myself (with a bit of water and ice), but the old soldier's recipe is a keeper.

John

[John Cole]

Here's the relevant portion:

"My dear General Connor,

"Your letter requesting my formula for mixing mint juleps leaves me in the same position in which Captain Barber found himself when asked how he was able to carve the image of an elephant from a block of wood. He replied that it was a simple process consisting merely of whittling off the part that didn't look like an elephant.

"The preparation of the quintessence of gentlemanly beverages can be described only in like terms. A mint julep is not the product of a formula. It is a ceremony and must be performed by a gentleman possessing a true sense of the artistic, a deep reverence for the ingredients and a proper appreciation of the occasion. It is a rite that must not be entrusted to a novice, a statistician, nor a Yankee. It is a heritage of the old South, an emblem of hospitality and a vehicle in which noble minds can travel together upon the flower-strewn paths of happy and congenial thought.

"So far as the mere mechanics of the operation are concerned, the procedure, stripped of its ceremonial embellishments, can be described as follows:

"Go to a spring where cool, crystal-clear water bubbles from under a bank of dew-washed ferns. In a consecrated vessel, dip up a little water at the source. Follow the stream through its banks of green moss and wildflowers until it broadens and trickles through beds of mint growing in aromatic profusion and waving softly in the summer breezes. Gather the sweetest and tenderest shoots and gently carry them home. Go to the sideboard and select a decanter of Kentucky Bourbon, distilled by a master hand, mellowed with age yet still vigorous and inspiring. An ancestral sugar bowl, a row of silver goblets, some spoons and some ice and you are ready to start.

"In a canvas bag, pound twice as much ice as you think you will need. Make it fine as snow, keep it dry and do not allow it to degenerate into slush.

"In each goblet, put a slightly heaping teaspoonful of granulated sugar, barely cover this with spring water and slightly bruise one mint leaf into this, leaving the spoon in the goblet. Then pour elixir from the decanter until the goblets are about one-fourth full. Fill the goblets with snowy ice, sprinkling in a small amount of sugar as you fill. Wipe the outsides of the goblets dry and embellish copiously with mint.

"Then comes the important and delicate operation of frosting. By proper manipulation of the spoon, the ingredients are circulated and blended until Nature, wishing to take a further hand and add another of its beautiful phenomena, encrusts the whole in a glittering coat of white frost. Thus harmoniously blended by the deft touches of a skilled hand, you have a beverage eminently appropriate for honorable men and beautiful women.

"When all is ready, assemble your guests on the porch or in the garden, where the aroma of the juleps will rise Heavenward and make the birds sing. Propose a worthy toast, raise the goblet to your lips, bury your nose in the mint, inhale a deep breath of its fragrance and sip the nectar of the gods.

"Being overcome by thirst, I can write no further.

Sincerely,

S.B. Buckner Jr."

[scalf]

/forums/images/icons/grin.gif john...i think you should jet down to s.c., rent a car...head out to healing springs in barnwell county...yup, same county with nuclear bomb plant, but you'll have to wait in line for crystal clear delicious spring water...and it cures what ails ya....while there stop at amish restaraunt in blacksburg, s.c....amish man with 5 daughters started restaraunt to employ his clan...the best..just a little rich...lol..gl /forums/images/icons/grin.gif /forums/images/icons/spade.gif

[HDPM]

I got the link to work w/out registration and enjoyed the writing. My mint julep recipe is better tho. /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif

[J.A.Sucker]

My drinking preference seems to be in line with HDPM's. Must be a regional thing (I'm from Ft Collins, home of the original Rio, I believe). Gotta love the Rio's Margs... they've got Everclear in them, you know (I knew a waitress who used to work there). My personal fav for drinking in Boulder is La Iguana's on a sunny summer afternoon. The margs are OK, but they are usually best when you have them skip all the non-tequila ingredients. I like to garnish mine with a bucket of ice-cold Pacificos, myself. Enjoy.

/forums/images/icons/ooo.gif

[HDPM]

I like those tequila-only margaritas with Pcifico's back myself. /forums/images/icons/smirk.gif Tequila in a glass consumed to excess is a fun but dangerous beverage.

Don't remember Iguana place. For sunny day Boulder drinking I liked the places with roof patios. Good mountain views, sun, liquor, ya just can't go wrong. Never liked Boulder, but it did have some nice features.

Bestest Martini is the Cruise Room bar at the Oxford Hotel in Denver BTW, at least if Lisa is still mixing them. In case you are going to CO any time soon.