August 10, 2009Minced

Refreshing Mint Juleps

Mint Julep

It’s hot.  Really hot.  August is here with its sticky days, warm nights, and oppressive heat.  Unless you are sitting on a beach, relief is hard to find which is why I’ve fallen in love with mint juleps this summer.  The perfect summer cocktail, mint juleps, in their metal cups that frost up even better than an iced-beer mug, are a reprieve from the heat in the classiest of ways.

If, unlike me,you have a green thumb, you may have mint in your yard.  If you do, and it hasn’t been contained in a pot, then it is most surely running rampant in your garden.  Sprawling and overgrown at this time of year, most people have a surplus of mint.  And what better reward for dealing with the herb and its ever expanding nature than to serve it up in a refreshing beverage.

This recipe for mint juleps, adapted from Frank Stitt’s beautiful cookbook Frank Stitt’s Southern Table:  Recipes and Traditions from Highlands Bar and Grill, takes the mint julep to awesome heights through one simple trick: infusing the simple syrup with mint.  It’s as simple as it sounds.  Once you’ve made your simple syrup, simply add a handful of mint leaves to it and let it infuse for 20 minutes.  Remove the mint leaves and you’ll be left with a wonderfully minty, in smell and in taste, simple syrup.

Frank Stitt suggests combining all the ingredients, including the crushed ice, in a cocktail shaker and muddling everything together.  This is a nice technique as the chopped ice helps bruise the mint and release its scent.  However, my husband prefers to fill the julep cup all the way to the brim with ice and then muddle the bourbon, mint syrup, and mint leaves together in a cocktail shaker before pouring them over the ice.  This works equally as well, but you need to make sure to really crush the mint leaves with your muddler to get maximum flavor.

Regardless of how you prepare your cocktail, you’ll be glad to have the simple syrup on hand in your refrigerator.  Crucial to mint juleps, it will also give traditional iced tea a refreshing kick.  Cheers!

Mint Leaves

 

 

 

 

 

 

Refreshing Mint Julep
Makes 1 cocktail
Adapted from Frank Stitt’s recipe for mint juleps in his book, Frank Stitt’s Southern Table:  Recipes and Traditions from Highlands Bar and Grill.

1 cup crushed ice
3 ounces bourbon, preferably Maker’s Mark
1 1/2 ounces mint-infused simple syrup (See recipe following this recipe)
6-8 mint leaves
Mint sprig, to garnish

Fill mint julep cup, or tall glass, with crushed ice to the rim.  In a cocktail shaker, combine bourbon, simple syrup, and mint leaves.  Muddle being sure to break up the mint.  Pour bourbon mixture over ice.  Garnish with mint sprig and serve.

Mint-infused simple syrup:
1 part water
1 part granulated sugar
Mint leaves, to taste

In a small saucepan, combine water and sugar and bring to the boil.  Stir constantly until sugar dissolves.  Remove from heat and pour syrup over mint leaves.  Infuse for 20 minutes.  Strain and discard mint and store syrup in the refrigerator.

13 comments

  1. A formidable adaptation! The Jefferson Cup and its pewter progeny are the southerner’s gift to summer. I applaud your timely broach of the topic: spring and derby time just inspire getting drunk on juleps; the heat of latter day summer is for getting to know them.

    I follow Mr. Stitt’s traditional approach to introducing the mint, sugars and ice, though I’m inspired by the potential for North’s shaker and will try that method. After I muddle, and in addtion to a small garnish, I place several full mint leaves throughout the cup. I tear each horizontally ever so-slightly, without breaking the stem, to disperse mint gradually. I find this serves well aesthetically as the level of the drink lowers and clarifies to resemble green koi. It also offers a slower, more deliberate infusion of mint to keep up with the sugars which continue to breakdown and interplay with the molasses over time.

    Finally, I suggest some attention to cocktail napkins as important. Cloth or linen will never do because it is slippery on silver, especially as it gets wetter. You are worst off with something entirely pulp, which quickly soaks up the Jefferson cup’s condensation. Because it begins to coolfaster than the rest of the body, this causes the palm to sweat, and soon you are putting on a one drink juggling show and your beverage, just moments before a bourbon oasis, has become a scoop of the Ganges after the Kumbh Mela.

    Instead, I prefer napkins that have some waxy content to them. The best balanced julep napkins absorb sufficiently to allow enough grip on the cup, but also traps the condensation against the silver and trapping the cold temperatures.

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  2. This does sound like the perfect August drink for these steamy NC summer days… Want to get together soon and share one? 🙂 Hope the summer is going well!

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  4. casual stumble: i got fresh mint yeserday at the market after long long time and this is just the recipe i was looking for!. Cheers!

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  7. Stumbled across this, I do in fact have mint in my yard, and I’m a fan of bourbon to boot! This looks amazing, I’m going to give these a try tomorrow.

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  12. I make up a couple of cups of minted simple syrup at a time, to use in juleps (for the adults) and Italian cream sodas (for the kids)
    for a soda:
    1 oz minted simple syrup
    2 oz cream or 1/2 and 1/2
    put in a glass and fill to the top with club soda and ice.

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  13. I think of all that mint that wasn’t used that was in so many spots in my herb garden through the years. Born too soon!! Bring some mint and come see your “grannie”. I have some bourbon!

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