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Bourbon in mint condition

Michael Jackson rediscovers the sensual Deep South... in a cocktail

Saturday, 1 July 2000

If you haven't spent the past couple of months since the Kentucky Derbysipping mint juleps, now's the time to gather a few sprigs and a bottle ofbourbon and get up to speed for Independence Day next Tuesday. The veryword "julep" falls from the lips with a liquid sensuality. It aroused mycuriosity when I first encountered it in my teens in one of those Deep Southnovels where sex lingers between the lines.

If you haven't spent the past couple of months since the Kentucky Derbysipping mint juleps, now's the time to gather a few sprigs and a bottle of

bourbon and get up to speed for Independence Day next Tuesday. The veryword "julep" falls from the lips with a liquid sensuality. It aroused mycuriosity when I first encountered it in my teens in one of those Deep Southnovels where sex lingers between the lines.

A julep seemed to be a mysterious activity shared with a Southern beautywho lolled languorously in a swing on the porch, waiting for a long drink tocool, or inflame, passions. Its literary place could equally have been withone of the Fitzgeralds: that is to say, Scott or Edward. The latter wouldsurely have known a julep as being derived from the Persian gulab, meaningrosewater. Somehow it seeped via the poetry of Milton to colonial Virginia,

where it indicated a cocktail of fruit, sugar and alcohol: rum, in the daysbefore Americans distilled whiskey.

Coincidentally, it is a rum cocktail, the Mojito, that seems to have putsprigs of garden mint back on the bar recently. Cuba's lifting of its skirtsmay have helped promote rum as a sweetish spirit that goes with summeryfruit drinks, but bartenders are already tiring of that and turning tobourbons. They are making classics, such as the Old Fashioned and theManhattan, but also rediscovering the aromatic coolness of the mint julep.

"I think I would drink juleps all summer if bartenders were better at making

them," confesses Dick Bradsell, Britain's star shaker and stirrer. "Peoplethink there is a mystery to the julep. They assume that it has to becomplicated, and start adding unnecessary elements such as bitters andsoda. It's just a simple drink of bourbon, mint, sugar and water. It worksbecause bourbon and mint combine so well. They are natural neighbours.Mint grows wild all over Kentucky."

In a moment of heresy, bartender Bradsell concedes that the best juleps aremade at home where care, attention and time are not sacrificed to theimpatience of customers. The same point is made by master distiller Bill

Samuels, who produces Maker's Mark bourbon in Kentucky. "You need tomake juleps in large quantities," he urges. "It's the only way to get the

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proportion of mint right. There is nothing worse than a bad mint julep, but Ilove seeing the expression on a person's face when they have a really goodone."

Method: Bill Samuels deploys a whole bottle (75cl) of his own bourbon for a

dozen servings of mint julep. He also uses sugar syrup and mint extract,both of which are easy to make at home.

For the syrup, dissolve 50 grams of sugar in 10cl of water, hot but notboiling, and allow to cool. To make the mint extract, take two or threegenerous bunches of mint (which must be fresh and young, pale green); pickoff the leaves; wrap them in a T-shirt (muslin is too coarse); dip the mint-filled part of the shirt into a good 5cl of whiskey in a small bowl; then"wring the dickens out of the shirt", collecting 2-3cl of "juice". Blend thewhiskey, sugar syrup and mint extract in a jug (better still, a litre bottlethat can be sealed and stored). For older or stronger bourbons, use slightlymore sugar syrup. Add the mint extract gradually, checking the flavour untilit suits your taste. Finally, chill the mixture in the freezer (where it willkeep for years) for at least a day.

Serve in silver cups, tall tumblers, or even pint glasses, packed very tightlywith shaved ice (made by wrapping cubes in the T-shirt and hammeringthem until they splinter). Garnish the drink with a generous sprig of mint,perhaps lightly sprinkled with icing sugar, and a straw. Cut the straw shortso that the drinker noses the mint.