The Twisted Mint Julep
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For the Spring and Summer growing season, we bring you a new feature at Beekman 1802, the Soused Gnome. He’ll teach you how to “gartend”–create perfect seasonal cocktails using fresh ingredients from the garden.
I grew up on an Organic farm in New Jersey. New Jersey you say? There aren’t farms in NJ! Well, my friends it is true. There are farms and passionate people who grow herbs and vegetables that speak clearly of the “ Terroir” or flavor of the place.
My parents encouraged me to grow herbs. Sure I had a vegetable garden, but my true passion as a boy was to grow aromatic herbs. Fortunate to grow up with a firm background of European travel, I brought seeds back from the various countries and planted them in my garden. Fennel from Tuscany, Lavender from the South of France, Basil from a garden outside of Rome, Kentucky Colonel Mint from, you guessed it, Kentucky! The glasses of sweet iced tea or freshly made lemonade that graced our dinner table always had freshly picked mint in them. The tomatoes that warmed themselves on the vine until bursting with juice would eventually find their way onto a plate with freshly snipped fennel and basil, danced upon by some otherworldly olive oil that I brought back from Europe.
This morning while wandering through the garden I noticed a healthy patch of the Kentucky Colonel mint growing in the usual spot against the clapboards of my home. It’s been freezing cold as of late even into the middle of April. The warm spell that we had several weeks ago seems now to be a vestige of another time or year. Thirty degrees this morning doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I will say however that the patch of mint is doing what it is meant to do, grow full and lush- even under such adverse circumstances!
Early spring should be cold. A spring frost “hardens off” the weak herb sprouts and forces the strong ones to survive. We need a cold spring to give strength to the herbs in the hot months of the summer. Mint is one of those plants that seem to thrive in all sorts of weather. If you don’t have a mint patch by your home, by all means get yourself down to your local garden center and plant some Kentucky Colonel variety mint. This is the most amazing mint in a “Mint Julep” and if you don’t have a sterling silver Julep Cup, maybe this would be a good time to find one.
If you are unable to secure some sterling silver cups, a couple of good thick rocks glasses will work perfectly well and will frost up just the same.
The Twisted Mint Julep
Ingredients
3 shots Tuthilltown Rye Whiskey
2 shots Lucid Absinthe
Crushed Ice (Be sure to crush your ice in a vintage hand cranked machine)
Granulated Raw Sugar (like the product- Sugar in the Raw)
A couple drops of Grade B Maple Syrup (Optional: For depth)
Freshly picked mint
Preparation:
Carefully pick the smallest (they are the most intense) leaves from the mint and wash, wrap in a moist kitchen cloth to keep fresh, pick the nicest ones for the garnish later
To your glass or sterling silver julep cup, add a couple leaves of the mint, then a bit of the sugar, some ice, muddle them around a bit. Then add a splash of the Tuthilltown Rye, then a splash of the Lucid Absinthe. Muddle (this means mash up with the rounded end of a wooden spoon) the mint with the sugar with the liquors, adding more ice, mint, sugar and liquors until the vessel is nice and frosty. Be patient. This is not a fast drink, but one that requires reverence!
Garnish with the most pristine of mint sprigs and drip a couple of drops of dark Maple Syrup (Like Grade B) over the top for a sweeter finish!
Warren Bobrow is the Food and Drink Editor of the 501c3, non profit Wild Table on Wild River Review located in Princeton, New Jersey. He has published over three hundred articles in about three years on everything from cocktail mixology to restaurant reviews and travel articles. Learn more from his website, The Cocktail Whisperer, or by visiting his blogs at The Daily Basic, Foodista, and Williams-Sonoma
