21. Discovering the Black Bartenders Behind the Mint Julep

Let's talk about the makers who really built this classic.

The spring after my wife and I got married, a massive RV pulled up to our apartment. At the time, we were living in Newport, Kentucky, just across the river from Cincinnati. In the RV were approximately 17 people, many of whom Jenny had rowed with during college. They piled into our apartment, helped us cook a bunch of food, and got drunk. In the morning, with the house still stinking of greasy onions from somebody’s late night White Castle run, we too got into the RV with this crew that used to do crew, and drove to Louisville for the 137th running of the Kentucky Derby. There, over the course of the following two days, I drank a lot of Mint Juleps.

There were two things that I didn’t know then about those Mint Juleps. 1) They were mediocre. They were syrupy sweet, and good but not great. This is to be expected when you consider the magnitude of the operation. Officials at the Kentucky Derby claim that nearly 120,000 Mint Juleps are served at Churchill Downs over the course of an average Derby weekend, requiring 10,000 bottles of bourbon, 1,000 pounds of mint, and 60,000 pounds of ice. 2) They were not originally created by the ancestors of the wealthy white folks who were sitting in the fancy seats high above the racetrack, staring down at all us fools in the infield. They were created by Black men.

According to the independent Atlanta bartender Tiffanie Barriere, the most probable creator of the Mint Julep was either John Dabney or Cato Alexander. Both men were slaves who paid their owners for their freedom, and when Emancipation happened, they made cocktails at country clubs in order to buy back their family’s freedom too. Dabney, who worked at the Columbian Hotel in Richmond right around the time the icebox was invented, used to shave blocks of ice with a carpenter’s plane. As Happy Hour City offers, this is how Dabney made his “hail-storm juleps,” building mounds of ice which he adorned with elaborate floral and mint garnishes. The herbal bouquets rose out of steel goblets toward the noses of white guests whom Dabney had no choice but to woo. For a time, he even worked at a resort called Sweet Springs that was frequented by the Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

In an interview with Chuck Reece at The Bitter Southerner, Barriere talked about how the Mint Julep was a show-off drink, and that when admirals and generals would come visit wealthy homes in the South, the “number-one help” would be tasked with taking care of the cocktail garden, and with putting together drinks that highlighted the biggest, most beautiful mint, as well as the best bourbon they could find. At last week’s Resistance Served conference, Barriere spoke to how many of these stories—of people like Dabney or Alexander, or Tom Bullock, the first African American to write and publish his own bar guide, or Birdie Brown, one of the few African American female homesteaders in the country (and maker of a popular, home-distilled hooch)—haven’t been told until just recently. “There’s so many undiscovered names,” Barriere said.

And so, with Dabney and Alexander and countless others in mind, I’ll offer this recipe for a Mint Julep, which is a hybrid of recipes from various bars I’ve worked at and books I’ve read. None of these sources ever mentioned John Dabney or Cato Alexander.

Here’s to more discovering of the undiscovered.

Mint Julep

Ingredients

• 2 ½ oz. 100 proof bourbon

• ½ oz. cane sugar syrup

• 8-10 mint leaves, plus 2-3 bunches of mint for garnish

• hella lot of crushed ice

Directions

1. Place the mint leaves in the bottom of a julep cup. Muddle them gently. Just 5 or so light presses, enough to release the oils.

2. Add the sugar syrup and the bourbon, then give it a quick stir.

3. Fill the cup almost to the top with crushed ice. Place the barspoon 2/3 of the way down into the ice and swizzle it back and forth between your hands for about 10 seconds.

4. Fill the cup over the top with crushed ice. Build a mound of ice, poke a hole in the side of it with a straw, then take the mint sprigs and pinch the leaves together. This will “wake up” this mint, causing it too to release its oils and become more fragrant. Place the mint where you poked the hole, then insert the straw next to it.

5. Serve and enjoy.

Notes

The high-proof alcohol stands up to the dilution that happens quickly when first stirring crushed ice. I used Rittenhouse because I love the spiciness of rye, but if you really want to bring the heat, try Old Grandad 114.

Do not over-muddle the mint. This will cause it to become bitter.

The original recipe (and one favored by Barriere, I believe) calls for powdered sugar or superfine sugar, put directly into the drink. As I mentioned in an earlier subscriber post about the Old Fashioned, if you follow tradition and go the raw sugar route, you likely won’t have the appropriate amount of sweetness incorporated throughout the drink (most will sit on the bottom).   

Good julep tins can be pricey. Cocktail Kingdom is always an option. Barfly makes decent ones that are more affordable; they’re on the ‘Zon. If you’re in Chicago, go to Kit and support a local biz! You can definitely still make a great julep in a rocks glass; it just won’t get cold as fast as a steel or copper vessel. Also, make sure you don’t push too hard while muddling. Once, before I knew what the hell I was doing when it comes to making drinks (like, yesterday), I shattered a good friend’s glass this way. (Sorry, Bassey!)

For a crushed ice hack, check out this subscriber post. Or go buy a vintage ice crushing machine on Etsy and save your forearms. That’s what I’m about to do.

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Alright, y’all, whether it’s in preparation for the Derby, in homage to John Dabney or Cato Alexander, or simply because you want to make one of the most deliciously simple cocktails in the American canon, I hope you enjoy a Mint Julep sometime soon. I hear they taste extra good inside an RV.  

A quick reminder that we’re contributing a portion of subscriptions in April to 826 Chi, a nonprofit creative writing, tutoring, and publishing center dedicated to amplifying the voices of Chicago youth.

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Thanks, as always, for reading. Please don’t hesitate to drop any questions in the comments below, or in a reply to this email. Until next time, cheers!

J.