cold brew mint julep

As a Louisvillian, it is a little disappointing to type "mint julep" in a text message and not be greeted with a cute little mint julep emoji in the autocorrect line. Sure, we have bourbon 🥃 and horse racing 🐎...but if you combine the two on the first Saturday of May, you getGarden & Gun's Southern Emojis Say It Best – Garden & Gun. Thanks Garden and Gun for the mint julep emoji.

In all honestly, the statistics would probably show that at least 75% of the mint juleps consumed in Kentucky happen to be sold on Derby Day. There are better ways to enjoy your bourbon (old fashioned, boulevardier, on the rocks, neat...to name a few), but on Derby Day at least one mint julep is compulsory.

In fact, with the start of Derby week, we start thinking about mint juleps early in the week...like before 10am on Monday. But you can't start drinking mint juleps then, so we developed a Cold Brew Mint Julep to satisfy the craving. We shared a sample of this recipe with our fine neighbors over at Trouble Bar and collectively decided it was a delightfully refreshing drink to sip any time of the day.

Cold Brew Mint Julep

Ingredients

  • 4 ounces Cold Brew concentrate (really, you should follow this recipe)
  • 2 ounces of cold water
  • 1/2 ounce mint simple syrup (recipe below)
  • 1 barspoon honey
  • 3 sprigs of fresh mint
  • crushed ice (we like the tea towel technique)

Method

  • Mint Simple Syrup
    • Combine 4 ounces of hot water, 4 ounces of white sugar, and 1.5 ounces ( approximately 6 sprigs of mint).
    • Stir to dissolve sugar and let steep for 8 minute.
    • Strain into a clean jar and refrigerate.
  • In a separate glass, combine cold brew, cold water, mint simple syrup, and honey and stir to combine.
  • In the drinking glass, place 2 sprigs of fresh mint in the glass and gently muddle.
  • Fill glass to the top with crushed ice.
  • Top with the cold brew/water/simple syrup mixture
  • Garnish with remaining sprig of mint.

Variation

For an even more refreshing and sparkling drink, you can add some carbonation using a soda siphon.

  • Add 2 sprigs of mint to the siphon and gently muddle.
  • Add cold brew, cold water, mint simple syrup, and honey to the siphon.
  • Charge siphon, and carefully release the majority of the gas.
  • Fill drinking glass to the top with crushed ice.
  • Top with the mixture from the siphon.
  • Garnish with remaining sprig of mint.

Comments

Beth Bitzegaio:

Mint and coffee can be surprisingly great together. Will try this very soon – a little Bourbon might sneak in there to replace a Bloody Mary one week-end morning.

May 07, 2021

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