Mint Julep

The Mint Julep takes its name from gulab, the Persian word for rosewater, from gol (flower) and āb (water). The drink is thought to have travelled from Persia through Europe, where mint replaced rose petals, and then across the Atlantic, where cognac gave way to peach brandy and finally whiskey. The first written reference to a Julep cocktail appears in John Davis’s 1803 Travels in the United States, describing “a dram of spirituous liquor that has mint steeped in it, taken by Virginians of a morning”. By 1900 whiskey had become the preferred base spirit, and in 1938 the bourbon-based Mint Julep became the official drink of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.