“A Mint Julep a Day…”: The Fascinating History of the Kentucky Derby’s Iconic Drink
The cocktail’s origins give a glimpse into how sports have never just been about the games we play
Tomorrow, horses will line up in the hallowed starting gates at Churchill Downs, and the Kentucky Derby will be run for the 149th time. That’s right—149. When the first Derby was held in 1875, it wasn’t even the most notable horse-related news in country; in the same year, Billy the Kid was riding to freedom in New Mexico after climbing out of a chimney in his Silver City jail cell. So, yeah…the Kentucky Derby has been going on for a long time. (Another fun way to think about just how far back the history of the Derby stretches is that the first contest was held a full 16 years before the sport of basketball was even invented.)
The Derby is that special type of sporting event like The Masters or the World Series that we use to mark the passage of time; you know it’s May when you hear “My Old Kentucky Home.” There are the traditions: the hats, the bugle, and the roses. And more than anything, there are the drinks.
Or rather: the drink. You can’t watch the Derby without drinking a mint julep.
But why? What’s so special about the combination of fresh mint, bourbon, sugar, and crushed ice? The story has its origins that stretch even before that first Derby a century and a half ago, and it provides a fascinating peak into the role that sports used to play in our society—as well as the ways that these traditions continue to shape our sports today. Because sports have never just been about wins and losses. Since the very beginning, they’ve been about a whole lot more than that.
The earliest mention of Juleps comes from Europe and is attributed to, of all people, doctors. They recommended that people drink a julep every morning to stay healthy. American colonists adopted the practice, and soon, the drink caught fire for more than just the prescribed one per day. An expert in the history of cocktails told Food & Wine that the Julep, “became the first real notable American cocktail.” In those days, ice was a rare luxury, and the drink was, “the first popular cocktail served with ice.” Since any bar that did have ice simply had a large block, bartenders would use a mallet to crush it for each drink—which is part of the reason why the drink still uses crushed ice today (the other reason requires less explanation. It’s just delicious.).
The drink became especially popular in the South and particularly in Kentucky, where most landowners had two main hobbies: They raised racehorse, and they distilled their own whiskey. Having the fastest horse and the best whiskey was a ticket to the top of the social elite. And so, as early as 1816, the champion of a horse race wasn’t given a trophy. They got an ice cold mint julep served in a silver cup, similar to the ones that are still traditionally associated with the cocktail.
But Kentuckians didn’t have one grand horse race; there was neither a championship nor a legendary racetrack. A familiar name in American history would seek to change that. Meriwether Lewis Clark, the grandson of William Clark from Lewis & Clark fame (apparently the family remained fond of their patriarch’s companion), traveled through Europe in the 1870s and attended the storied racetracks of France and England. As soon as he got home to Louisville, he raised the money to build a track just out of town. That’s how Churchill Downs came to be.
Yet Clark had one more trick up his sleeve. He knew what people would want to drink while watching a horse race. So right behind the clubhouse, he planted fresh mint. The patrons at the very first Derby likely drank juleps made with it—and it’s still growing on the grounds to this day.
Even internationally, the drink came to be associated with the race almost immediately. In 1877, a famous Polish actress named Helena Modjeska travelled to Louisville for Derby Day, and Clark handed her a giant julep cup that was meant to be shared and toasted her. Then Modjeska drank the whole thing—and asked for two more.
Of course, the tradition had to be halted during Prohibition, which began in 1920. In that first year, sportswriters filed columns from the Derby bemoaning the fact that they couldn't drink a mint julep while watching the race—a cocktail one writer once described as being, ahem, "the very dream of drinks, the vision of sweet quaffings."
And so, when Prohibition was overturned, the drinks were promptly poured again. This time, attendees were so excited they took their cups home—beginning the tradition of creating souvenir glasses for the race. By 1938, the julep was the Derby's official drink.
As the race and track have grown in the last century, the julep has remained a constant presence for patrons watching from the infield and at home. And tomorrow, before the horses are called into their post, please spare a thought for the bartenders at Churchill Downs. On Derby Day, they plow through 1,500 gallons of Old Forester bourbon, 1,000 pounds of mint, and 60,000 pounds of ice—all in the effort to make a whopping 120,000 mint juleps in a single day.
But hey, that’s just what the doctor ordered.
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