Latest Drink Recipe
I’ve you’ve never made - or enjoyed - a mint julep before, be sure to check out this post, with lots of information from myself, and videos from the real experts.
In the bottom of a 10-12 oz glass (or a silver julep cup, if you’ve got one on hand) gently muddle together:
12 mint leaves
¼-½ oz simple syrup
Add to this mixture:
2 oz bourbon
Stir to combine ingredients, and fill glass with finely crushed ice. Garnish with the prettiest mint sprig you have, and serve.
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About Me
My name is Jeff Morgenthaler and I'm the head bartender at Bel Ami in Eugene, Oregon.
I'm 36, I've been tending bar for 11 years and writing about it for 5. Mixing drinks has become something of a passion for me in recent years, and I strive to elevate the experience of having a drink from something mundane to something more culinary.
The writing I do here is intended as a work in progress. My recipes are like my opinions: they are constantly being revised and refined as I work them through my mind and my fingers. Comments and participation are encouraged, so please don't feel the need to tread lightly here.
23 Mar 2007 at 1:12 pm 1. Mark Fleser
I’m not even 21 yet and I know that, that is NOT a Mint Julep. What she made was a Mojito with bourbon instead of rum. The Wikipedia article does say it is similar to a Mojito because they both use muddled sugar and mint and take a spritz of seltzer at the end,but that’s about it.
23 Mar 2007 at 1:28 pm 2. Jason!
Words. Fail. Me.
People shouldn’t be allowed to do that. Ever. Not even with cheap bourbon.
23 Mar 2007 at 1:30 pm 3. Jeffrey
I’ll grant you that a Mint Julep and a Mojito are in the same drink family, but that’s very different from saying that a Mint Julep is just a Bourbon Mojito. Very different.
23 Mar 2007 at 1:38 pm 4. Jason!
Pretty much everything on the DrinksTV website seems to be an abomination. The Woodford Reserve Apple Martini is another such unforgettable drink.
23 Mar 2007 at 5:47 pm 5. jimmy
Wow!
Sugar, Rose’s, Sour mix AND SPRITE! It makes my teeth hurt just thinking about it.
24 Mar 2007 at 3:25 pm 6. Scooter
That is vile and disgusting. The drink I mean. She could have at least shaken it longer.
25 Mar 2007 at 8:53 am 7. Vast Majority
Not only was it a poor recipe but there was no flair! Sheesh!… Everyone knows that if you don’t juggle the bottles you just are NOT an accomplished bartender.
25 Mar 2007 at 11:01 am 8. MrBaliHai
Andrea is obviously all about serious bartending, you can tell because she a) uses very precise measurements (”..a little bit, like a teaspoon or so”), and b) has her blouse unbuttoned to her navel.
25 Mar 2007 at 6:40 pm 9. RickJamesBitch
Um. this is also no way to make a mojito!
25 Mar 2007 at 7:04 pm 10. Dan
Oh. My. God.
Terrible, just terrible.
26 Mar 2007 at 4:21 am 11. Sean Bigley
I’m sure if the people at Woodford saw this, they would get an injuction to stop this video immediately! The horses at the Kentucky Derby could shit a better Mint Julep than this! I can’t even believe I wasted two minutes of my time watching this. I’m sure that I won’t be able to sleep tonight having nightmares of this “cocktail”. Please kill me!
26 Mar 2007 at 10:12 am 12. Dan
I’d also like to mention that DrinksTV is a terrible website which offers bad recipes and techniques.
26 Mar 2007 at 2:39 pm 13. Jeffrey
Dan
You don’t say. Here’s another wonderful concoction by our friends at DrinksTV:
Yikes.
26 Mar 2007 at 9:18 pm 14. Lindsey Mitchell
My personal favourite was her ‘muddle’ which was really more like her sharpening her eyeliner - if it had a sound effect it would ‘ehn, ehn, meh.’
c’mon lady - put some elbow grease in it!
29 Mar 2007 at 5:23 pm 15. Smach
I think she forgot the grenadine and chambord. She also forgot to blend it. Mmmmm…
30 Mar 2007 at 10:05 pm 16. John
All the drink videos on the website looks cool (www.drinkstv.com).
Whats with the “competition” section? Looks like Drinkstv has an American Idol for bartending!
this one was done by a pro
http://www.drinkstv.com/channelvodka.aspx
31 Mar 2007 at 2:31 am 17. Jeffrey
Mysterious Commenter, you reek of comment spam, but I like you. Maybe it’s the whisky I had after work tonight.
The Breakfast Martini you linked to doesn’t look that horrible. And, yes, she had the poise and skill of a pro. She’s a Brand Ambassador for Belvedere, she’s got to be talented.
And I actually saw the Competition section of DrinksTV, and I voted. I gave everyone five stars for Personality and Hot Factor, and one star for Cocktail. Great peeps, bad drinks.
31 Mar 2007 at 2:52 pm 18. Scooter
I watched this again, and I now want to make this drink at work EXACTLY her way to see how gross it really is. Next time someone says “surprise me,” THIS is what they’re fuckin’ getting! Wooo Hooo! Yeah…that’ll learn ‘em.
14 Apr 2007 at 11:26 pm 19. Darryl
That’s nothing - you should see the drink vids at WatchMojo.com. I never thought it was possible to fuck up a Gin & Tonic, but somehow they did it. And their version of a Mojito makes this one look practically refined.
I wouldn’t mind a Wet Pussy right about now, though.
04 May 2007 at 7:58 am 20. Michael
oh
my
God
16 May 2007 at 2:36 pm 21. Anonymous
The real star of this video: cleavage.
01 Jun 2007 at 4:42 pm 22. Kevin
You are not taking into account that Andrea has nice tits.
And the way she over-enunciates “Mint Julep”.
Hot.
05 Jul 2007 at 11:31 am 23. Marleigh
Chase is my new favorite bartender. I couldn’t understand most of what he was saying, but he’s wearing a sleeveless t-shirt. That means his drinks MUST be good.
09 Aug 2007 at 9:27 pm 24. LT
In memory of my mom, an awesome Kentucky lady:
Derby Day Mint Julep
1 10 oz. sterling silver Julep Cup (chilled)
2 cubes of ice
2 oz. Kentucky Bourbon (dads choice)
a sprig of mint (for the essence)
“Hey, where’s the sugar?. Who cares, enjoy your bourbon and shut up.”
17 Aug 2007 at 1:16 pm 25. mru
to be honest i do not wanna watch this video, i might forget my own standards LOL ewwww they su*****ks
31 Aug 2007 at 5:26 pm 26. Ali
Its not Brooks, its Bricks nightclub Haahaha and I know the head bartender there I just text him right now to tell him how retarded his staff is! But knowing Miami standards, all you need is a pair of tits to get behind a bar!
31 Aug 2007 at 5:34 pm 27. Anonymous
I just looked through those videos from DrunkTV…thats just poor representation!!! There ARE quality bartenders in South Florida, I’m going back next month and I’m looking these guys up to point that out to them.
13 Sep 2007 at 11:59 pm 28. Kat
Well for the love of Baal…
I no longer doubt the existence of the human soul because I just felt mine shrivel and die. I thought that by reading the entry and comments, I’d be prepared. No such luck. I yelled and startled my pet rabbits when she plopped in the limes.
My rabbits are MAD, cruddy drink-makin’ lady! Live with THAT!
14 Sep 2007 at 12:47 am 29. Jeffrey
Hey, Kat, at least she didn’t say, “It’s similar to rabbit stew, only it has rum in place of onions.”
Could’ve been worse, right?
28 Oct 2007 at 5:21 pm 30. Shelby needs her juice!!!
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit!!
03 Nov 2007 at 2:19 am 31. kikithewondermonkey
i thought that i had something to say but i find myself speachless.
27 Nov 2007 at 10:53 pm 32. arthur
wow,
i am gobsmacked.
remind me never to drop into that bar for a cocktail,might be safer to order a bottled beer.if those guys spent as much time learning drinks than looking hot,then they can tend bar.ive had bar backs that i have worked with have better cocktail knowledge.
maybe the cleavage and sleeveless shirt was a distraction for people to not pay attention at how their drinks are being made.
thanks for the much needed giggle
01 Dec 2007 at 11:17 pm 33. Shawn
Oh. My. God. This video makes a good old Kentucky guy like me cringe. I’ve had better juleps at sorority parties.
Where to begin? Perhaps with the limes? The Rose’s? The sour mix? The
Sprite?
I think that she needs one more step to the recipe, right after the mint sprig…toss the whole thing down the drain before anyone sees you.
06 Dec 2007 at 1:24 pm 34. Evan
I would laugh about this, but I’m too busy crying. Poor Woodford, what has she done to you?!
17 Dec 2007 at 11:16 pm 35. Christine
As a Kentuckian, I’m offended.
21 Dec 2007 at 1:42 am 36. Tom G
Oh goodness gracious… what a train wreak….
29 Dec 2007 at 8:41 am 37. Brad
Hey Jeffrey,
I stumbled on your site a couple months ago and enjoy stopping by from time to time. Heres my Mint Julep story: I currently tend at a bar called CRU Martini Bar in Mandeville, LA but before that managed a restaurant Annadeles Plantation(annadeles.com). A couple years ago. The movie, Dreamer starring Kurt Russel and Dakota Fanning was filming in our area. Kurt Russel and a couple others came in for dinner one night. Everthing went well and they thoughrouly enoyed themselves. Not until after they left did the waitress inform me that his first drink request had been a Mint Julep and we had been completely out of fresh mint. (Something we never really had on hand.) Well, a week later they came back! This time I sent one of the backwaiters to the store for some mint and offered Mr. Russel one on the house. He enjoyed the drink and the experience at the restaurant so much he actually had us cater the movies wrap party for them.
02 Jan 2008 at 1:35 pm 38. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Brad
That’s a great story, nice work.
25 Jan 2008 at 4:48 am 39. Temptin
Ok all you experts!
I can’t believe with everything else, no one noticed that she is holding the muddle upside down!
The really sad part is she seems so confidant that what she is doing in right.
25 Jan 2008 at 12:35 pm 40. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
I just re-watched the video (I did post it almost a year ago, after all) and you’re right! It’s very easy to miss, as she only uses it for about a half second.
If any of you haven’t seen the video in a while, I do recommend watching it again for the first time. Yeeesh.
29 Jan 2008 at 3:08 pm 41. Colin Kimball
Since we started producing The Cocktail Spirit with Robert Hess I constantly search the web trying to find our competition. DrinksTV were early on the scene and always laughable. We are shooting more episodes of our show this weekend. Included is the Mint Julep and there will be no Rose’s or Sprite!
Here’s to fresh!
30 Jan 2008 at 1:27 am 42. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Amen, Colin. If any of you reading this haven’t checked out The Cocktail Spirit with Robert Hess yet, do yourself a favor and head on over.
I’m looking forward to seeing the Mint Julep episode, Colin, and as you said, “Here’s to fresh!”
27 Feb 2008 at 11:46 pm 43. Chris
I must say, as someone born below the Mason Dixon line, that video hurt on a visceral level. And I bet she makes a really crappy Mojito as well.
Jeffrey, nice website by the way!
04 Mar 2008 at 9:20 am 44. Orlando (machete)
wow.
limes………
17 Apr 2008 at 12:50 am 45. bdkollker
All I can say is “OH MY GOODNESS!!”
27 Apr 2008 at 8:21 am 46. Peter
The winner!
05 May 2008 at 12:17 pm 47. Tiare
The worst i`ve ever seen..
05 May 2008 at 3:01 pm 48. Phil
Asides from a litany of sins, she also holds the shaker the wrong way - whenever I happen to see that I duck. Just another reason to stay well away…