My Preferred Mint Julep

While the Mint Julep is a very old, classic drink, going back to the beginning of the 1800's, the term "Julep" is downright ancient dating back to about 600 AD. It was a word that essentially meant "Medicine", much like "Tonic" but there's obviously no medicine in the Mint Julep (or any julep for that matter) so what gives? Well, ancient people (And even not so ancient people) had a funny idea of what "Medicine" entailed and at least when possible it involved booze. The modern Julep of course was never intended as a curative, the name it seems is something of a joke. Similar to when my Grandmother would request her "Nerve Medicine" or her "Tonic" what she meant was "My bottle of blackberry brandy, no glass please".

The Mint Julep itself has a long history and has seen much evolution in it's standard preparation. Brandy, Cognac, Rye, Bourbon, even Rum have all been featured in it's silver beaker. Syrup or sugar, and which sugar? Bitters? Of course yes, all of these have at various times been considered standards in the Mint Julep. For what it's worth I prefer Bourbon in mine, made with a bit of demerara syrup and some bitters, and plenty of mint.

Like any drink with so much history, the Mint Julep has found itself regarded as a matter of religion among it's devotees. Many insist that you must not muddle the mint, or on the number of mint leaves to be utilized, on the amount of time the drink must rest, on the quality of ice, etc. Much like the Old Fashioned, a great many people have some very strong ideas about how it must be made.

Personally, I don't have time for that. I like my mint muddled here because I was the drink to be quite minty, but if you prefer not, that's no skin off my nose. The only things of true importance in my opinion here are that liqour, copious ice, and great quantities of mint are involved. My preparation is as follows:

Mint Julep

• ~.5 oz. -or- ~ 15 ml. Simple Syrup

• 2 Dashes Angostura Bitters

• A plethora of mint leaves

• 3 oz. -or- 90 ml. Bourbon

• Muddle it

• Fill beaker partway with crushed ice

• Swizzle it

• Top it up with ice

• add a bouquet of several sprigs of mint

• Enjoy.

This ice cold, bourbon forward, classic Mint Julep is the only one you need when the bugle sounds at this years Kentucky Derby!

Milk of The Poppy

Milk of The Poppy is everywhere in Game of Thrones, from the Iron Isles to Asshai, but you won't need a Maester to enjoy mine!

The finished Poppy Seed Orgeat

Every time someone of wealth and means is seriously wounded on Game of Thrones we see them being given Milk of the Poppy, a powerful painkiller administered by Maesters in careful doses. We see it given to Bran after he falls from the tower and the subsequent "catspaw" attack, it's given to Arya when she's wounded in Bravos, Jaime refuses it when permitting Qyburn to work on his arm, and during the Battle of the Blackwater the women and children wait with fatal doses of it at the ready should the worst come to pass. Poppy milk is actually a real thing and I do my best to explain it in the video, but it's got nothing to do with what I'm making here. My version of Milk of the Poppy involves making a poppy orgeat from commonly available poppy seeds, from there a cocktail of cognac, curaçao and absinthe is produced. It's very tasty stuff and despite it's very milky appearance is totally milk free.

Poppy Seed Orgeat

• 200 grams of Poppy Seed

• 200 Grams of Sugar

• 200 Grams of Water

• Combine in blender and pulverize

• Let sit one hour

• If sugar not dissolved, transfer to pan and simmer til it is

• Strain and bottle

Poppy seeds in blender

Milk of the Poppy

• .75 oz. -or- 22 ml. Poppy Orgeat

• .5 oz. -or- 15 ml. Dry Curaçao

• 2 oz. -or- 60 ml. Cognac

• Rinse Glass in Absinthe

• Shake over ice and double strain

The Sherry Cobbler

Did you know that the Sherry Cobbler is the reason we have drinking straws?  Well, kinda.

It begs you: Drink me, Drink me...

See back in the 1830's when the Sherry Cobbler first seems to be showing up in bar goers hands Ice was something of a novelty.  The Ice Trade was a relatively new thing (actually people around the world had been keeping ice through the summer months for centuries, the Persians had a system to do it by like 400 BC, but shipping it around the world for money, that was new) and so for the first time ever people didn't need to drink their cocktails somewhere on the temperature gradient between warm and hot.  This new cool kid was on the block chilling drinks down to near freezing and patrons couldn't get enough, at least when it was served up in an ice cold Sherry Cobbler.  The Cobbler was extremely popular in it's day, and the crushed ice it's served on, much like it's contemporary the Julep, forced drinkers to rethink how they'd been drink.  I mean literally, physically, how do you drink this thing without getting a mouth full of ice instead of drink.  One solution was the julep strainer actually, now commonly used for straining out stirred cocktails, at the time of it's invention it's intended use was in holding back the ice in your drink so that you could sip it's nectar unimpeded by the frosty nodules.  The other solution was of course the simple straw, and it was the Cobbler that put it on the map.  Supposedly.  

So what is a Sherry Cobbler?  Why is it called a cobbler?  According to David Wondrich the name most likely comes from the crushed ice it's served on, the tiny ice nuggets reminded drinkers of miniature cobblestones.  Ice cobbles.  The drink itself is a relatively simple thing: a combination of orange, sherry, and sugar shaken and poured over crushed ice and garnished lavishly the drink is really about the sherry. Sherry is an aged and fortified wine that originates in Spain and Portugal and it though there are many varieties and styles I find most of them fall somewhere on the "nutty" flavor spectrum.  I love the stuff, it's incredibly delicious and in a cobbler it becomes divine.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy the episode and please leave me a comment, I love staying in touch with you.

Ever have a drink made with sherry? If not you're missing out. I humbly present to you the Sherry Cobbler, invented sometime in the 1830's it's a real roots cocktail, and the reason we have straws. ********************************** This week on HTD I'm making a Sherry Cobbler, which is really a drink that may very well predate the Old Fashioned.