Bibulo.us - We plead the 21st.

The Mint Julep

The best mint julep we've had in our lives came in a plastic cup not a silver chaser. The ice wasn't crushed, but just ordinary lumpy old restaurant ice. The setting not a dark & soothing old bar or a shady front porch, but on conference room chairs amidst rows of tables facing the front of a room that surely has seen more than its share of Powerpoint presentations.

But that perfectly mixed drink, quickly prepared by the hands of real New Orleans bartenders for the dozens of us in the room, sipped while watching Chris McMillian recite fine old poetry as he crafted himself the drink the old slow way in a real julep cup, still refreshes in our memories.

We are delighted to learn that Chris McMillian and Phil Greene have taken this presentation, which we saw at Tales of the Cocktail in 2008, on the road and the fine folks at the Smithsonian have captured some of its magic to share with you. Did New Orleans Invent the Cocktail? No. Does it matter? Not a whit.

The Mint Julep

a dozen or so fresh mint leaves, plus a sprig to garnish
1oz rich syrup (or food writer extraordinaire Pableaux Johnson suggests peach syrup, like Monin)
2.5oz bourbon 

Place mint and .25oz syrup in a julep cup or large old-fashioned glass.
Bruise the mint leaves with a wooden muddler or barspoon, pressing them against the sides of the cup.
Loosely pack the cup with finely crushed ice, then pour in the bourbon.
Drizzle .75oz syrup on top and garnish with a spanked mint sprig. (That is, place the garnish in the palm of one hand and slap it with the other once to bruise the mint and release the oils).
Use a dry julep strainer to lightly dust the mint with superfine sugar.

You can also see Chris speaking in 2007 about the Mint Julep here in this video which was part of the New Orleans' Best Cocktails series. This gives more history, physics and biology of the drink as well as an uninterrupted rendition of the lovely poem the "Zenith of Mans' Pleasure", written in the 1890s by Kentucky newspaperman J. Soule Smith. This video is also an excellent illustration of the classic style of bartending and makes it quite clear where the honorific "Professor" arose for those particularly good at their craft.

Support the spectrum when you host

We fans of the classic cocktail love our strong, spirit-driven drinks, but not everyone enjoys the taste of alcohol and many people don't or don't want to drink as much of it or any at all.

A good host - whether at home or in a professional setting - should be able to provide the same pleasant experience of the perfect beverage for a guest anywhere along the spectrum from "straight up, no chaser" to teetotaler.

Jeff Hollinger wrote about this beautifully in his book The Art of the Bar in the short sidebar on serving kids at events (starting on page 60).

I could have gotten away with offering the little guy a Coke or even the old standby, a Shirley Temple, but I knew he wouldn't have been anywhere near as excited as he was with his special drink. He saw me take time to balance out the ingredients, and watched as I capped a straw to taste it before passing it across the bar. He knew the drink met with my approval. I wanted him to see that I took this creation seriously. It's a helpful attitude to have when you are trying to come up with fun, alcohol-free drinks. Why should kids, designated drivers, pregnant women, and anyone else who isn't drinking for one reason or another resign themselves to water, soda, and juice as their only beverage option?

Look back at your Jerry Thomas and Harry Johnson bartenders' guides of the 19th century and remind yourself how much coverage there is of the drinking world beyond the booze. Start making yourself something special in contexts where you're thirsty and an alcohol-centric drink isn't appropriate. Build your repertoire and explore new ingredients. What juices go well with which garnishes? Sweet or spicy is easy, but what to make for that Manhattan and Martini loving friend when he's taking a break from the booze? Try building up from your mixers, garnishes and other non-alcoholic ingredients as well as working down from spiritous cocktails to create temperate versions.

You'll find there are good resources out there for non-alcoholic drinks - the best cocktail manuals always include a section on them - and helpful new books from a cocktailian's perspective such as Natalie Bovis-Nelsen's Preggatinis: Mixology for the Mom-to-Be. Just as when you first began learning cocktail standbys, teach yourself a half-dozen non-alcoholic or "virgin" drinks covering a spectrum of tastes and available ingredients which you can use to make your guests feel well cared for, regardless of their alcohol intake.

Next, push yourself to a higher skill level by filling in the middle ground with a half-dozen shims - remember the shim? - which you learn by heart, and bring these low-alcohol cocktails into play whenever a little less kick is appropriate: between rounds on a long evening, as the first round while the appetizers have only just begun to circulate and people have empty stomachs, as the designated driver's one drink before switching to non-alcoholic choices, on a second social evening in a row when the first turned into a bender, or just to keep yourself level any time extra balance is needed.

Mix it up for everyone!

Marian Beke

Marian Beke is an astonishing bartender whom we first found creating classic cocktails at London's Montgomery Place. Despite his soft-spoken nature, his drinks have a thousand fascinating voices, from past and present. When we met him in late 2007, we came away impressed with him. Great conversation, deep knowledge, and just a fantastic host. Anyone wanting to improve their skills on the service side of the bar would do well to observe his approach. You can now find him at Nightjar in the Shoreditch neighborhood, where his skills are shining even brighter than ever.

He understands that the cocktail can be a perfectly encapsulated moment of life; flavor, appearance, ambiance all combined. Creating such ephemeral perfection requires a temperament which is part craftsman, part entertainer, and part zen master.

We wish we didn't live 6000 miles away from Marian's bar.

 

Here's an interview with Marian from TheDrinkShop.com.

 

[Post updated January 18, 2011]

Montgomery Place

There are bars we love, and aspects of those bars which, taken individually, exceed the quality of what we find here, but for combined effect Montgomery Place in Notting Hill, London, with the right bartender behind the stick is to us the best bar in the world.

Perhaps it boils down to attention. Everything is the right choice and all those choices seem directed at the experience of someone enjoying a cocktail. The decor, lighting, music, bar snacks, size of the place, everything all adds up to exactly what we want to experience.

The mood is easy and unpressured. The rest of the world melts away as the staff tends to you. That our bartender when we've been there was Marian Beke, one of the world's finest, could be a major factor, it's true.

Our tip: try them at opening time on a rainy day for great results. However, we brought them the greatest challenge "meet our comically high expectations on the hardest night of the year for creating a classic, calm hosting situation". Yes, that's right; we showed up as they opened on New Year's Eve. Everything was perfect. The food was as excellent as we'd remembered and we were surrounded not by amateurs snapping fingers for a bartender's attention to order Grey Goose "martinis", but by off-duty incredible London bartenders making the same choice we did. Montgomery Place is where you go when you want to travel to a soothing, low-key island of style, clarity and care.

When for some reason you happen to look at your watch and you notice the new year came around half an hour ago, just raise a quiet toast with your companion to your good taste and continue that fascinating conversation with the brand ambassador occupying the barstool to your left.

 

[Post updated January 18, 2011, to make it clearer that Marian Beke is no longer bartending there. You can find him now at Nightjar.]