Most would not consider the mint julep to be a marvel but it would have been at Sweet Springs in the 1830s. The drink, introduced by Henry Clay to Washington, DC, and popularized as a Southern icon at the Kentucky Derby, might also surprise people to know that its oldest recipes come from the mountains of West Virginia rather than the Bluegrass State. Clay, a frequent guest at Elmwood Plantation in Monroe County, WV, would have been familiar with the drink given at the nearby spring resort as such:
"Put into a long tumbler, a silver one preferred, about 4 tinder shoots of mint. Upon them place a teaspoon of sugar syrup or powdered sugar. Crush the mint lightly into this, and add 2 1/2 ounces of good old Bourbon whiskey or brandy. (Many use old apple brandy.) With rasped or powdered ice fill the tumbler. Into this stick 3 sprigs of mint. Pause while frost forms. Decorate the top if desired with any small fruit in season. Admire and drink the delectable potion." -The Old Sweet: Biography of a Spring by Frances Logan
It was a very different drink from what is served nowadays. Modern bartenders would scratch their heads over directions like finishing one with three sprigs of mint and they might not even recognize this "mint julap" as a julep at all. Not only has the classic drink become sweeter, going from a teaspoon of simple syrup to a tablespoon, there is less presentation to it. There is good reason and rationale for its evolution, though: mint stems make drinks bitter rather than imparting flavor. Garnishing with three or four sprigs was not about taste but scent.
Sweet Springs's version was a bouquet, a posy of mint and fresh fruit, and this was where mixology met medicine. In the 19th century, it was commonly believed that diseases like malaria were spread by miasma, bad air rising up out of swamps and city streets on hot nights. If one truly believed that theory, and people did, sipping this julep with one's nose down in it would have been like Venetian doctors wearing flower-stuffed masks to protect themselves from plague. Mint juleps were thought to help fortify health in summers so the instructions to pause and admire were medicinal under this conviction.
One could only sip so much every few minutes as the ice slowly melted. Holding onto a frosted cup for an extended time made imbibers more comfortable on the hottest days of summer by lowering body temperatures through their hands. Juleps are thermal coolers but not so much as to cause vasoconstriction which can prevent the release of heat. The alcohol in them helps vasodilate too, keeping skin open as a radiator and allowing the metal tumbler to more effectively cool down the body. Although the early Victorians did not really understand how diseases were transmitted, there was some degree of science behind this practice.
However, ice, brandy, and sugar were not easily available in the 1830s. Management at Sweet Springs would have had to plan months ahead of summertime for these drinks to be possible. Sugar came up from the Caribbean, brandy was sent from France, and one had to account for lost cargo en route across the oceans and country roads. These were imported goods so the Old Sweet was not just interacting with Monroe County, but actively engaging with globalized markets. Yet, in the days before refrigeration, how did they have ice?
Creeks were flooded in wintertime, stopping flow so water could stand still to freeze. Men would then cut blocks and take them to ice houses, large well-like structures, where they were insulated between layers of straw and sawdust. This backbreaking process would have been on an industrial scale repeated again and again until an almost incomprehensible amount was stored. Sweet Springs was a veritable factory in its production of this so-called delectable potion.
If the Old Sweet was at its full capacity of 350 guests, and everyone limited themselves to just one each day for the season then bartenders would have made 31,850 juleps with 222,950 shoots and sprigs of mint. If there are twenty-five ounces in a fifth of liquor, and this recipe calls for 2 1/2 ounces for each drink, then they would have needed 79,625 ounces in 3,185 bottles or 266 cases. Using figures released from the Kentucky Derby, not accounting for melt, at least 15,925 pounds of crushed ice would have been stored. And, these estimates are conservative numbers. The logistics were absolutely bewildering so it really was a marvel that this much effort went into them. Producing that many drinks at that quality was artistry.
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