ENDANGERED COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH, THE PINEAPPLE JULEP

by PINK LADY
WE OFTEN THINK of Juleps as the provenance of mint, bourbon, warm weather, and the Kentucky Derby, but Julep drinking wasn’t always this way.  From the turn of the 19th century through the Civil War, the Mint Julep was a staple of everywhere, everyday drinking.  The beverage hails from the South and has agrarian roots, to be sure, but was a staple of fancy city bar bon vivantry in New York, Chicago, and other urban meccas through the early 2Oth century.

The Mint Julep was originally built with brandy but during its heyday, you’d find this beverage in various forms as its own category of drink: from the Gin Julep described in Jerry Thomas’s books (which would have been made with “Hollands” or Genever) the Prescription Julep which blends Cognac and rye, and so on.  It was a drink replete with idiosyncratic nuance, the nuts and bolts of construction a point of regional and bartenderly pride.  As such, the drink was a topic of constant and continuous banter and debate in its heyday.

The term “julep” originally described something medicinal, but “after centuries of usage as a term connoting medicine,” writes David Wondrich in IMBIBE!, “somehow ‘julep’ morphed into a word for something you drank for fun.” This drink, originally published in Jerry Thomas’ seminal cocktail book and revived by Wondrich in IMBIBE!, is an ideal fit for your end-of-2O17 cocktail parties.  It’s neither minty nor julep-y but whatever . . . it’s just what the doctor ordered.

THE PINEAPPLE JULEP
4 ounces of fresh squeezed orange juice
4 ounces of maraschino liqueur
4 ounces of raspberry syrup
4 ounces of Genever
75Oml bottle of rosé Champagne
1 pound of crushed ice

Peel, slice & cut up a pineapple and place it in a glass punch bowl.

Add the juice of two oranges, raspberry syrup, maraschino, gin, Champagne, and crushed ice.

Mix ornament with fresh berries and serve in punch cups.