Oh, Belvedere! My First Memory of a Mint Julep

My ancestors never saw a mint julep, 

but they sipped five-day-old likker 

 out of ceramic jugs and Bell jars 

until they could not remember 

their Christian names.

~ Rick Bragg 

All Over But The Shoutin' 

My hometown of Kansas City, Missouri is, a generous drinks geographer might allow, on the outer periphery of mint julep territory. While juleps were not regular offerings, they did show up from time to time. Consequently, I acquired at an early age a fondness for these refreshing concoctions of whiskey and ice; certainly by the time I was working on undergraduate degrees, making one had become second nature.

Charlie Dog enjoys a julep

A recent viewing of the 1950 Warner Brothers cartoon Dog Gone South made me realize that my exposure to them came at a younger age than I first suspected. I must have seen it when I was five or six years old. The cartoon concerns the obnoxious Charlie Dog and his efforts to endear himself to a diminutive Confederate colonel. The colonel, alas, already has a dog, a certain Belvedere.

Charlie's minty repast on the veranda is short-lived. But the silver cup he commandeers from the colonel seemingly instilled in me a life-long appreciation for juleps. I'm beginning to understand why I like bulldogs, too...




Goes well with:

• The Barkeeper’s Favorite Weapon, just the thing to smack ice into submission for a julep.
• That's MY Hammer A bit about my father — a Kentucky Colonel — and the ice maul he made me for my juleps.