Visit Louisville around Derby time and you’ll find a local specialty—a chocolate-pecan pie well-infused with bourbon called the Triple Crown Pie. This take on a traditional julep combines flavors of chocolate and pecan with bourbon and mint. It’s a match made in heaven, and choosing the right bourbon with notes of pecan and chocolate elevates the cocktail even more.
Bourbon lovers revel in any occasion to share their passion for America’s native spirit, and no event is more central to the bourbon world than the Kentucky Derby. Each year, as 3-year-old Thoroughbreds bound past the Twin Spires at Churchill Downs in Louisville, hundreds of thousands of people in Kentucky and around the world celebrate with a mint julep in hand.
At its core, the mint julep melds bourbon, simple syrup and an herbaceous element, mint, poured into a metal julep cup filled with cracked ice. But there’s more to juleps than that—so much more.
Juleps are easy to vary by swapping the sweet element for a fruit or a dessert simple syrup, or by changing the herb to basil or rosemary. Try these delicious, nontraditional mint julep variations wherever and however you’re celebrating Derby this year.
Recipes for the Triple Crown Pie Julep and Caramel Brûlée Julep were developed by Louisville-based Heather Wibbels, chair of the Bourbon Women board of directors. They are excerpted from a bourbon cocktail book set for release in the spring of 2022 titled Bourbon Is My Comfort Food: Bourbon Women’s Guide to Fantastic Cocktails at Home. The Strawberry Basil Julep comes from Wibbels’ website, cocktailcontessa.com. An award-winning mixologist, Wibbels has a passion for converting new whiskey drinkers one cocktail at a time, and these cocktails can turn the eye and palate of any adventurous drinker. Each recipe features measurements and directions for just one cocktail and for party batches.
So, get your julep cups, grab some bourbon, and, as we say in Kentucky, “Go, baby, go!”
Find the Julep recipes here:
About Bourbon Women
Bourbon Women is the organization for women who are passionate about bourbon culture, women and the promise of adventure when the two are combined. As an independent forum bringing women of all walks of life together over a glass of bourbon, their focus is to initiate, cultivate and inspire deep, meaningful relationships; encourage the development of women personally, professionally and courageously; and provide a safe and inclusive environment for fun, discovery and learning. Learn more at bourbonwomen.org.
Find Heather Wibbels’ most recent creations at cocktailcontessa.com or follow her on Instagram @cocktail_contessa.