A mixed drink flavored with mint. The word itself is about five hundred years old: N.E.D.
1760. The Doctor prescribed a repetatur of the jalap, and mixed the ingredients secundum artem.—Smollett, ‘Sir Launcelot Greaves,’ ch. iii. (British Magazine, i. 124.)
1787. The lower, and many of the middling classes [in Virginia], live very differently. A man in this line rises about six o’clock. He then drinks a julap, made of rum, water, and sugar, but very strong.—American Museum, i. 215/1 (March).
1802. Their breakfasts [in Newengland] are not of whiskey julep, nor of gin sling; but of tea and coffee.—Mass. Spy, Aug. 8: from The Newport (R.I.) Mercury.
1803. The first thing he did on getting out of bed was to call for a Julep; and I honestly date my own love of whiskey, from mixing and tasting my young master’s Juleps. (Note.) A dram of spirituous liquor that has mint steeped in it, taken by Virginians of a morning.—John Davis, ‘Travels in the U.S.A.,’ p. 379 (Lond.). (Italics in the original.)
1809. The colony of Maryland, or Merry-land, as it was anciently called, because that the inhabitants, not having the fear of the Lord before their eyes, were notoriously prone to get fuddled and make merry with mint julep and apple toddy.—W. Irving, ‘A History of New-York,’ ii. 171 (1812).
1816. The first thing in the morning, with many [in Virginia], is the silver goblet of mint-julap.—Henry C. Knight (‘Arthur Singleton’), ‘Letters from the South and West,’ p. 71 (Boston, 1824).
1816. Ball against the field for a mint Julep; tote my weight to a ketch.—Mass. Spy, Oct. 13: from the So. Carolina Telescope.
1825. Such, indeed, is the rage for mint juleps here, that nobody will buy a farm at any price unless it produces plenty of mint.—J. K. Paulding, ‘John Bull in America,’ p. 138 (N.Y.).
1829. Our two friends got out, as they told us, to take a glass of mint julap—which I learnt from them was a species of dram.—Basil Hall, ‘Travels in North America,’ iii. 71.
1832. The custom, however, of taking julaps, or raw spirits, in which mint is crushed, is not very common in the Middle States.—S. G. Goodrich, ‘System of Universal Geography,’ p. 197 (Boston). (Italics in the original.)
1833. I resorted to stimulants and tonics—a mint-julep in the morning, bitters at noon, and wine after dinner.—James Hall, ‘Legends of the West,’ p. 132 (Phila.).
1835. It [mint-julep] is a favourite mixture of spirits, mint, sugar, and water, and he has a high character for the just incorporation of the ingredients.—A. Reed and J. Matheson, ‘Visit to America,’ i. 172.
1836. A mint julep as described by The Boston Transcript:—It was a luxury even to look at the chrystal drops, stolen from the invisible air, and made palpable to the touch as they sprang into being on the cold ice bosom of the transparent goblet, and mingled their tiny bodies into sparkling rivulets, like living streams gushing from moss clad rock shaded by copse wood.—Phila. Public Ledger, May 23.
1838. They are supposed to entertain an especial abhorrence of the prevailing temperance fanaticism; and, as a matter of conscience, enter a daily protest against it, by sipping ‘mint-julaps’ before breakfast, ‘hail-storms’ at dinner, and ‘old Monongahela’ at night.—B. Drake, ‘Tales and Sketches,’ p. 27 (Cincinn.).
1840. The season for Mint-Juleps has arrived.—Daily Pennant, St. Louis, April 18.
1840.
| What blessed lot is thine, John Hodges! | |
| Thy ministering care dislodges | |
| Every cobweb, ache, and care | |
| From the throat, the heart, the hair. | |
| To thee we look to set us right | |
| When spreeing over-late at night. | |
| The gentle, potent, soothing draught | |
| Which thou concoctest, might be quaffed | |
| By angels, or by nuns at prayer, | |
| Without suspecting what was there. | |
| O captivating devil thou, | |
| More beauteous far than rose or tulip! | |
| How can we best thy virtues show? | |
| Let’s see,—by, “Here, John, bring a julep!” | |
Id., April 20. |
1842. His “mint julap or sling, when the weather required it.”—J. S. Buckingham, ‘Slave States,’ i. 197. [For fuller quotation see HARDSHELL BAPTISTS.]
1842. The editor of the N.Y. Sunday Atlas crows over a champagne julep to which he has been treated.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, Aug. 30.
1860.
| He likes, whatever others think, | |
| Virginia’s own libation; | |
| A whiskey julep is the drink | |
| That typifies the nation. | |
Verses by John P. Thompson, Richmond Enquirer, May 22, p. 4/3. |
1861. On my way to the upper deck, I observed the bar was crowded by gentlemen engaged in consuming, or waiting for, cocktails or mint-juleps.—W. H. Russell, ‘My Diary, North and South,’ April 14.
1861. Mint juleps are made of whiskey, sugar, ice, very little water, and sprigs of fresh mint, to be sucked up after the manner of sherry cobblers, if so it be pleased, with a straw.—Id., July 27.
