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THE EXOTIC DRINKING BOOK
a big glass, plenty of fine ice, a little sugar, a teaspoon of Demerara
rum floated between the two ripe sticks of fresh ripe Pasig River val–
ley p.ineapple, in a big sloping-sided glass holding a
full
English pint
of sixteen ounces. And
lots
of mint, for it takes a real clutch of the
herb for fragrance.
But let us inject a word of caution to seekers after this miracle of
frosted perfection. No man can rough and tumble his Julep-making
and expect that luck must always be on his side, that a lovely arctic
frosted thing shall always reward his careless ignorance.
Especially on yachts or boats, for instance, no Julep glass can frost
when stood in any considerable wind. Frosting depends solely upon
condensed moisture being converted to minor ice through the ex–
cessive chill of melting cracked ice and liquids withll that glass.
Therefore if the breeze whisks it away there can be nothing left to
frost. Paradoxically, when the outside of any Julep glass is moist from
careless rinsing, handling, or standing about only partially iced in
humid weather, frost will be in total lack due to
excess
moisture.
Likewise no Julep can ever frost when caressed by the warm,
bare
palm of an impatient host or guest-not any more than decent frost–
ing can ever result from wet, half-melted cracked ice that is more
liquid than solid. Just obey the rules, few but important, and success
will crown every amateur effort.
Actually if we would forget all the eternal nonsense about Juleps
and obey the few common sense rules, everyone could save their
strength for enjoyment of this institution.
I.
Chill
glasses, whether silver cups or otherwise.
2.
Use glasses of sixteen ounce capacity.
3 . Use two and a half jiggers of likker for sixteen ounce glass, two for
fourteen ounce.
4. Use red-stemmed mint, simply because red-stemmed mint is more
pleasantly aromatic. Use fresh mint, and cut stems short just before put–
ting in as final garnish-to make them bleed.
5. Don't bruise that first installment of tender mint leaves more than very
slightly. The inner leaf juices are bitter and cannot have profitable