The Kentucky Derby has something for everyone, from an incredible history as a sporting event (since 1875!) to its pageantry and elaborate hats. But for us, it comes down to one thing: the mint julep.
And since the Derby is the perfect reason to host a bunch of friends for an afternoon of drinking and merriment, we spoke to executive chef David Danielson of Churchill Downs on how he and his team at Levy make juleps for the 400,000 people who come through their gates (including the exact recipe they use), and how you can easily prepare stellar juleps at home.
It’s a 2-minute race and a day of drinking juleps
Just to give you an idea of the scale of this operation, the Derby takes place on Saturday, May 2, but preparations begin in August of the previous year.
“We’ve got an army of people over here working to get everything geared up,” Danielson told HuffPost. He’s not exaggerating, as it takes over 1,000 workers to whip up the estimated 127,000 mint juleps for Derby Day. The premier race is billed as “the fastest two minutes in sports,” but drinking juleps is an all-day event. The bourbon-filled cocktails are being poured right after the gates open at 8 a.m., and people continue imbibing all the way until last call at 8:10 p.m.
