This sounded like it would be very refreshing but I essentially ended up doing an Alan Partridge with my free-wheeling antics.

This can apparently be made with pretty much any spirit but as I have recently acquired some Jenson’s Old Tom Gin, which is a sweeter version of standard gins, I decided to make mine using that.  The key ingredients of a Julep is mint, in our case home grown, from the garden and rather weedy looking; and a shed-load of crushed ice.

As I had time on my hands I was able to do the recommended method of lightly muddling the mint and spirit in the cocktail shaker and leave it in the fridge for a few hours along with the highball glass that I was going to serve it in.

The ingredients

Then, having shaken it up with some uncrushed ice, pour it over the crushed ice – a swirl with the bar spoon – and then more crushed ice.

The result

The verdict

As you can see, that’s a lot of ice for not much liquid.  I probably did something wrong. I had a quick sip and the mint and gin worked well together but not having any straws (an oversight I really need to correct) it wasn’t exactly practical to drink. It also would have  been a lot nicer in the blazing sun of a week or two ago as opposed to the evening following a bit of a drizzly day.  It probably would be better with a verandah to sit on too!

As it was, I ended up topping up with some Indian tonic water to make it in to a longer drink, and essentially a slightly more elaborate pink gin and tonic.  Which was lovely!  Looking forward to trying some of the other Botanical Gin that I picked up and having a go at an Elderflower Tom Collins, which I might shoe-horn in to “T”.