Glasses of mint juleps wait to be sold to customers before the running of the Kentucky Derby.
There’s an alcoholic drink for every sporting event, but when the classiest of the classy gather for an entire day to watch a race lasting just two minutes, they need a drink to match. The icy cocktail — a mix of sugar water, whiskey and fresh mint — traditionally arrives in a souvenir cup, a custom since 1939. Each year, the derby doles out 120,000 mint juleps over the two-day event, which soaks up 10,000 bottles of Early Times’ ready-to-serve whisky mix and 1,000 pounds of freshly harvested mint.
