Although the Kentucky Derby has become the Mint Julep’s most famous starring role (anointed the official cocktail of the horse race in 1939, and where more than 100,000 are poured each year), the drink’s evolutionary history dates back centuries. “It’s arguably the most historic of American drinks,” says Chris McMillian, longtime New Orleans bartender, co-founder of the Museum of the American Cocktail, owner of Revel Café & Bar, and ardent appreciator of the julep. “We know the julep has its origins in Iran and the Iranian/Persian world,” explains McMillian. “‘Julep’ is more of a term for something you’d take for tonic benefit, and they had different kinds of juleps depending on the desired result.” As the drink wound its way around the world, its construction evolved—and created its own ripples of change. “Before the julep was whiskey-based it was brandy-based, and before it was brandy-based in the 18th century it would have been rum-based,” says McMillian. When ice was commercially introduced to the United States in the early 19th century, one of its primary vehicles for consumption was the julep. “Straws were invented to drink juleps because we didn’t have good dental care and the ice hurt our teeth,” notes McMillian. Today the Mint Julep recipe of bourbon, mint, and sugar serves mostly as a tonic for refreshment—at first boozy and bracing, then gradually mellowing and sweetening with each subsequent sip. “There’s no other drink that has inspired people to express their fascination and engagement with the drink like the Mint Julep,” says McMillian. “I could do an entire event called the Julep Monologues of things that people have said and written about the julep over the last 200 years."