Low carb mint julep cocktails

While wandering around T K Maxx the other day I picked up some julep cups and it occurred to me that apart from the sugar in Mint Juleps, there are no other carbs in there. Meaning you can very easily make them low carb, which inevitably got me feeling extremely excited and obviously buying the julep cups which had now become essentials- well as essential an item can be when it's primary purpose is to house a drink that you have never before made.




Once I got home I was desperate to try this out, not just because I was excited but also because I knew my occasionally misguided other half might soon mistake the cups for toothbrush holders and I was keen not to find them upstairs with our toiletries in them. Anyway, I digress.

Making Mint Juleps is super easy, I discovered once I'd Pinterested it (is Pinterest a verb yet? If not, it should be). They only have a few ingredients, which are all really easy to find and again, like all of my favourite cocktails to make at home, they take mere moments to create. In fact the ingredients are so accessible that I'd hazard you may even have all of them at home...

To make two you will need:

• 1 Teaspoon of sweetener- if you're not being too strict on carbs you could even push the boat out and have actual sugar, in which case you'd have two teaspoons 
• 1 handful of mint leaves
• 4 tablespoons of tap water. If you don't have this to hand you're in trouble and will need a few of these to get you through!
• Bourbon (whiskey)
• Lots of crushed ice, I crushed mine in my Blendtec which is so quick and blends it to a pretty uniform size in under a minute.
• Two julep cups, they just taste better out of these, in  the same way champagne only tastes right out of a champagne glass. 

Crushing the ice really will make it, so if you don't have a blender then perhaps buy some ice ready blended. if you do have a blender I often blend ice in big batches in the blendtec then pop it in a sandwich bag and keep it ready in the freezer. 

I've found some lovely affordable julep cups here: Stainless Steel Julep Cup

While we're talking about them, I also found these very affordable and very quirky cans on Amazon while I was looking, I've snapped some up so look out for them soon!

Anyway, onto how to make them, though they're so simple they barely warrant any instructions:

• Divide the sweetener (or sugar), water (2 tablespoons per glass) and mint equally between the two glasses. 
• Muddle (ie use the end of a wooden spoon if you're me, or a muddler if you know what you're doing, to crush up) them all up together. 
• Fill your julep glasses with your (preferably crushed) ice and wait until the outside frosts over. This is particularly important if you're planning on instagramming the final product as it will ensure your reflection isn't captured in the silver glass (learnt this lesson the hard way). 
• Dispense the Bourbon equally into the glasses (or not so equally if you aren't too keen on the person you're sharing with)
• Stir well, preferably with a long cocktail mixing spoonor cocktail stirrer
• Garnish with a few sprigs of mint
• Enjoy, and chastise yourself for not making double quantities once you realise how very drinkable they are. 
• Thank me, or even better, come over and make me some, as the only thing better than being able to make low carb cocktails, is having someone else make them for you!