Sweet Pea Julep

Photo by Michael Piazza / Styled by Catrine Kelty / Lobster-Etched Old Fashioned Glasses: Simon Pearce for Weston Table

A bit different from your typical Derby Day drink, here’s a whole new way to think about peas. Don’t hide this verdant cocktail in a silver julep cup—show off its vibrant green in a straight-edge rocks glass, and garnish with plenty of mint leaves and a lemon twist.

Makes 1 cocktail

Minted Sweet Pea Simple Syrup
1 cup sugar snap peas
1 cup mint leaves
¾ cup demerara sugar

Sweet Pea Julep
3–4 mint leaves
1 ounce Minted Sweet Pea Simple Syrup
½ ounce lemon juice
2 ounces bourbon crushed ice (wrap cubes in a clean tea towel and whack them on your counter or pound with a mallet until crushed to the consistency of coarse snow)
1 lemon twist

For the sweet pea simple syrup, blend the sugar snap peas, ¾ of the mint, the sugar and 1 cup water in a Vitamix or other high-powered blender. Pour through a fine sieve into a jar, pressing on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Refrigerate. Makes about 1½ cups.

When ready to build the julep, place 3–4 mint leaves in the bottom of a rocks glass and add the sweet pea simple syrup. Muddle with a spoon or a wooden muddler, then add the lemon juice and bourbon. Stir to combine, then fill the glass to the brim with crushed ice. Stir to chill the cocktail, then add more ice if the volume has gone down. Garnish with a lemon twist and more mint leaves, if you like.

This recipe appeared in the Spring 2020 issue as part of a larger story on Peas.