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Kentucky Derby's Signature Drink Uses Locally Grown Mint

Dohn & Dohn Gardens, a small family farm in Jefferson County, Ky., grows all the mint used in the mint juleps served at the Kentucky Derby. (Alix Mattingly/WFPL News)
Dohn & Dohn Gardens, a small family farm in Jefferson County, Ky., grows all the mint used in the mint juleps served at the Kentucky Derby. (Alix Mattingly/WFPL News)

The race isn’t until Saturday, but Kentucky Derby parties get underway today at Churchill Downs, and that means plenty of the event’s signature drink: the mint julep.

More than 120,000 mint juleps will be devoured, requiring lots of water, sugar, 10,000 bottles of bourbon, and 1,000 pounds of mint — all grown on a small family farm in southern Jefferson County.

From the Here & Now Contributors Network, Erin Keane of WFPL reports from Louisville.

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