This afternoon, April 20, at Cure on Freret Street, Tales of the Cocktail proudly announced their pick of the Creole Julep as official cocktail of the 2009 Tales of the Cocktail event. Maksym Pazuniak, a local mixologist at Rambla and Cure was announced as the overall winner with his Creole concoction. He won over the judges with his well-layered julep, beating out over 110 contestants from all over the country.
Pazuniak’s cocktail will be served throughout Tales of the Cocktail, July 8-12, and will be a featured cocktail in the summer issue of Culinary Concierge Magazine, as well as on CocktailTimes.com.
"For our seventh anniversary, we stirred things up with our annual cocktail competition and asked bartenders to create a julep … originally, the term julep would have been used to refer to a medicinal potion, but in the American South it was used to refer to a heavily iced beverage of some type of spirit, sugar and mint," says Ann Tuennerman, founder of Tales of the Cocktail. "Today, a “mint julep” is usually thought of as that classic drink of the Kentucky Derby, served in its quintessential silver cup. In truth however, a julep can take a variety of forms, and we have found a recipe that would help us illustrate this fact."
Creole Julep Recipe
Created by Maksym Pazuniak, Cure/Rambla
2 ¼ oz. Cruzan Single Barrel Estate Rum
½ oz. Clement Creole Shrubb
¼ oz. Captain Morgan 100
2 dashes Fee Bros. Peach bitters
2 dashes angostura bitters
8-10 mint leaves
1 Demerara Sugar Cube
Muddle sugar, Creole Shrubb and bitters until sugar is dissolved inn a 10 ox. Tall glass. Ad mint and press to express oils. Add cracked ice. Add Cruzan and Captain Morgan 100 and stir until frost appears on outside of glass. Garnish with mint sprig.
For information on the second and third place winners, and to buy tickets to Tales of the Cocktail, visit their Web site: www.TalesoftheCocktail.com.
