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"  This Saturday is the two minutes in sports. A blur of thoroughbreds will race around the historic Churchill Downs in an effort to be crowned this year&amp;#039;s winner of the Kentucky Derby. Only a few key elements are needed for a horserace: horses, jockeys, a track and a betting audience. But for the Kentucky Derby there&amp;#039;s one more important element: mint juleps. The Kentucky Derby and mint juleps go together like eggnog and Christmas, like beer and the Super Bowl - but why? The term &amp;quot;julep&amp;quot; is generally defined as a sweet drink used as a vehicle for administering medicine. It is derived from the Arabic word &amp;quot;julab,&amp;quot; which is a beverage made with water and rose petals. When the drink was introduced to the Mediterranean, the rose petals were replaced by mint leaves, which were more easily accessible. But the actual term &amp;quot;mint julep&amp;quot; was not seen in print until 1803, when it appeared in a book by John Davis. He wrote that it was a &amp;quot;dram of spirituous liquor that has mint in it, taken by Virginians in the morning.&amp;quot; Due to what was available at the time, it is thought that this version of the famous tipple was made with rye whiskey or rum rather than the currently traditional bourbon. To move from rye to bourbon the drink had to take a trip down South. Kentucky, horses and bourbon have long had ties. According to ESPN 2, in the 1700s Kentucky setters introduced horses and stills to make bourbon to the region. The two became intertwined in the form of horse races where locals would go to swap stories and swigs of homemade bourbons. Still, they weren&amp;#039;t drinking juleps. According to Cocktail Times, the mint julep first became the signature drink of the Kentucky Derby in 1938 when they were served in specialty glasses - well, that&amp;#039;s what they turned out to be. The famous Derby &amp;quot;souvenir glasses&amp;quot; actually began as the water glasses, according to the Derby Museum&amp;#039;s website. But the glasses were so popular that patrons would steal them from the dining room, so the management began charging an extra 25 cents to those who wished to keep the glasses. Today, Churchill Downs has embraced the souvenir glass. Since 2006, the track has served premium Juleps served in gold-plated cups with silver straws for $1000 each. The track also produced the world&amp;#039;s largest mint julep glass at 6 feet tall, which could hold 206 gallons and dispensed small amounts of the cocktail from a pumping system concealed within the massive straw.  Here are a few ways you can make your own signature Derby cocktail:        Classic Mint Julep      Kiwi-Mint Julep      Fresh Basil Julep     "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.delish.com/food/news/a38613/the-story-of-the-mint-julep/>