Cocktails and dreams

When I was 3 1/2 years old, my mother entered one of my drawings of horses into an art contest and it won. One of the reasons, as the artist judging had explained to her, was that I had filled the entire page with color and perspective. Most children at that age, she said, draw two-dimensional stick figures in the middle of a mostly white sheet of paper. Not surprisingly, considering most children at that age have never even seen a horse in real life; neither had I. I was drawing based on my imagination.

This past weekend was Mother’s Day, as well as the Kentucky Derby, the first of three horse races for what is known as the Triple Crown. My mother loves all animals, but she has a particular affinity for horses. As I grew up, she never failed to share her love for anything that expanded the mind. Because of her, often I was found buried nose-deep in the latest James Herriot novel, or elbow-deep in charcoal and oil paints. There was nothing I could want for that couldn’t be satiated by the wonderful workings of my own mind.

I was about eight years into my bartending career before I was asked to create something original. How would I begin? For the first time, someone was leaving it up to me to invent something out of thin air?

Many would consider this too daunting a task. After all, for anything you create, you are ultimately responsible.

“… (Or you could) just give me a Meyers and Diet,” my friend shrugged at my hesitation.

“No!” I proclaimed. “I’ll make you something.” I winked at my willing guinea pig, and the rest, as they say, is history.

In the movie Six Degrees of Separation, Will Smith’s character, Paul, states, “I believe the imagination is another phrase for what is most uniquely us.” As it turns out, Paul is a young con-artist who charms his way into the New York apartment, and eventually the hearts of an art dealer and his wife, by pretending to be a Harvard graduate, classmate of their children, who has just been mugged outside of their building. But even after gaining their trust, Paul doesn’t steal anything, for his desires aren’t material. Rather, he imagines in the older couple, Flan and Ouisa, the kind of parents and acceptance he always wanted for himself, and then becomes the prodigal son they always hoped for. In the end, the couple separates after Paul’s ruse is discovered, and Ouisa proclaims to Flan, “We’re a terrible match!” The vulnerability Paul has shown in succumbing to the creativity of his imagination, ignited something in her and the way she wants to view to world; something Flan does not share, and so the two part ways.

I owe my career and my passions to my imagination, and to my mom, who has never once doubted that which is most uniquely mine. She has never once doubted my talent, capability or dreams, even when I did. Sometimes we get by not on the strength of our own convictions, but on the convictions of those who believe in us. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom, and Happy Derby Day! I hope you never stop dreaming of horses. This one’s for you.

In honor of Derby Month, which is May 7–June 11 this year, let us all lift a copper cup filled with the official cocktail of the Kentucky Derby, the Mint Julep. Tracing its origins back to a Persian rosewater elixir called “gulab,” herbaceous mint, which grows indigenously in the Mediterranean, and wild on the grounds of the Churchill Downs racetrack, eventually replaced the rose petals as medicine, and was paired instinctively with bourbon, the “house wine” of the American South.

One hundred and twenty thousand of these icy concoctions are served over the two-day racing span, where patrons have been religiously taking their collector julep cups home with them since 1939.

I Dream of Juleps

* 2 ounces Elijah Craig Small Batch Bourbon

* 10 mint

* 1 level teaspoon superfine sugar

* 0.5 ounces fresh-squeezed lemon juice (optional)

Directions:

Muddle superfine sugar into mint leaves inside of julep glass until sugar is dissolved and you can smell the mint fragrance. Add lemon juice (optional) and Elijah Craig Small Batch bourbon, and top with crushed or pebble ice. Garnish with mint sprig and summer fruit of choice. Serve immediately.

Alicia Yamachika is a bartender and craft mixologist, who currently is the key account manager at Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits on Oahu. Follow her on Instagram (@alicia_ yamachika). Her column will appear every second Wednesday in Crave.