Skip to content

Top Navigation

Food & Wine Food & Wine
  • Recipes & Cooking
  • Drinks
  • Travel
  • Holidays & Events
  • News
  • F&W Classic
  • Video
  • Kitchen & Home
  • F&W Pro

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Your Profile

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Wine Club
  • Podcast
  • Food & Wine Books this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe Subscribe
Pin FB

Explore Food & Wine

Food & Wine Food & Wine
  • Explore

    Explore

    • F&W Cooks

      F&W Cooks

      Food and Wine presents a new network of food pros delivering the most cookable recipes and delicious ideas online. Read More Next
    • Our 22 Best Crock Pot and Slow-Cooker Recipes

      Our 22 Best Crock Pot and Slow-Cooker Recipes

      Looking to amp up your beef stew but unsure where to start? A slow cooker can can take your comfort food to the next level. Read More Next
    • 50 Affordable Wines You Can Always Trust

      50 Affordable Wines You Can Always Trust

      We’ve assembled a list of 50 of the world’s most reliable, inexpensive wines – bottles that offer amazing quality for their price year in and year out. Read More Next
  • Recipes & Cooking

    Recipes & Cooking

    See All Recipes & Cooking
    • Chicken Recipes
    • Comfort Food Recipes
    • Breakfast & Brunch Recipes
    • Salad Recipes
    • Dessert Recipes
    • Vegetable Recipes
    • Pasta & Noodle Recipes
    • Chefs
    • Meat & Poultry Recipes
    • Soup Recipes
    • Appetizer Recipes
    • Side Dishes
    • Fruit Recipes
    • Seafood Recipes
    • Special Diets
    • Cooking Techniques
    • Steal This Trick
  • Drinks

    Drinks

    See All Drinks
    • Wine
    • Cocktails & Spirits
    • Coffee Drinks & Recipes
    • Juices
    • Beer & Brews
    • Champagne & Sparkling Wine
    • Tea Recipes & Ideas
  • Travel

    Travel

    See All Travel
    • Wine Regions
    • Restaurants
  • Holidays & Events

    Holidays & Events

    See All Holidays & Events
    • Valentine's Day
    • Halloween
    • Passover
    • Hanukkah
    • Christmas
    • Gifts
    • Super Bowl
    • Easter
    • Thanksgiving
    • New Year's Eve
    • Holiday Entertaining
  • News
  • F&W Classic
  • Video
  • Kitchen & Home
  • F&W Pro

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Your Profile

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Wine Club
  • Podcast
  • Food & Wine Books this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home Chevron Right
  2. Cocktails & Spirits Chevron Right
  3. Kentucky Derby Drinks

Kentucky Derby Drinks

By Food & Wine
Updated May 24, 2017
Skip gallery slides
Save FB Tweet
Hat Trick
A cocktail guide to the horse-racing event of the season, including recipes for bourbon and champagne-infused drinks.
Start Slideshow

1 of 7

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Mint Julep

Mint Julep
Go to Recipe

Kentucky Derby Connection: Mint Juleps are the official cocktail of the Derby.

When New Orleans bartender Chris McMillian mixes mint juleps at Bar UnCommon, he recites an ode, written in the 1890s by a Kentucky newspaperman, that calls the cocktail "the zenith of man's pleasure—the very dream of drinks."

  • Southern Recipes

1 of 7

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 7

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Kentucky Cousin

Kentucky Cousin, Town Talk Diner, Minneapolis
Credit: © Tina Rupp
Go to Recipe

Kentucky Derby Connection: The Kentucky Derby has been held annually in Louisville, Kentucky since 1875.

Not all of the drinks at Minneapolis' Town Talk Diner, a newly renovated 1940s diner, have risqué names, but, says bar manager Nick Kosevich, "It's great when a 60-year-old lady orders a Panty Dropper."

  • Wine and Cocktails

2 of 7

3 of 7

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Black & Brown

Black & Brown
Go to Recipe

Kentucky Derby Connection: Big Brown was the Derby winner in 2008.

For this drink, Jeff Grdinich uses blackberries from his own garden, behind his house.

  • Bourbon Cocktails

3 of 7

Advertisement

4 of 7

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Wager

Wager
Go to Recipe

Kentucky Derby Connection: Betting is one of the main draws of the Kentucky Derby.

After winning a bet with a guest about whether bourbon has to be made in Bourbon County, Kentucky (it doesn't), Jeff Grdinich designed this cocktail with Bulleit Bourbon from Anderson County.

  • Whiskey Cocktails

4 of 7

5 of 7

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Aqueduct

Aqueduct
Go to Recipe

Kentucky Derby Connection: Two of the favorites in the 2011 field, Stay Thirsty and Uncle Mo, ran against each other in The Gotham Stakes, held annually at New York's Aqueduct racetrack.

Many of the cocktails at the Thoroughbred Club in Charleston, SC, are named after racetracks or horse-racing terms. This variation on the old-fashioned is named after the one racetrack located within New York City limits.

  • Wine and Cocktail Guide

5 of 7

6 of 7

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Blackbird

Blackbird
Go to Recipe

Kentucky Derby Connection: Mine That Bird won the 2009 Kentucky Derby.

"When I make my drinks, I look to the kitchen, particularly to the pastry chef," says Kristen Johnson, the bar manager at Chapel Hill's Lantern. "The fruit and herbs that are at the farmers' market go into her desserts; those same things show up in my cocktails."

  • F&W's Wine and Cocktail Guide

6 of 7

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

7 of 7

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Hat Trick

Hat Trick
Go to Recipe

Kentucky Derby Connection: It is a longstanding tradition for ladies attending the Derby to wear large, flamboyant hats.

Joe Fee, of Fee Brothers syrup and bitters company, gave Jeff Grdinich a bottle of his new rhubarb bitters in 2008. Grdinich concocted this drink with it. The name is a tribute to Mr. Fee, who is known for tipping his ever-present fedora in greeting.

  • Champagne Cocktails

7 of 7

Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By Food & Wine

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook
Trending Videos
Advertisement
Skip slide summaries

Everything in This Slideshow

Advertisement

View All

1 of 7 Mint Julep
2 of 7 Kentucky Cousin
3 of 7 Black & Brown
4 of 7 Wager
5 of 7 Aqueduct
6 of 7 Blackbird
7 of 7 Hat Trick

Share options

Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Login

Food & Wine

Magazines & More

Learn More

  • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
  • Books from Food & Wine
  • Contact Us
  • Media Kit
  • Content Licensing

Connect

Follow Us
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Other Meredith Sites

Other Meredith Sites

  • 4 Your Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Allrecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • All People Quilt this link opens in a new tab
  • Better Homes & Gardens this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Insights this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Surveys this link opens in a new tab
  • Cooking Light this link opens in a new tab
  • Daily Paws this link opens in a new tab
  • EatingWell this link opens in a new tab
  • Eat This, Not That this link opens in a new tab
  • Entertainment Weekly this link opens in a new tab
  • Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Hello Giggles this link opens in a new tab
  • Instyle this link opens in a new tab
  • Martha Stewart this link opens in a new tab
  • Midwest Living this link opens in a new tab
  • More this link opens in a new tab
  • MyRecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • MyWedding this link opens in a new tab
  • My Food and Family this link opens in a new tab
  • MyLife this link opens in a new tab
  • Parenting this link opens in a new tab
  • Parents this link opens in a new tab
  • People this link opens in a new tab
  • People en EspaƱol this link opens in a new tab
  • Rachael Ray Magazine this link opens in a new tab
  • Real Simple this link opens in a new tab
  • Ser Padres this link opens in a new tab
  • Shape this link opens in a new tab
  • Siempre Mujer this link opens in a new tab
  • Southern Living this link opens in a new tab
  • SwearBy this link opens in a new tab
  • Travel & Leisure this link opens in a new tab
Meredith Food & Wine is part of the Meredith Corporation Allrecipes Food Group. © Copyright 2021 Meredith Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
© Copyright . All rights reserved. Printed from https://www.foodandwine.com

View image

Kentucky Derby Drinks
this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.