Have you ever thrown something together in haste, had it turn out super-awesome and then realized after the fact you have no idea what you did to make it so good?
Yeah, that’s what this photo here is all about. This is Shake’s second try at the W&P Mint Julep recipe from the Shake cocktail book. (Nope, not his book—this is from the gentlemen who created the Mason Shaker. The “W&P” refers to their last names, Williams and Prum.)
The first time he made this drink for us, it came out pretty decent. A fine julep recipe, we agreed. But I was feeling lazy and didn’t do a fancy staging set up, so not only was the drink not especially ooh-worthy, the photos weren’t either.
So this past weekend, Shake decided he wanted another go at it. And he wanted nicer photos. (Can’t blame the guy.) We got home from the grocery store and entered a race to beat the fading daylight.
“It’s too late, isn’t it?” he asked, dejectedly.
“It’s fine, it’s fine…just hurry up,” I said.
“Now? Is it still good now?”
“Yeah. Don’t worry. Just make it fast.”
“…”
I know this was frustrating for him because he is the meticulous sort. It is one of the reasons why I don’t have him cook very often—I get impatient waiting for him to painstakingly measure everything precisely. Still, he did an admirable job under pressure.
At first, I was not very happy with the results—ten minutes sooner and we would have caught the last light in the sky. But after some Lightroom tweaking, I’m quite happy with the end result! And Shake likes the dramatic spotlight on the drink. He’s now pretending that we have a balcony bar where he can sit and sip his juleps.
Oh, and as for the drink itself—delicious! So much better than the last time. But we just can’t figure out what the difference was. D’oh!
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