Silver Mint Julep Cup

Sterling Silver Mint Julep Cups

Click the link below for a great featured list for an Antique Sterling Silver Mint Julep Cup (not mint julip), from makers like International Silver, Lemon Son, Tiffany, Manchester, Lunt, Reed Barton and more. Some of these little sterling silver mint julep cups can be found in sets. Makes a great gift for the antique sterling silver collector on your shopping list.

Antique Sterling Silver Mint Julep Cups

As a trademark of Southern Hospitality, the silver mint julep cup is known as a traditional southern gift. Mint Juleps are the quintessential Kentucky Derby beverage. One of the best descriptions of this magisterial concoction comes from Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. in a letter written to General William D. Connor dated March 30, 1937, the superintendent of the U.S Military Academy at West Point. In it, he is responding to the General’s request for the mint julep recipe. Here is an excerpt:

“A mint julep is not the product of a formula. It is a ceremony and must be performed by a gentleman possessing a true sense of the artistic, a deep reverence for the ingredients, and a proper appreciation of the occasion. It is a rite that must not be entrusted to a novice, a statistician, nor a Yankee. It is a heritage of the Old South, an emblem of hospitality, and a vehicle in which noble minds can travel together upon the flower-strewn paths of happy and congenial thought.”

Find more History of the Mint Julep Cup here.