AN AMAZING £2,000 cocktail served in a gold cup at next month’s Kentucky Derby will make Cheltenham Festival’s £7 pints look a bargain.
Punters were up in the arms over the price of a Guinness at last month’s meeting in Gloucester.
But those travelling 4,000 miles to Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, will need to fork out around 285 times the cost of a pint here at US racing’s biggest meet.
The mint julep concoction – one of the world’s most expensive – will be limited to just 18 servings in the incredible gold cup.
It’s first come first served, so those with deep pockets will need to queue early to get a sip of the showstopper.
But even if they miss out there will be 130 versions of the cocktail served in silver cups at a cost of £795.
So what makes the drink – which even with its eye-watering price tag comes some £13,000 behind the world’s most expensive cocktail – so special?
Well, Kentucky is arguably the home of bourbon whiskey, and in particular Woodford Reserve.
This luxury mint julep is made up of whiskey, honey and ‘muddled mint’ inspired by the Palace of Versailles and their House of Bourbon, a ruling European family from the 13th century.
The cocktail, which brings together flavours of orange, lemon and pomegranate, has been expertly crafted by Woodford Reserve’s master distiller Chris Morris, according to the New York Post.
It will be poured into either a silver cup featuring red rubies in the shape of a horseshoe or a gold one.
Both will feature an engraving of a thoroughbred horse made by Louisville-based jeweller From The Vault.
There will be 148 on sale in all because this is the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby.
All cash from sales will go to Old Friends Farm, a retirement home for racehorses when their running days are over.
Morris said: “The French connections to Kentucky are significant — from Versailles, the home of our distillery – to Louisville, Kentucky, the city where the Derby is run and which was named after King Louis XVI.
“Cheers — or as the French would say ‘Sante’ — to Derby 148.”
The world’s most expensive cocktail is believed to be the £15,000 Diamonds Are Forever martini sold at the Ritz-Carlton in Tokyo, Japan.
The drink is said to come with a live band serenading whoever bought it with a version of the song itself.
