What's $1000 for a mint julep between friends? and other food and drinking news

• Why This Lavish Mint Julep Costs $1,000 The Kentucky Derby has become as synonymous with the mint julep as it is with champion horses, wide-brimmed hats, and men smoking cigars in seersucker suits. The ultimate status symbol at the track may be a horse in the winner’s circle, but then there’s Woodford Reserve’s $1,000 Mint Julep coming down the back stretch, making a close second. It’s a bottomless variation (free refills!) on the classic summer drink served in a silver plated cup designed by Billy Reid, with a 24k gold straw.

The wine The Daily Telegraph's Nick Trend went searching for

• Alsace wine tour: In search of the world's greatest white wines - "I’m full of anticipation because, about 20 years ago, I tasted a wine which, because it was so unexpectedly delicious, has lodged in my memory ever since. ... this wine, made from riesling grapes, was steely dry, and had an almost ethereal freshness. I began to realise why riesling is ranked among the greatest of all varieties. It can taste of honey, yet without a trace of sweetness; it can smell of petrol, yet be utterly delicious. It can be both rich and light, fresh and intense. And the best will mature for decades, darkening to a rich amber and increasing in depth and complexity. It sparked an enthusiasm for Alsace wines which has never abated. And now at last I had managed to arrange a trip to the place where it – and several other great rieslings I have discovered since – was made."

Should he/she be used for meat or Milk? That is the question.

• The sad, sad story of Palestine's hermaphrodite goat. Episode One: A Hermaphrodite Goat Could Be The Ultimate Scapegoat. Episode Two: And The Fate Of The Hermaphrodite Goat Is...
• Conflicts of Interest at the F.D.A. - The Food and Drug Administration’s lethargic regulation of dietary supplements containing a dangerous stimulant described in recent reports in The Times is a classic example of what happens when industry representatives infiltrate the agency that is supposed to regulate them. The worrisome ingredient is BMPEA, a chemical nearly identical to amphetamine that is added to weight-loss and workout products in an effort to enhance their effect. Whether it does so is unclear, since there have never been tests of its effectiveness and safety in humans.