September is Be Kind to Editors and Writers Month, International Square Dance Month, National Bed Check Month, National Chicken Month, National Mind Mapping Month, National Rice Month and National Papaya Month. More importantly, however, September is National Bourbon Month.

In my quest to choose a bourbon drink, I thought mint juleps sounded fun — and appropriately Southern.

There is no standard mint julep recipe. I realized that when every website I went to had a different idea of how to make one. Some included water; some included simple syrup; all included bourbon, ice, sugar and mint.

In preparation for this week’s taste test, I made four mint juleps with four kinds of bourbon.

They all got thrown away because no one was willing to keep going after trying the first one, so I bought a bottle of Pepsi and started over.

Simple drink recipe: three parts bourbon to five parts Pepsi plus ice.

Two were clearly favored by most of the people who did the “blind” taste test: Maker’s Mark ($13.49) — the number one selling “super-premium” bourbon — and Jim Beam ($8.49) — the number one selling bourbon in the world. Two people picked Kentucky Gentleman ($8.69 for one liter) as their favorite, but most people thought it was the worst kind. Almost no one thought Wild Turkey ($11.49) was best, but almost no one thought it was the worst either.

To balance price and taste, choose Jim Beam and avoid Maker’s Mark this Bourbon Month.

Editor’s Notes: Price are all for 375 ml (unless otherwise marked) from Northside Wine and Spirits.

Coca-Cola products should work just as well, but ShortStop Deli recently sold out to Pepsi.

Want to suggest a drink? The Sun’s Mixology Editor can be reached at mixology@cornellsun.com. Please Drink Responsibly appears Fridays.