Mint Juleps

The Kentucky Derby isn't for a few more weeks, but you can practice being a degenerate at home in advance. This recipe comes from Walker Percy. "You need excellent bourbon whiskey; rye or Scotch will not do. Put half an inch of sugar in the bottom of the glass and merely dampen it with water. Next, very quickly-- and here is the trick in the procedure-- crush your ice, actually powder it-- preferably in a towel with a wooden mallet, so quickly that it remains dry and, slipping two sprigs of fresh mint against the inside the glass, cram the ice in right to the brim, packing it with your hand. Finally, fill the glass, which apparently has no room left for anything else, with bourbon, the older the better, and grate a bit of nutmeg on the top. The glass will frost immediately. Then settle back in your chair for half an hour of cumulative bliss."