Lush Life: Absinthe
Absinthe sure is getting a lot of attention these days. Mention that you drink absinthe, or throw around words like “louche” and “thujone” and suddenly people get all excited. Absinthe definitely still has a stigma as being a forbidden spirit in SoCal, and frankly, the drink’s hype is old like so many shots of Britney Spears’ patootie.
If you want to get high, go smoke some hash. While I have been known to get a headache drinking more than 1 glass, it’s certainly nothing pleasant-more like, where-the-heck-is-my-inhaler, I-have-a-massive-hangover type feel. That said, if you’re curious about it by all means please try it-just don’t go on drinking it only for the cool appeal and turn into a louche douche.
The first absinthe I tried was from Lucid as I found a good deal on a gift set before Christmas. It included 2 pontarlier(reservoir) glasses, a spoon, and a 750ml bottle of the green juice. If you’ve ever had pastis, absinthe will taste strikingly similar. Lucid is no exception, as a pale yellow verte style selection. It reeks of anise even sitting on a table a few feet away.
A word about preparation: I keep a bottled water in the fridge for a few hours before to get nice and chilled and throw it in the freezer for about 30 minutes prior to pouring. Yeah, I’m not so much of a fanatic that I need to buy a spiffy looking spigot contraption.
The traditional drink assembly goes like this: pour a shot or two of absinthe in a pontarlier glass(in general it should hit or be just below the bulb of the glass). Place the spoon atop the glass and center a sugar cube on it. Slowly drip ice water drop by drop onto the sugar cube using as little water as possible to melt it. After the sugar cube has dissolved, add more water to dilute the drink between about a 3:1 to 5:1 ratio. Enjoy!
I’ve had absinthe prepared bohemian style with a burning cube, however I prefer the traditional preparation method as the bohemian style is really all flash and mirrors. The assembly is much the same, although instead of pouring the absinthe in the glass prior to placing the sugar cube on top of the spoon, the glass is left empty and absinthe is poured over the sugar cube. The sugar cube is then lit on fire and once the flame dies, water is poured on in the same manner as the traditional method.
So let’s recap:
1. Don’t drink absinthe in anticipation of whacking your ear off
2. You must like anise to enjoy it
3. Stick with the traditional preparation method for the best results
Has all this talk of absinthe piqued your interest? Read up on the spirit from people who are green-fairy fanatics at The Wormwood Society.
never had absinthe, but enjoyed your blog entry. Seemed like it was going to be a waste of time unless I was in europe where they have the “real” stuff. Course I don’t know that for sure, I’m just repeating what I’ve heard/watched on Anthony Bourdain.
Agreed. If you ever try it out in Europe I’d be curious to hear what you thought.
Nice to see people trying this out at home and not just in the ’streets’. The new place across from work has it (Hanny’s) , and yes, they have one of those fancy spigot things. Not bad, may try it again, but AZ is still just getting into the whole absinthe ’scene’
It’s quite easy to do at home, as you don’t need any special hardware. Technically, you don’t even need the sugar-you can just dilute it with water and drink up!
great article. If I ever decide to try absinthe, this will be the first article I come back to for the mechanics.
I think the absinthe hype was mainly because of the fact it was illegal. the temperance folks targeted it for banning back in the day, and made it famous. I even fell into the hype just enough to research it a bit, back when it was being legalized again.
There is at least one distillery on the west coast that reverse engineered absinthe and now produces “real” absinthe. (I’m sure google knows which one)
The way I think of absinthe is like the way people treat tequila today. some people have margaritas. some people do tequila shots. some people do tequila shots with the whole salt & lime ritual. similarly, with absinthe, a lot of people simply had it as a component of a cocktail, and some people turned it into their binge-party drink of choice, giving birth to the sugar with optional flaming fun.
Kevin, I agree; the previous illegality of absinthe and all the old stories about the effect of thujone have built up quite a hype.
I believe the distillery that you’re referring to may be St. George Spirits out of Alameda, CA. They have a small movie on theirs here: http://www.stgeorgespirits.com/AbsintheVerteMovie.htm
Leopold Bros out of Ann Arbor, MI also makes one now. I really enjoy their gin, although I haven’t done any research on their absinthe yet. http://www.leopoldbros.com/Welcome.html
I just finished reading Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” and the characters are constantly drinking absinthe especially when they visit Spain(where it wasn’t banned). From what I’ve read, the bohemian or Czech-style of burning the sugar cube is a modern invention that wasn’t even around back in the day. It reminds me of flaming cheese. Opaa!