Absinthe - Adding to my "bucket list"

My daughters, Nancy Hartman and Brenda Weller, and my granddaughter, Tabitha Hartman, spent several days in Las Vegas celebrating Tabitha’s 21st birthday. I still can’t believe that I am old enough to have a 21-year old granddaughter. The years just slipped away!

One of the things that I have wanted to do (my bucket list), was to taste absinthe. I had researched this drink for my web site in the past, and wanted to taste it. Now that it is legal again, this was my chance. My daughters have also wanted to taste absinthe. What a better time than on my granddaughter’s 21st birthday! I guess that gives me several excuses and reasons to partake and "Chase The Green Fairy."

Well, it was good but not as exotic as I thought it would taste. It tasted like anise (licorice) to me. I guess I was expecting more after all the hipe I have heard about absinthe!

How about sharing your experiences on your first tastinging of absinthe? I would be interested in hearing them.

I have put together a web page on the history of absinthe and also how to taste absinthe. If you are interested, here it is: http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Absinthe.htm

Linda
No experience of it for me (I don't think Venchi's absinthe flavoured chocolate counts, though it was fairly pleasant).

Never did feel the need to taste it, as it's (overhyped?) 'special qualities' wouldn't appeal if they really still existed.

It sounds pleasant enough, and I'm very much a fan of aniseed. I suspect the same hype that encouraged some to chase it down, is the same hype I rebelled against. I'd probably enjoy it, and it's good to see the hype being broken down by folk such as yourself. Once it's just 'another drink' then I'm sure I'll be happy to try it

regards

Ian

[Jenise]

A friend poured absinthe for us recently. I detested it, licorce-y as you say, but very herbal too and not herbal in a good way for my tastes. For the record, though, it's only fair of me to add that I don't care much for liqueurs of any kind so I'm probably the worst judge.

I forgot to add - Our neighbor's son and his partner are making Absinthe here in Portland, Oregon under the label of Trillium. I tasted some last Friday at our summer weekly wine tasting and bocce night. It was very good, but absinthe tastes more like a liqueur to me. My husband like it "on the rocks."

Here is the Trillium Absinthe web page (if you are interested in seeing the bottl): http://www.integrityspirits.com/trillium-absinthe.html

I've had it a couple of times over the last few years, the latest being this last Tuesday. I think I probably would have enjoyed it more a number of years ago, but there was this unfortunate incident with Ouzo, and absinthe and Ouzo resemble each other enough that certain visceral memories (and I am talking literally about viscera here) get triggered. Sazeracs are likely to be the limit of my absinthe consumption for the foreseeable future.

Absinthe was never banned in the UK. It went through a fashionable popularity in clubs about 15 years ago and the Vinopolis wine attraction in London has had a absinthe tasting counter for many years.

The past few years there has been an absinthe master class held at the London Wine & Spirits trade fair which showed there are very great differences between available absinthes - colour, taste, body and alcohol.

I like aniseed drinks; in my younger pubbing days used to quite often drink Ricard (a pastis introduced as an absinthe substitute) and quaffed ouzo on holiday in Greece. Absinthe is in the same category.

My favourite brand at Vinopolis was Pernot 68 which I preferred to the Czech absinthes.

You asked for my first experience. I guess it was at Vinopolis in 2003 but I can't remember. Drinking it was no big deal -- except for its history -- as it was another pleasant anis based drink. The ritual of dripping iced water through a sugar cube balanced on an absinthe spoon was interesting but not something I'd do at home. When I drank Ricard I just added ice cubes and water. But nowadays I rarely drink spirits/liqueurs so didn't take the green fairy back home with me.

My own first experiences with Absinthe were in Paris in the early 1960's. It was still quite illegal and indeed made with the traditional wormwood but it was quite readily available, especially in cafes and wine bars of the Latin Quarter and Montparnasse. That was my first exposure to the flavor not only specifically of Absinthe but of anise, and I have enjoyed those beverages ever since. Never met God or any of the saints while under the influence of Absinthe, never thought I was going mad (but that is for others to judge and not me) but a most pleasant drink and part of the pleasure is the ritual of the spoon, the sugar cube, etc........something akin psychologically I suppose to passing a joint back and forth.

I find most of the "new" Absinthe versions rather mild and tend to avoid them, preferring good Ouzo or Arak for slow, comfortable sipping.

Best
Rogov

I've enjoyed absinthe imported from Europe. Adding water turns it into an interesting opalescent liquid. If you've tasted Pernod, it's similar.

Some years ago, I ordered Pernod as an after-dinner drink. The waiter came back and informed me that it was "an illegal drink." After explaining that Absinthe was illegal, not Pernod, I made him go back to the bartender, and I finally got some. (A little knowledge is dangerous.)

We got to a bar/restaurant in Scottsdale called Digestif that specializes in absinthe using all the slotted spoons and Art Decp water drips.
I've gone through their lineup (a few times? ) and my faves have been Kubler 53 and Lucid. Not a big fan of the Pernod Absinthe (aux extrait d'absinthe) as it was pretty watery. I love the flavor of good absinthe but find that it tends to wipe out my palate for the rest of the night.

I love the flavor of good absinthe but find that it tends to wipe out my palate for the rest of the night.

That was another aspect of it that I didn't really like when I had it last Tuesday. It was part of a seminar on liquor that included tasting a bunch of different spirits. At one point, it felt like absinthe and Tanquerey were engaged in open warfare in my mouth.

Ya, I can sure understand that Mike. When I start with absinthe I end up either sticking with neat absinthe or a cocktail that has it as an element.

We got to a bar/restaurant in Scottsdale called Digestif that specializes in absinthe using all the slotted spoons and Art Decp water drips.
I've gone through their lineup (a few times? ) and my faves have been Kubler 53 and Lucid. Not a big fan of the Pernod Absinthe (aux extrait d'absinthe) as it was pretty watery. I love the flavor of good absinthe but find that it tends to wipe out my palate for the rest of the night.

Wiping out your palate is only the tip of the iceberg, Bill. With the high levels of alcohol in true Absinthe, it's easy to get quite looped. I recall an evening spent with Rahsaan and Max Hauser that ended with Absinthe. After consuming two small portions (taste test) at the end of an evening of wine, I spent quite a bit of time drinking water before I dared get into a car.


Mark Lipton

With the high levels of alcohol in true Absinthe, it's easy to get quite looped.

True that absinthe has a much higher level of abv than spirits, but it is not intended to be consumed neat but greatly diluted with water which will bring abv of the drink in the glass below that of spirits.

I like absinthe. I like Pernod. I like ouzo. I even like raki. I cook with Herbsaint.

But, I have to agree about the palate thing. Best to drink it last or just stick with it.

I've had Absinthe in Spain, France and the U.S. but none really "wowed" me. A rather artsy friend of mine remodeled one of her bathrooms in an Absinthe/Green Fairy theme. Conceptually, it did not sound like a good idea; but when I saw it after a night of drinking I understood. It is very cool. Not sure if it will contribute to her home's resale value, but a fun theme nonetheless.

Some past threads here examined absinthe's history and pharmacology. First link below (Dec. 2007) followed change in labeling rules permitting, at long last, US firms (starting with St. George Spirits) to label their products "Absinthe," albeit only as part of a longer phrase, and in a restricted font size. I posted an early TN on the St. George. Second link from
April 2009 cites the very standard published sources that preceded (and informed) new US popular interest in absinthe that began a few years ago.

As the subject became recently fashionable, it also prompted a US meta-phenomenon of self-selected tutorial writers who have done a pretty good job of rehashing the basics (available in earlier standard print sources) and adding such newer information as became available. They haven't always distinguished, or accurately distinguished, what's new from what's rehashed standard information. Also, while addressing some of the famous past absinthe myths, recent writers who operate absinthe businesses or Web sites have overlooked or even promoted other obsolete myths. (Examples in my linked postings, including one from the 2006 New Yorker article.) Whatever the reason for this selective clarification, it has the effect of prolonging notoriety for what could otherwise become a completely demystified interesting herbal liquor, one of many.

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it has the effect of prolonging notoriety for what could otherwise become a completely demystified interesting herbal liquor, one of many.

Methinks it was the illegality aspect that generated the interest in the USA

Methinks it was the illegality aspect that generated the interest in the USA

Yes in general. Just as when several countries, after the absinthe bans, tried to ban most alcoholic drinks. (In the US this led to greater actual alcohol consumption, higher prices, lower quality, destruction of a growing wine industry -- pre-Prohibition US winery count was regained only in the 1990s -- and capitalizing organized crime.)

But look at the history a little more closely. Absinthe was US-illegal for nearly a century, and I heard snippets (and notions) about it from the 1960s onwards, as soon as I was old enough to notice. But starting only a decade or two after the ban, informed mainstream US sources reported to the interested public that thujone actually was in many herbs (1930s onward), and no more toxic than some other edible plant components consumed much more heavily (ditto), and that the alcohol, not wormwood, was the toxic ingredient (1960s, probably earlier). The recent movements away from illegality, in US and elsewhere, coincided with and even encouraged the new fashionability.

Still, if absinthe pundits with commercial ties are slow to finish the drink's demystification (like, bring it up to the level of authoritative understanding circa 1960), that at least suggests that the cachet of danger and mystery is too good to lose.

When I pointed out elsewhere the simple reality that new absinthe products choose names like Sirène Verte, Clandestine, and Taboo, and that they and others use suggestive, mystique-promoting label art, the point was actually mocked and ridiculed by new absinthe hobbyists. Suggesting maybe embarrassment or blindness about the mystique factor -- I don't presume to know.