Catch the fairy while you can! (Absinthe)

Member Name: absynthe

Product:	Absinthe
Date:	06/06/01 (3356 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Powerful stuff! And still legal.

Disadvantages: Over priced.

Well now, naturally someone with a handle like mine is going to have an opinion on La Fée Verte...

It's a highly priced drink (too highly priced, in my opinion) and a natural progression if you're a Ricard/Pernod drinker like myself. First thing that hits you is the extreme bitterness - after that, you begin to understand why people add sugar to the stuff.

Using the traditional absynthe spoons are a bit of a bind as the sugar takes forever to dissolve - be it lumps or grains. But the ritual's nice. Personally, I like trying different things to mask the bitterness - like amaretto syrup instead of sugar and mixing it with lemonade instead of water - but the traditional French way of the sugar on the slotted spoon with chilled water drizzled over, is still recommended.

Absynthe, I think, gets too much hype as a "legal" drug. And since it was never banned in the UK, it seems to have slipped under the wire of "nasty, bad substances" a bit. But there have been some unfavourable comments about the Green Fairy by those in high places, so it'll probably find itself banned any day now...get it while you can.

The "drug" in absynthe comes from the wormwood plant, artemisia absinthium, to be precise. The thujone content of a bottle of absynthe is the true indicator of it's hallucenagenic strength. The higher the thujone percentage combined with the strength of the alcohol, the more intense the experience will be.

My favourite brand to date is "La Boheme" (available by mail order from http://www.absinthe4u.co.uk/absinthe.htm )which has less of the cloudy aspect you come to expect with pastis (Ricard/Pernod) and a bit more bitterness, due to it's rather high potency content, (10mg thujone, 70% proof) but it's an interesting experience when you get it sweet enough to drink. One glass has the effect of a few similar measures of common spirit (rum, whiskey, vodka
etc.)

I have tried Sebor and Hills but I do prefer La Boheme to date.

Be not overly concerned with the tales you hear of why absynthe was banned in many countries - tales of madness and death among many. The thujone content in modern absynthe is the merest fraction of what it was in days gone by...

But it still has some interesting effects. Just go easy till you're sure of it. You wouldn't want la fée verte to possess *your* soul.

Would you?

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