"The green fairy," --- absinthe, made with herbal flavorings of anise, fennel, and wormwood, having an alcohol content of 45 - 75%, has been legal in the U.S.A. since 1991. It has 10% or less of thujone, the compound found in the poisonous herb wormwood. Thujone supposedly had hallucinogenic properties. Absinthe was first drunk in the Netherlands in the 1800s. It became very popular among artists in Bohemian France in the early 19th century, gaining a well deserved and rather naughty reputation... (I don't like it because I really don't like licorice, at all.) 😝
ABSINTHE ART:
Absinthe was a favorite drink of Vincent Van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Pablo Picasso, among other artists... Does it cause hallucinations, even madness???... Today, the amount of thujone in absinthe is regulated, but back in the early 1900s, --- WHO knows???... Perhaps, it did lead to madness. Surely, with it's high alcoholic content it may have on that basis alone. (The constant and heavy drinking of any alcoholic drink can cause mental and physical corruption, as we all know...)
How Do You Drink Absinthe?
Because of its incredibly high alcohol content, absinthe shouldn’t be taken as a shooter alone.
The most common way to drink absinthe is to place a sugar cube on a slotted spoon over a shot of absinthe and slowly pour cold water over the sugar until it dissolves. This creates a milky white cocktail that is a bit diluted but still tastes like absinthe.
Another way is similar in that it also starts with a shot of absinthe in a glass-topped with a sugar cube on a slotted spoon. But this sugar cube is soaked in a drop or two of additional absinthe, lit on fire, then dropped into the glass. This causes all of the absinthe to ignite before it’s doused with a shot of water. --- From "Taste Of Home".
