ABSINTH

Ohh okay. Aparently the real bona fide deal (spelt ABSINTHE)is banned almost everywhere - but there is still a healthy amount of "imitation"...

Really interesting article on the drinks history.. . (yup, wiki again)here
Absinthe (from the French) is an alcohol liqueur derived from herbs including the flowers and leaves of wormwood, Artemisia absinthium.

Absinthe is known for its popularity in France—and especially its romantic associations with Parisian artists and writers—in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, until its prohibition in 1915. The most popular brand of absinthe known to the world was Pernod Fils.

Absinthe usually has a pale-green color (giving it its nickname "The Green Fairy") and tastes much like an anise-flavored liqueur, but with a more subtle flavor due to the many herbs used, and light bitter undertones. In addition to wormwood, it contains anise (often partially substituted with star anise), Florence fennel, hyssop, melissa, and Roman wormwood (Artemisia pontica). Various recipes also include angelica root, sweet flag, dittany leaves, coriander, and other mountain herbs.

A simple maceration of wormwood without distillation produces an extremely bitter drink, due to the presence of the water-soluble absinthine, one of the most bitter substances known. Authentic recipes call for distillation after the primary maceration and before the secondary or "coloring" maceration. The distillation of wormwood, anise, and florence fennel first produces a colorless "alcoholate", and to this the well-known green color of the beverage is imparted by steeping with the leaves of roman wormwood, hyssop, and melissa.

Inferior varieties are made by means of essences or oils cold-mixed in alcohol, the distillation process being omitted.

The alcohol content is extremely high (45 percent - 90 percent), given the low solubility of many of the herbal components in alcohol. It is usually not drunk "straight," but consumed after a fairly elaborate ritual in which a specially designed, slotted spoon with a sugar cube inside its bowl is placed over a glass, and water is poured over the sugar until the drink is diluted 3:1 to 5:1. During that ritual, the components that are not soluble in water come out of solution and cloud the drink; that milky opalescence has always been called the "louche".


ABSINTH
The non-French spelling of "Absinth" has been adopted for wormwood-based drinks produced in Central Europe (since the beginning of the 1990s). These products bear very little resemblance to absinthe (with an 'e'): they are usually bitter and contain little anise, but are marketed to ride the coat-tails of the historical French product's romantic associations and psycho-active reputation.

Typically, the low herbal content of these drinks means that they do not "louche." As thujone is still associated with the myth of absinthe as a psycho-active drink, many of them are touted to have "higher thujone content." A separate, more dramatic, and potentially very hazardous "fire" ritual was invented for those drinks by a Czech manufacturer, in which the sugar cube is drenched in absinth then set on fire, and less water is added (presumably to maximize the very real psycho-active effects of the alcohol)....
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:swing:

go for your life...
 
Legend has it that Absinth was partly responsible for Van Gough hacking his own ear off and was the drink of choice of Talouse Lautrec...

But that would be in the days of the real Green Fairy...

Those arty types eh!
 
ClaireBear said:
Those arty types eh!
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Verrry Interrresssting

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:lloyd:
 
ClaireBear said:
Ahhhh! 10-20 years before I was born!!! :p

*CB legs it... safe in the knowledge she'll out run the aged folk!*
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I seem to remember outrunning somebody half my age about 4 months ago...:grinyes:
 
IDLEchild said:
Drink it near people you trust. Not friends who have no qualms about taking your clothes off, painting you and leaving you in public.
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Oh!!! Do Tell!!!! :lol2:
 
AlphaTroll said:
Whatever you do - don't mix the Absynth and Stroh Rum :sick:

*remembers fatal mistake made by self*
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Fatal?

*AT...posting from beyond the grave...:D
 
Gato_Solo said:
But I have a car...and I'm not afraid of driving on the sidewalk if needs be...:grinyes:
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:bolt: Run For Your Lives, He's gonna drive on the sidewalk.......
 
I was sick as a dog, throwing up all the way home and passed out the minute I walked in the door. May as well have died.

Actually I think dying is probably a more pleasant experience.

DJCake - just remember to light the sugar BEFORE you add it to the drink....and do not swallow any liquids that are still flaming...
 
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