[Sca-cooks] Absinthe

[Christiane]

By the way... I had the opportunity two weeks past to sample authentic Absinthe,
smuggled in from
the Middle East by one of our U.S. soldiers.  It was entirely too bitter for my 
tastes (no sugar
available in the alley behind the bar), and I was very nervous about trying it (not
knowing the
quantity needed to produce ill-effects).  I tried one whisky shot full of it to 
no effect, other
than a slight tingling of the tip of my tongue, and an acrid taste in the back of
my mouth (like
burnt peanuts).  The flavor was reminiscent of bitter watermelon, if you can imagine
that, but the
heat of the alcohol was pronounced.  Now that I have tried it, I can pass it up 
the next time it
is offered...

William de Grandfort

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Good god, man! The Middle Eastern stuff is rotgut!

Believe me, a good Czech absinthe, properly diluted with sugar and water, is a very different experience. There's a sensual aspect to dripping the water through the sugar spoon and watching the bright green liquid  turn whitish and opalescent.

One or two glasses of it, drunk slowly, make me feel very floaty. It's less of a feeling of being drunk than high, but no hallucinations or anything like that. Although I would imagine if I drank glass after glass, day after day, I would experience thujone poisoning, but more likely it would be cirrhosis from all of the alcohol. I don't have it very often because I am not a big fan of anise or licorice flavoring. 

I have in my possession a potboiler 19th century novel by Maria Corelli called "Wormwood," which is the sordid tale of a young rich man who becomes addicted to the "Green Fairy" and murders his fiancee's lover and hounds her to death; the histronics are quite funny, and it's obvious that Corelli never had a glass of absinthe ever.

Now limoncello ... that's a good digestif!

Gianotta