Now that it's legal again... [Absinthe]

What's a good absinthe? I imaqgine most liquor stores will start to carry it?

Blown Z wrote:What's a good absinthe? I imaqgine most liquor stores will start to carry it?

There is no good absinthe, my friend.
Seriously.
If you really must ignore my sage (I'm speaking from gut wrenching experience here) advice, you should know that any legally available absinthe in the U.S. will likely not contain thujone.
If you STILL choose to ignore me, I've heard favorable reviews of Lucid.
Good luck!

agreed. the absinthe legally available in the us is really only good for crazy cocktail enthusiasts who need that flavor component to add to the 8 million drinks Baker seemed to have used absinthe as a secondary ingredient.

johnny wrote:

Blown Z wrote:What's a good absinthe? I imaqgine most liquor stores will start to carry it?

There is no good absinthe, my friend.
Seriously.
If you really must ignore my sage (I'm speaking from gut wrenching experience here) advice, you should know that any legally available absinthe in the U.S. will likely not contain thujone.
If you STILL choose to ignore me, I've heard favorable reviews of Lucid.
Good luck!

Both Absente and the Hangar One/St. George(only available in a handful of shops as of yet) contain thujone(aka the active ingredient in wormwood) which is now legal in the US.

If you like Ricard/Pernod/Chartreuse, etc. you might enjoy absinthe....it's the high alcohol that does it...not the paltry amount of a psychoactive herb.

Man, I saw this post and wasn't paying attention to where it was...I thought maybe Chicago had come to its senses about Foie Gras...

Christopher Gordon wrote:....it's the high alcohol that does it...not the paltry amount of a psychoactive herb.

Absolutely. It's more myth and marketing than anything else. I recently read that while it was thought the absinthes of old contained very high levels of thujone compared to today's product, it seems that today's products might actually be stonger, thujone-wise, than the absinthe of lore. You would long die of alcohol poisoning before imbibing enough thujone to get you high.

It's a terribly over-rated drink. Whatever you do, avoid Hill's at all costs. I've had several different absinthes while living in Central/Eastern Europe, and all I can say is it will sneak up on you if you're not careful. Perhaps the only good use for an absinthe, in my opinion, is for making a classic Sazerac.

Binko wrote:

Christopher Gordon wrote:....it's the high alcohol that does it...not the paltry amount of a psychoactive herb.

Absolutely. It's more myth and marketing than anything else. I recently read that while it was thought the absinthes of old contained very high levels of thujone compared to today's product, it seems that today's products might actually be stonger, thujone-wise, than the absinthe of lore. You would long die of alcohol poisoning before imbibing enough thujone to get you high.

It's a terribly over-rated drink. Whatever you do, avoid Hill's at all costs. I've had several different absinthes while living in Central/Eastern Europe, and all I can say is it will sneak up on you if you're not careful. Perhaps the only good use for an absinthe, in my opinion, is for making a classic Sazerac.

Last year I had some "smuggled in" Absente at a Diwali party. Then it goes and gets legal

Previously, a college party in the far distant past...a friend procured wormwood, etc. and made his own replete with green food coloring which turned everyone's day after poops chartreuse.

Again, it's the heinously-high alcohol content that'll knock you back.

I just stick to Pernod and Pastis; my favorite tipples. I tried ouzo for the first time a few weeks ago and it's waaaaaay too hairy for me.




I sure wouldn't mind this, tho':

http://thresholdhouse.greedbag.com/rele ... inthe-box/

Binko wrote:Perhaps the only good use for an absinthe, in my opinion, is for making a classic Sazerac.

Or loosening rusty bolts...

I have a question, and I've never received any firm reply from anyone I've ever asked.

Jeppson's Mallort (Chicago's favorite "old man" drink, although I do enjoy it) is a liquor flavor with wormwood. Does it not have any thujone content? I would think that it does. I have some Polish wormwood tea at home (disgusting stuff) and that lists thujone contents on the side of the box (making me assume that the stuff wasn't technically legally sold here when I bought it about 5 or so years ago). I would think mallort would also have thujone, yet that never was prohibited for sale in the US.

You can get authentic, properly distilled absinthe sent to you from France. We order from a distillery and they send it to us within a week.

I'll find the website today and post it back up here.

I find that absinthe is the "pit bull" of alcoholic drinks. It's extremely misunderstood and the public is too ignorant to really know what the hell it's all about. I'm about to head into my email and dig around for a great article on absinthe.....i'll post that back up too.

It does not make you hallucinate or trip or anything crazy like that but it is definitely a different buzz. extremely different and i think better.

I find that grabbing a high end bottle of absinthe, maybe some "herbs" and a Miles Davis album does the body good.


EDIT:

alright, found it: I heart Wired so much
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.11/absinthe.html

and our online ordering source
http://www.absintheonline.com/acatalog/Jade.html

Yep, that's the article I was thinking of, most likely:

"I was stunned. Everything that I had been told was complete nonsense." In the antique absinthes he had collected, the thujone content was an order of magnitude smaller than Arnold's predictions. In many instances, it was a homeopathically minuscule 5 parts per million.

More info from Wikipedia:

A 2005 study recreated three 1899 high-wormwood recipes and tested them with Gas Chromatography Mass-Spectrometry (GC-MS), the highest contained 4.3 mg/L thujone. A 1930s Pernod Tarragona was also tested and contained 1.8 mg/L thujone. [7] These results match earlier findings showing a vintage 1900s bottle contained 6 mg/L.[8] GC-MS testing is important in this capacity, because gas chromatography alone may record an inaccurately high reading of thujone because of other chemicals present that interfere and add to the apparent measured amount.[9] Through these tests it has become evident absinthe contains very little thujone.

I've had absinthes with up to 35 ppm thujone. It's interesting...there does seem to be a small subset of people who claim to feel a different type of drunkeness from absinthe. To me, it's the same as drinking 140 proof slivovitz or Bacardi 151 straight. Perhaps I'm just not sensitive to thujone.

After reading the article and doing some other research out there, i decided to go ahead and order from that researcher's distillery about a year ago.

Despite whatever you've heard about absinthe, it's just a great alcoholic drink. I would highly reccomend it.

As for feeling different, to me, getting drunk on absinthe is worlds different then getting drunk on other alcohol.

Although, i can tell a difference in buzz between almost everything - if you put me in a blind test, i could probably tell you what you were putting in my body after about 6 or 7 of them - whether it be beer, wine, whiskey, rum etc. I have even noticed that my buzz after leaving the Hopleaf after a bunch of Belgians is a lot different. Maybe i'm weird though.

You can tell the difference between a rum buzz and a whiskey buzz? You are definitely far more talented than me.

I'm not saying absinthe isn't worth trying--I'm just saying keep expectations low so as not to be as disappointed as I was. For me, the only thing absinthe has on non-absinthe Pernod or other pastis is the spooky color and shroud of mystique. It's a romantic and mysterious drink, and great for getting completely trashed.

We have a bottle of Lucid sitting in our fridge. I must say that this is some pretty terrible tasting stuff and we've never actually been able to drink enough to get the full effect (the "different" buzz)

You don't hallucinate- that's a myth. I guess something to try anyways. Lucid is about $60 at Sam's. A little pricey for something so terrible- just my opinion though...

I think the hallucination factor relies on a higher level of wormwood than is now found in absinthe.

In search of verification of this, I stumbled across this site for the Wormwood Society, which identifies which absinthes are real absinthes -- i.e., which ones have enough wormwood to match historic standards.

http://www.wormwoodsociety.org/index.ph ... &Itemid=85

A little more research turned up info on thujone, the chemically active part of wormwood. There is still some debate about what effects thujone has, but thujone.info states that properly made absinthe with low levels of thujone would not lead to the legendary ill-effects of absinthe. In fact, it states that the alcohol level of absinthe is so high, you'll be incapacitated by the alcohol before you consume enough thujone to really test any theories of its activity.

Blown Z wrote:What's a good absinthe? I imagine most liquor stores will start to carry it?

Of the four currently in the US, I do recommend the Kubler, Lucid, and St. George. The first two are available at Sam's and Binny's, but the last currently sold out - look for mail-order sources in New York soon. The fourth, Le Tourment Vert, in an dramatically etched decanter-shaped bottle, packaged in a protective tin - and served at Madonna's post-Oscar party - can make an impressive gift.

Look for Mansinthe soon too - it's a lovely drink.

For more details check my Trib article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ ... 2332.story

And blog post: http://www.movable-feast.com/2008/03/ab ... meric.html

Michael Y. Park wrote on his epicurious blog about an absinthe taste test that he hosted. St. George's won.

Fujisan wrote:Michael Y. Park wrote on his epicurious blog about an absinthe taste test that he hosted. St. George's won.

Absinthe tasting is very difficult - really! - it's not a spirit that lends itself well to a tasting environment - even for the experts.

I do like the St. George, but it's a very personal statement on absinthe - Lance infuses the distillate with unusual herbs like stinging nettles and meadowsweet.

And for those moments when it's really too difficult to find a bottle and bother with all of the typical accouterments, there are now Absinthe Lollipops.

Stock up now, folks. Halloween is just around the corner...

Mercat a la Planxa is serving Kubler, with all appropriate pomp. I tried it and confirmed that this licorice-flavored drink, which reminded me of Good & Plenty candies, is not for me, even though it's far smoother than the bootlegged samples I've tasted before.

But it was colorless and only 53-percent alcohol, whereas historic absinthes were green and up to 70-percent alcohol.

LAZ wrote:But it was colorless and only 53-percent alcohol, whereas historic absinthes were green and up to 70-percent alcohol.

The Kubler is a blanche/clandestine absinthe. It is historic - dates back to the 1910 Swiss ban - the clear absinthe easier to hide than the fugitive Green Fairy.

The Boy and I had absinthe when we were on our honeymoon in Prague. I'm totally willing to admit it was my imagination, but it seemed to me that, like the Flaming Moe, fire made it taste good.

(I'm so sure I'm wrong, I shouldn't even admit to this perception, but just in case I'm not, I thought I'd toss it out there...)

glad I'm the one who first mentioned St. George on this thread

happy Absente is now the tipple of choice at pleb bars everywhere(they carry around cute ceramic cats of the stuff at...ugh...Binkley's in Indianapolis...)

double sigh

why do frat boys have to screw everything up?

Absinthe's Mind Altering Mystery Solved

North Shore Distillery, a local producer of excellent vodkas and gins, will be releasing their take on absinthe this week. I'm not sure if there are specific stores, but I've always seen their products at Sam's, Binny's and the like.

I tried a couple of sips of the absinthe at WhiskyFest this year and thought it was fantastic. I've never had the real stuff (ie. from Europe), so I cant' say I know what it should taste like. North Shore's, though, had a very clean and strong anise flavour. I found it entirely drinkable, and if I wasn't in a rush to try more whisky that night, I would have enjoyed more than the couple of sips I had.

I promise I'm no shill for Binnys (and I generally don't have the time to go to these things), but I got this email regarding a free Absinthe seminar at the South Loop location:

DISCOVER THE GREEN FAIRY WITH KUBLER ABSINTHE
Thursday, May 22, 7:00-9:00pm
Binny's in South Loop
1132 S. Jefferson
Chicago, IL
312-768-4400

The long banned European aperitif Absinthe has now been legalized and is available to American consumers for the first time in almost 100 years. Meet Brand Ambassador Kate Hartman and sample this forbidden delight. We will have Kubler Absinthe available on it's own and in cocktails. At 8pm, Kate will lead an informative discussion about the history of the "Green Fairy," Kubler, and it's recent legalization. She will also demonstrate the proper method of serving absinthe. FREE ADMISSION!

Call Juan at 312-768-4400 or email juan@binnys.com for reservations.