Posted on 07/04/2025 4:24:51 PM PDT by kawhill
"Lanfray had drunk his way through the previous day, beginning near dawn with a shot of absinthe diluted in water. A second absinthe shot soon followed."
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencehistory.org ...
In Brussels Belgium, directly across the street from the famous Delerium Tremens Cafe (the Pink Elephant Bar where they stock about 2,500 different beers) is Floris Bar.
The Floris Bar has its own specialty: you travel back in time in an old Parisian bistro to get acquainted with a forgotten drink (that was banned until recently) and reanimated: the famous Absinthe (more than 600 different brsnds of it)
You can taste Absinthe in different ways: in a shot, traditional way with a piece of sugar and water dripping on it from a fountain, flambéed in a pipe!
Joe owns both Delerium and Floris.
I was in Brussels for the great Belgian Beer Festival in the Grande Place Square where they have over 300 Belgian beers on tap for three days.
I met a group of guys at Floris from around the world who called themselves the “World Drinking Team.” They pretty much emptied every bottle of Absinthe on the shelf. Don’t know how they walked upright. I took it easy as a rank amateur, having one for about every ten they drank. They even had Absinthe enhanced with THC at Floris.
We drank all night until the sun came up and returned to the beer festival for another day.
Haven’t touched the stuff since!
A surprising amount of pre-ban absinthe rode out the first half of the 20th century in Spanish or Swiss wine cellars (untouched by two world wars); the stuff still pops up for sale in the collector forums.
Jade 1901 is hailed as one of the most authentic modern expressions (by people who have pre-ban stuff to serve as a comparison). Old Absinthe House should have a bottle of that behind the bar.
😆
“ About a million years ago, I tasted absynthe at The Old Absynthe House in New Orleans.”
Mrs L, her friend, and I sampled several different varieties of Absynthe there a few years back. Thank God we were only steps from our hotel.
While things are bit hazy I do recall it being one of the better nights of my life.
L
Beelzebubba!
“With a face most hair, and the dreary stare of a dog whose day is done,
As he watered the green stuff in his glass, and the drops fell one by one.”
A reference to drinking absinthe from ‘The Shooting of Dan McGrew’ by Robert Service.
I remember reading an article in Scientific American that explained that due to the bitterness it was common to set a slotted spoon over the glass containing a sugar cube. Water was then pored over the sugar thus sweetening the absinthe before consumption
Absinthe was Vincent VanGogh’s favorite drink. Especially when he cut off his ear.
Explains why the stars looked the way they did to him.
Bkmk
Nithe one.
I wonder if there’s some appeal in the “ceremonial” aspect of it, the preparation with fancy spoon, sugar and fire. Many drug users romanticize the preparation routine surrounding their drug of choice.
Mr Blond? As in Reservoir Dogs Mr Blonde?
An homage of sorts, but I didn’t give the nickname to myself.
Not exactly true, there is are several modern distilleries that that try to match specs from most popular brand from that era. Jade Terminus Oxygénée Absinthe Supérieure is a good example; I have several bottles of it, good stuff.
I can attest from personal experience that the Metropolol my cardiologist makes me take causes vivid audio and visual hallucinations and bizarre dreams.
https://jmedicalcasereports.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1752-1947-6-65
“The absinthe sold today is not the same as what was available in the 1800s.”
indeed ... no one knows exactly what those absinthe’s contained, so they have to fake the best they can today ...
I agree with this caution. There are five hangovers in each bottle. Absinthe is to be savored in moderation and it is good. In excess it is like driving a nail into your brain.
It’s good stuff. The bad reputation is from it going down smooth even though it is basically like drinking ever clear.
I take that, and never had a hallucination.
In the book by Barnaby Conrad III. ABSINTHE History In A Bottle, on page 95-96, there is a list of the six herbs that Pernod Fils Absinthe ( which the other manufacturers also used ) since 1860.
THE BOOK OF ABSINTHE A Cultural History, by Phil Baker, also contains a lot of information.
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