Absinthe, My First Taste and How I Became an Absintheur!

You can blame Sylvie over at FuelMyBlog for this one A little while back I was asked if I would like to try Absinthe how could I resist, so I jumped at the chance.

Now for me I only knew about Absinthe from the stories I’d heard where the drink had been, well quick mischievous really, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from the drink that is mention in the movie Moulin Rouge as “Green Fairy”. So upon delivery of my bottle of Absinthe and a spoon, I plucked up the courage to try this mysterious drink!

Absinthe is an often misunderstood beverage that conjures images of the Belle Époque and the artists and poets of that time. Also known as The Green Fairy, absinthe has made a comeback over the last couple of decades, though in truth, she never totally went away. With the help of enthusiasts and new scientific analysis of the elixir itself, absinthe is back in the mainstream and is being enjoyed throughout the world again.

So on to my experience, there are many ways to drink Absinthe, I tried the Lemecier Absinthe 45 and tried the traditional method:

The Traditional Method for preparing a glass of absinthe is very simple.
A 1 ounce / 30 ml measure (also known as a ‘dose’) of absinthe is poured into a glass. A flat, slotted spoon is placed across the rim of the glass and a sugar cube added on top of the spoon. Add — slowly — 3 to 5 parts iced water to the drink, pouring directly onto the sugar cube. The sugar will dissolve and mix into the absinthe below. As the absinthe dilutes, you will witness a change in the translucency of the drink— the louche will form. A good louche occurs when the herbal chemicals of the absinthe react with the water to form a cloudy and often opalescent beverage.

So the question I can imagine you are all asking is what was it like, well, at first I was a bit apprehensive after hearing so many stories about what Absinthe can do, but it was really nice, I placed my sugar cube on the spoon and slowly poured my ice-cold water over it into the glass of absinthe, it slowly dissolved as it went through the holes in the spoon.

The taste of the Absinthe was a strange at first, but after a couple of sips I could taste few different herbal flavours, I couldn’t really put my finger on what they were, but, they were damn tasty and were giving me the urge to just want more

Now there is something to mention about Absinthe and they is the Thujone Effect, the what! This is mentioned through history as something that artists and writers of the 19th century could be blamed for starting the wild claims that absinthe expanded consciousness with mind-altering and psychedelic effects. And in turn they mention The Green Fairy which was elevated from tipple to trippy, and the legend stuck. By 1915, most countries that had absinthe had banned it, further cementing legend and mystery. Lucky for me I had none of this, or unluckily for me, depends on how you want to look at it, but I did feel the alcohol content going to my head, giving me that slightly light headed feel..

Been someone who is a newcomer to the world of Absinthe and after speaking to others on Twitter etc, I have decided that this is going to be a drink which I am really going to indulge in a little more, the odd tipple or two on the weekend, just to relax and enjoy.

So it’s all now down to stopping by the Absinthe-Shop to get myself a bottle, also they have a wide variety of absinthe spoons to choose from.

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About Karen Woodham

Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds blog an avid blogger of all sorts of interesting and odd things. She is also a Cinema Film Reviewer as well as radio personality on the local radio station, PointFM, where she reviews the latest movies and is a bit of a local celebrity and a new generation of online journalist. Follow Karen Woodham on Twitter BlazingMinds, Facebook and Google+

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