Absinthe

I ended up trying absinthe for the first time in Singapore. Randomly. The drink is European (famously from France) and I've made plenty of trips to Paris from the UK intending to try it, but we never quite managed! So, I ended up trying it in Asia.

Absinthe is one of those slightly enigmatic drinks. It has a 'glamorous' history of inspiring great artists to create great art in the 19th and early 20th centuries, alongside others getting generally quite sick from it. It's supposed to be ludicrously strong, hallucinogenic, and generally not a healthy thing. And as a result it was banned throughout most of Europe and the USA for a good chunk of the 20th century. (Real, clean absinthe has since been scientifically proven to be no worse than other spirits, and the bans have mostly been lifted - in fact I don't think it was ever banned in the UK.)

Absinthe is made from the Wormwood plant, along with fennel, anise and other herby things. The famous illustrations generally depict it as green, but in actual fact there are a few different versions. And these depend on how it is distilled. A superior product is green from natural processes, but many are artificially coloured nowadays. The drink can also be clear, known as blanche (white) or bleu (blue) absinthe.

And you don't just drink it, straight, on the rocks, with a mixer. There are special procedures for drinking absinthe, which is one aspect which drew me to it. It is consumed by mixing sugar and water with the spirit. This sometimes takes the form of resting a sugar lump on a special absinthe spoon, and then slowly dripping water (from a special absinthe dripping jug!) through the sugar into the drink. 

We tried a good quality absinthe bleu, and in the bar we visited, the process involved resting an absinthe spoon + sugar lump on each glass, and lighting the sugar, so that it melted and dripped into the spirit. Then we added water. When water is added, the drink turns cloudy. We were told to add roughly 3 parts water to 1 part spirit. 

The verdict:
I liked it. It's understandably quite sweet, but the flavour and aroma are - also not surprisingly given the ingredients - strongly of aniseed or liquorice. And I like the natural forms of this flavour (my companions were less excited!) And the entire ritual of preparing it was kinda fun. My opinion: I think 3 parts water is a bit too weak! I'm not much of a drinker but even I didn't struggle with the alcohol content here - did Manet and co. really turn crazy and artistically inspired by this?! So if you try, maybe add 1-2 parts of water and sip a bit first! 

Next on the list is to try a green absinthe, somewhere in the world. And maybe with a different preparation process. Still researching on that one, and once I find it I'll be sure to blog it :)


Photo courtesty of Yohei.