dancing with the green fairy

no, i don’t mean a gay guy wearing green…

…although i suppose this pernod shit could get you fucked up enough to do so.

no, i’m talking about that wonderful absinthe stuff. an absinthe bar opened in downtown austin and i hit it when i tried to meet up with la tina at saba but their new owners (from what i’m told) see fit to open at 5:00 rather than 4:00 even though all their signage still says 4:00 and the framed menu outside (which was new compared to my last visit) states that happy hour is “4-7”.

i suppose you’re supposed to spend that first hour being happy elsewhere?

anyway, so i tried absinthe in part ’cause herald raves about the place (it’s his sunday night traditional weekend ending drink joint – mine is trudy’s in north austin) and in part ’cause saba was closed for another hour and its next door. plus, i had heard the absinthe we get here in the states was a watered down version, barely eighty proof like any other booze, and not containing wormwood, which is rumored to induce hallucinations and what not.

turns out both rumors were wrong – the absinthe served in this bar is 68% alcohol by volume, or 136 proof (compared to 80 proof for standard rum, vodka, tequila, etc). stout stuff. plenty of wormwood, even though it’s not the hallucinogenic it’s made out to be. the presentation is equally impressive – special glasses with a bulb-like reservoir you fill with booze the color of anti-freeze, then a fountain that dribbles ice water over a sugar cube on a slotted spoon into it to fill the drink and turn it milky. tastes like black licorice and takes care of me nicely with only two rounds…plus, it’s a lucid drunk – you can tell you’re not “normal”, but you still feel perfectly in control. it’s nice. i liked it.

i wanted it at home – so off to the liquor store i went…only to discover the stuff in the liquor store (at least the first couple i hit) was a watered down “liqueur” version that is less than eighty proof. that just wouldn’t do. so i had it custom ordered, and was warned that compared to the $35 a bottle price tag on the watery versions i’d probably be paying $50-$60.

for some reason this seemed okay to me – not so much when it came in and, tax included, was closer to $75. and it goes up

from there…

(before i go any further i’d like to ask – if you have to “special order” your booze ’cause the stuff on the shelf is “too watered down” and “not nearly as strong as you need it to be” does that indicate you have a problem?)

trying to recreate the experience sans special spoon, glass, and fountain proved less than easy. came out much harsher, not nearly as pretty. same effect in the long run, but somewhat lacking…and given the price tag i decided the corked bottle can just age a bit on my bar while i wait to be lucrative enough to swing a proper setup for it…but all the fountains are made for two – who wants to do a green fairy threesome?

(it should be noted, given the subject matter and my history, that the above bit WAS written while i was sober)