T.A. Breaux will talk at the "Tales of the Cocktail" conference in New Orleans on July 19.  Sounds like a lot of fun! Maybe InAbsinthia can make it down there...

Friday, July 21 Absinthe Discussion Hotel Monteleone 10:30 a.m. $25 Absinthe historian Ted Breaux will lead a discussion of absinthe - from its early beginnings as an herbal tonic, through its immense rise in popularity during the Belle Epoque, until its eventual demise. The discussion will focus on historical and modern aspects of the famous liquor, including the crafting and content of the spirit, as well as modern misunderstandings and myths. Participants will be able to view antique absinthe memorabilia, glassware, bottles, various herbs used in crafting absinthe, and a tasting will be held of Breaux's very own absinthe that he imports from France.

We followed up our tasting of Blanchette by making the only real cocktail that features absinthe. The Sazerac, called "America's First Cocktail", dates back to the 1830s, as discussed on Sazerac.com. Sure, there are other cocktails recipes that use absinthe. Heck you could even write a book about them if you were so inclined. But they are mostly silly concoctions that don't add anything to the La Fée Verte experience. The Sazerac, though, is the real thing.

Sazerac

• .5 tsp Absinthe (we used the aforementioned Blanchette)
• 2oz whiskey or bourbon (we used Maker's Mark bourbon)
• dash Peychaud's bitters

Shake well in a cocktail shaker full of cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

This particular recipe wasn't anything to write home about, really. All we could taste was the bourbon, which meant it was a waste of some good absinthe. We actually used (gasp!) Angostura bitters, and not the real Peychaud's. We should order some online, just for the authentic taste. A more interesting sounding recipe comes from the Wikipedia, which uses a method more often specified of swirling the absinthe around in a glass. It still doesn't sound like there would be enough absinthe to really show up in a cocktail glassful of bourbon, though. Maybe we should also try a more subtle taste, like Dewar's whiskey.

Yes, you too can own an important piece of absinthe history! Cough up a measely £30 million (only about US$40,000,000) and you can own one of Pablo Picasso's most valuable works, "The Absinthe Drinker". And after a few bottles of absinthe, you'll probably look like the gent in the painting as well.

This time, we tried a clear, Swiss-style absinthe called Blanchette. In general, absinthes can be either green or clear. Absinthe gets its natural green color because of a combination of the herbs used to make it and the very high (65% or more) alcohol content. Because of the high alcohol percentage, the green chlorophyll bits actually remain suspended in the elixir, only to be released when you add the water and sugar, a process known as "louching". A clear absinthe, which has a milky white louche, is often a Swiss La Bleue absinthe. These are usually of a slightly lower alcohol level (55-60%) than a traditional French absinthe, which may account for its clear color, or perhaps a different recipe.

In any case, T.A. Breaux, the New Orleans chemist mastermind behind Jade Liquors, has helped out Combier to produce Blanchette. It is the first clear absinthe we have tried here at InAbsinthia and we were looking forward to it, wondering what kind of spell a clear absinthe would cast.

Upon twisting off the cork, a strong aroma of anise (licorice) assails the nose, loud and clear. Blanchette does not have the hard wax sealed corked bottle Nouvelle-Orleans, but rather the plastic topped cork stopper as found on lower end port bottles. But the nose is definitely that of absinthe!

We poured about 1.5 oz into each glass, put the absinthe spoon on top with two sugar cubes on it and began gently pouring in filtered, ice cold water. I shake it in my cocktail shaker filled with cracked ice, getting it nice and cold. Then I decant the water into a small glass pourer and we pour the water over the sugar cubes, trying to be as slow as possible. Someday, we'll have to get one of the fancy absinthe glasses with the little reservoir at the bottom, and the holder for the ice cubes at the top. But for now, we'll make due with fancy goblets and trying to be careful while pouring the water over the cubes.

The louching action was pretty good, but subtle. It really just gradually clouded over, rather than the water showing up as droplets. The final result was a nice, cloudy drink, but without any pearly touches. Still with a powerful anise smell, though.

The first sips were pretty good as well with, once again, a nearly overpowering taste of anise. There was really no room left for tasting too much else, which made the Blanchette very much a one trick pony. There weren't nearly as many interesting flavors as we found in Nouvelle-Orleans, just a full-bodied anise (licorice) taste. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and certainly not unexpected, given the aromas.

So it was an enjoyable blanche absinthe, but lacking the subtleties of Nouvelle-Orleans. A nice twist on the original verte absinthe, and one that we will visit again in the future, I'm sure.

We did another tasting of Absinthe Nouvelle-Orleans the other night and it once again impressed us with its smooth taste and excellent, tingly, finish. We used a slightly smaller amount of absinthe, but probably ended up with a slightly stronger mixture, as we added less water. We also used two suger cubes per glass, rather than the one we used last week. This made for a sweeter, more licorice flavor, and really made it go down smoothly.

The color of the Absinthe Nouvelle-Orleans starts out a pretty pale green, almost the same color as the herbal liqueur Chartreuse except maybe a little greener. We trickled the cold ice water across the sugar cubes and into the absinthe much more slowly this time, using a small pourer. It takes a bit for it to "louche", which is what it is called when the absinthe turns into the cloudy green. You can see in the picture a before and after. Pretty neat transformation, actually.

And then you just sip it. As mentioned, it tastes a little bit sweet, with a very anise/licorice flavor. Not really minty, although there is some other kind of herbal taste to it. While it starts out at nearly 140 proof (68% alchohol), by the time you drink it in this fashion, it has been cut down more than half. I imagine the resulting mixture is about 40-50 proof, so less than a good martini. And after a few sips, your tongue gets tingly. Not really like it feels as the novocaine wears off after a dentist visit, but much more subtle. You don't even notice it creep up on you. A really special apertif.

An interesting quiz can be found in this week's Motley Fool column.  Any absinthe fan should be able to make a pretty good guess at the answer:

I may be No. 2 in wine and spirits in North America, but I'm No. 1 in Europe, Asia and South America. I was formed when two French firms merged in 1975. My brands include Ballantine's, Chivas Regal, Kahlúa, Beefeater, Stolichnaya, Jameson, Martell, Glenlivet and Perrier-Jouët. I bought Seagram in 2001 and Allied Domecq in 2005 (selling off Allied's Dunkin' Donuts business). I sell 78 million cases of spirits and 23 million cases of wine each year, raking in more than 3.5 billion euros. I no longer make absinthe, but my famous Pastis, an anise-flavored liqueur, goes by my name.
Who am I?

Some recent snippets of absinthe in the news, on the web and in the blogs:

• There's a blog meme going around, especially in the MySpace.com community, called a "Drinking Survey", and question number 22 is "Ever drank absinthe?". It is still, it seems, a "forbidden fruit", probably because it is still illegal here in the United States.
• Nice list of absinthe cocktails and a podcast concentrating on absinthe can be found at Behind the Bar, including the classic absinthe cocktail:

  Sazerac

  • 1/2 tsp Absinthe
  • 2oz whiskey or bourbon
  • dash Peychaud's bitters

  One method is to just add all these to a cocktail shaker filled with cracked ice, shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Or you can just swish the absinthe around in the glass, pour it out, and add the bourbon & bitters. Garnish with a lemon twist.

  I will say that he's wrong in calling it a "liqueur". Absinthe is a liquor, because it doesn't have added sugars to sweeten it. Admittedly, you often do this at home with it:-)

• Interesting tale from the Modern Drunkard magazine on downing an entire bottle of 100mg thujone (10 times the legal limit) Czech absinthe: Drinking with Van Gogh.
• Nice, quickie reviews of six different absinthes can be found on ether-mask's blog.