I have never tried absinthe, but I've always been curious. We have to cross the border for it and I've only gone to Ontario for the sole purpose of drinking once.
Truth be told, most of that didn't come from Ontario. The *really* good stuff comes from Europe, which is where most of those bottles came from.
Time for a little "Absinthe 101" :-) There are two main kinds of absinthe - "classic" (Swiss/French) and "Bohemian" (Czech). The main difference is that classic absinthe forms a "louche" in water (i.e. it gets cloudy), while Czech absinthe doesn't. (This is due to the presence or absence of certain oils which don't play well with water.) As a result, the classic absinthe ritual involves dripping water over a sugar cube on a slotted spoon into the absinthe, while the Czech ritual involves fire. As for the wisdom of combining rire and high-proof alcohol... I'll let you draw your own conclusions.
FYI - absinthe IS available in the USabsinthe_dot_caFebruary 16 2009, 20:30:35 UTC
There are two varieties of "real" absinthe now available in the US that I'm aware of - Lucid (from France), and Kubler (from Switzerland). You can see a bottle of Lucid in the front-left of the photo (the bottle with 2 eyes on it), and there's a bottle of Kubler at the back-left (can't really see it). I believe I got both of those bottles in Chicago on separate visits.
Re: FYI - absinthe IS available in the USinnana88February 16 2009, 20:51:52 UTC
Since WHEN? Three years ago we had to go to Canada to get it (I didn't go on that trip, although I was supposed to go on a subsequent one before I up and moved to Cali). Is this a recent change?
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I have never tried absinthe, but I've always been curious. We have to cross the border for it and I've only gone to Ontario for the sole purpose of drinking once.
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Time for a little "Absinthe 101" :-) There are two main kinds of absinthe - "classic" (Swiss/French) and "Bohemian" (Czech). The main difference is that classic absinthe forms a "louche" in water (i.e. it gets cloudy), while Czech absinthe doesn't. (This is due to the presence or absence of certain oils which don't play well with water.) As a result, the classic absinthe ritual involves dripping water over a sugar cube on a slotted spoon into the absinthe, while the Czech ritual involves fire. As for the wisdom of combining rire and high-proof alcohol... I'll let you draw your own conclusions.
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Wait: http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2007/07/absinthe
Is stuff like Lucid even worth it if it doesn't produce the same effects?
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