My buddy just called from the East Bay and is heading into town; bottle in hand.



http://www.stgeorgespirits.com/

I love absinthe. Couple of years ago, my cousin brought back a suitcase full from visiting his in-laws. It's deliciously insidious, that absinthe. After my cousins called my wife to come pick me up from their house, she brought me home and put me in a chair. She asked what I wanted, and I told her to go out and get me a cheeseburger. When she got back, I was watering the yard, stark-ass naked. As she urged me to get in the house. I told her that I had the sweats and figured I'd not waste water and kill two birds with one stone if I just stripped down in the yard and hosed myself off on the lawn. I don't remember any of this, mind you.

- sounds like the green fairy got ya!

I can't believe that just the other day I was researching this stuff, and low and behold it's a thread now. Cool!

According to wikipedia the stuff is finally legal in the US again. It's been greatly altered though because it can't contain "thujone".

What does it taste like? Anything comparable? Proof?

Merry Christmas!

You can get the full blown stuff imported...the bottles are very intricate...something about the bottle being worth more than the contents makes it legal.

That's an urban legend from what I understand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thujone
http://www.thujone.info/

Pretty cool that you can buy it though. What states is it available? I'm sure we can't get it here in the Bible belt.

Actually we can. I saw it down at the local liquor store the other day.

Axle

Well...that was an interesting evening.

We prepared it with the French ritual as opposed to the Czech. The louche was beautiful with a 1-4 ratio of Absinthe to ice water; we got up to a six-minute pour per glass. Using a small brandy snifter, the odors, when placed to the nose were deep and many.

The taste is very complex. Anise & fennel are the most obvious but we found many different flavors during the finish. Slight lemon with a musty wood was a surprise.

The St. George brand, the only legal distiller in the US and the brand we were drinking, also includes basil and tarragon in their mix; a pleasant treat.

Contrary to popular belief, wormwood is in the mix and thujone is present; albeit in relativly small amounts. No psychoactive effects were witnessed nor experienced but we all enjoyed a "different kind of drunk". At 60% alcohol by volume, the St. George brand is 120 proof; a stiff drink indeed. The drunken effect is that of marijuana minus the paranoia, giggles and the overwhelming urge to consume copious amounts of Cool Ranch Doritios. A relaxing and controlled drunk with the absence of slurred speech, spins or swaying. We were in surprising control of all motor functions throughout the evening and that is amazing because we downed over half the bottle amongst 3 of us.

Overall, it was fun and pleasant. I am anti-black licorice so it took me a couple drinks to get past the anise and fennel but with a couple beers in between, I powered through. If you have not ever tried it, you should at least once.

It is now legal throughout the US and available at higer end liquor stores; we found ours at BevMo. The St. George was eighty-dollars for 750ML and we still have half the bottle remaining. We also have 2 bottles of French Champagne on ice and intend on making some "Death in the Afternoon" later today; should make for an interesting holiday.

Cheers!

When you want to step up to the real thing instead of an American made knock-off:

http://www.drinklucid.com/

I've been entertaining getting a bottle of this stuff, but what's don't want to spend 2 bills in the process! What's a good place to buy this stuff (and getting the real stuff) without breaking the bank?

After reading about Lucid from different sites, it seems to be a dumbed-down american version (although distilled in France, they just have good copy writing/marketing). But I am no expert, just started researching and have never tried any form of absinthe. My question is has anyone bought the "real" stuff from an online site like:

www.ebsinthe.com

or any others that ship to the US.

I'd like to try a bottle of La Fee Parisienne. I figure if I'm going to try it I want the good stuff, not an american version.

Holy crap... Look what the "search" brought up...

http://www.xterraownersclub.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=011871

I get mine from Park Ave Liquor. Fair prices, and they ship same day you order.

porsche996- thanks for the search, just ordered my bottle, will be here before New Years!!!!

Spoke w/ wife about this, and she'd drunk "real" absinthe on occasion in Japan, and had a good time.. Said she's down to try some Lucid after seeing their site, so who knows?.. I'll report back w/ full details.

Enjoy your American knock offs with the weak content. My boss just today gave me a bottle a customer of ours from Europe sent over. New Years eve is gonna be dope. Came with the little kit, now all I need are some sugar cubes and I'm set.

Swuut!

Ironic.

We both described it as "a different kind of drunk". Pretty much sums it up.

The stuff sold locally in the States isn't really Absinthe. The real stuff you have to import from Europe and carries a pretty steep price tag if I remember correctly. I looked into it a couple of years ago but balked at giving my credit card out to an overseas company.

I watched an episode of "Three Sheets" on MOJO last night. The host went to an absinthe bar in Prague. He drank absinthe prepared in a few different ways and then proclaimed it was the nastiest drink he's ever tasted.
Mentioned very briefly was that the "magical" ingredient in absinthe is thumoj-something and that the EU restricts it's levels so that you're not even getting the real thing when you order from there. There has to be someone bottling the real deal somewhere, though.
If you're just looking to get effed up and hallucinate, it'd probably be easier to ask your local controlled substance traffickers to find you some opium. Salut, Edgar Allen Poe!

Pics: