What is it about wormwood, anise and alcohol that makes Absinthe so nice?

[Taverner]

It is beyond just the alcohol

But it's not something like the Green Dragon, where there is another drug in play

No, it's like an enhanced alcohol...that makes Absinthe so nice

Happy Sunday

NORG!

[applegrove]

1. I'll never have the pleasure. I've quit. What does it taste like?

[Taverner]

2. Tastes like NyQuil. But don't let that scare you.

It tastes like GOOD NyQuil...

[Kali]

4. like raki, ouzo, pernod

turns white when you add cold water (term is louche)

[MiddleFingerMom]

3. I tried almost everything I encountered in my life -- sometimes more than once...

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... but the description of the absinthe high in literature and
its depiction in movies and TV made it one of the substances
in which I've always had ZERO interest.
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It made me think of the effects of huffing aerosols.
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[OriginalGeek]

5. Absinthe is the DEVIL!

And I'm not even sure I had "real" absinthe lol...but there was definitely something different from regular alcohol that night. What I can remember of it.

This is what I remember:
Party at my son's house.
The first drink was rough but it got progressively easier until the point where I couldn't imagine NOT drinking it.
There was a guy in a kilt.
After that I don't remember anything that I know to be real.

[TuxedoKat]

6. I have some

my husband bought me a bottle. I haven't tried it yet though. I remember drinking Pastis in France years ago (to be polite) and not liking it much. It's funny to me because I love black licorice. Does Absinthe taste like Pastis?

[OriginalGeek]

7. The problem is you type "pastis" but

all I see is "pasties" and as hard as I might have tried to taste pasties, the bouncers never would let me so I don't know what they taste like.

But Tasting Pasties sounds like a good name for an indie/alternative band. You're welcome and put me on the guest list.

[TuxedoKat]

14. LOL

I thought the same thing, and I originally spelled it "Pastisse" which is how I thought it might be spelled but I googled it first to check and it is spelled pastis.

[ellisonz]

8. Yes, yes it is.

:silly:

[nolabear]

9. I loves me a Green Fairy. But not often!

She bites!

[eppur_se_muova]

10. Thujone has historically gotten the blame ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thujone

there seem to be a lot of thujone/absinthe apologists these days, so I'm skeptical as to the neutrality of the Wiki article.

[Withywindle]

11. I read Baudelaire and Rimbaud and Verlaine as a teenager

(Inevitable that I would, as a huge Patti Smith and Television fan) Always fetishized the Absinthe experience, as something my heroes fetishized as something THEY wished they could do.

And when I got the chance finally, 25 years after I first read 'A Season in Hell'....it turns out that it tastes like licorice/anise/fennel, which, it just happens, is the only family-of-flavors on earth that my tastebuds categorically reject, to the point of setting off my gag reflex if the smallest hint of them is present.



:(

[Withywindle]

12. I DO like wormwood, though.

Grew it in my garden for years, and made a tincture of it over the winter, in vodka.


(Also, not gonna lie, I've smoked it, and that's subtle but pleasant.)


I like wormwood. I don't blame wormwood for the disillusionment of absinthe, wormwood is a nice herb in and of itself.

[blogslut]

13. Meh

It's just a spirit with really high alcohol content and possibly some stimulative effects due to the herbs.

It tastes nice but I'd rather sip a nice Cornish Mead.

[Spider Jerusalem]

15. Thujone

[quakerboy]

16. the vomit?

I have never had the pleasure. But I have observed its effects. Went with a group of people to an indian restaurant. Everyone but me had absinthe. And they were all sick as dogs afterward.

Granted so was I, but I had been ill prior to the visit, and remained so for most of 3 weeks. Whereas they all seemed fine as soon as the absinthe was gone.

I will grant you that these were relatively inexperienced drinkers, and that this was their first experience of absinthe, and they may have misjudged the situation. But that cured me of any desire to start down that road.