It was the last night of a jam band music festival in Wisconsin, 250 miles northwest of Chicago. I had accepted an invitation to be a guest on my friend Bud’s hippie bus before remembering that my wedding anniversary was that Sunday. As a compromise, I suggested to my wife that she take Amtrak to Chicago on Sunday morning and, after the festival, I’d drive down from Wisconsin, meet her for an anniversary brunch and drive back to Springfield together.
I had been dropping hints to Bud all weekend about a planned surprise. The late-night show had just ended, and we were back on the bus. I lit candles and asked, “Who’s ready to chase the Green Fairy?” I set four glasses on the table and placed a perforated spoon atop each glass. On each spoon, I put a sugar cube. Out of my backpack, I removed a bottle filled with a light green liquid – absinthe from the Czech Republic that I had obtained illegally.
Absinthe is a strong, bitter spirit with a distinctive flavor profile and sordid history. Absinthe is very strong, sometimes as high as 180 proof. It’s not quite in Everclear territory, but pretty close – that’s why it’s always diluted with water. Absinthe is distilled from a mixture of herbs and spices, including fennel, anise and wormwood, a medicinal herb traditionally used for treating intestinal parasites. Naturally green, absinthe will turn cloudy when water is added. This is because of components in the spirit that are insoluble in water and drop out of the solution, turning the drink cloudy – a phenomenon known as louching.
Absinthe was very popular during the Belle Époque era, a period in European history from 1871 to 1914. The Belle Époque, sandwiched between the Franco-Prussian War and World War I, was a time of relative peace and prosperity characterized by hedonism, sexual liberation and the fading of social barriers. Absinthe’s reputation for stimulating creativity made it the drink of choice for artists and writers such as Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Oscar Wilde and Ernest Hemingway. The muse-like effects of absinthe earned it the moniker La Fée Verte (Green Fairy) and happy hour became known as L’heure Verte (the green hour).
The Great French Wine Blight of the mid-19th century destroyed many of France’s vineyards and laid waste to the wine industry. It was caused by grape phylloxera, an insect that originated in North America and was carried across the Atlantic in the late 1850s. By the 1870s, wine became unaffordable for all but the wealthy. This paved the way for absinthe to become a drink for the people because it was a cheap way to become inebriated. By the end of the century, the French were consuming 36 million liters a year – six times more absinthe than wine.
The wine industry responded to its loss of market share to absinthe by launching a propaganda campaign of fake news to demonize the spirit. A spectacular murder that took place in 1905 gave the wine industry the fuel it needed to have absinthe banned. A man in Switzerland with a drinking problem brutally murdered his pregnant wife and his two little daughters. His madness was blamed on intoxication with the devilish liquor absinthe and this led to it being banned in many countries (including the U.S.) until recently. Modern scientific scrutiny has since debunked the claim that absinthe causes hallucinations and madness.
In 2002 I ordered a bottle of illegal Czech absinthe from a European online dealer. For weeks I was worried that I’d get busted by the postal inspectors. I breathed a sigh of relief when my bottle of contraband arrived without incident. It had been discreetly shipped in a box wrapped in brown paper with a handwritten address and the inscription: “CHRISTMAS PRESENTS.”
How to drink absinthe
(traditional French absinthe ritual)
If you are new to absinthe, start with lower-proof Absente Absinthe, the first legal absinthe in the U.S. since 1912. For those seeking a more authentic experience, look for higher-proof Grand Absente Absinthe distilled using traditional methods in the heart of Provence.
Ingredients:
2 ounces of absinthe
1 sugar cube
3-4 ounces of ice-cold water
Equipment needed:
Absinthe spoon, slotted silver/metal spoon, or mesh strainer
Traditional absinthe glass or rocks glass
Preparation:
Measure the absinthe into your glass. If you have a traditional absinthe glass, simply fill the reservoir at the bottom with absinthe.
Set a slotted absinthe spoon over the glass and place a sugar cube on top.
Fill a measuring glass or small pitcher with ice-cold water. Slowly trickle the cold water over the sugar cube, allowing it to dissolve gradually. As you drizzle into the absinthe, the louche will form.
Tip in the remaining sugar and let the cloudy cocktail rest for a few moments to allow the herbal aromas to bloom. If the sugar didn’t fully dissolve, give it a stir.
Sazerac cocktail
Though the Sazerac is the official cocktail of New Orleans, it dates back to mid-18th century France. Made originally with grape-based brandy, it became a rye whiskey cocktail after the phylloxera epidemic decimated France’s vineyards.
Ingredients:
Absinthe, to rinse
1 sugar cube
½ teaspoon cold water
4 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
2 ½ ounces of rye whiskey
Garnish: lemon peel
Preparation:
Rinse a chilled rocks glass with absinthe and set aside.
In a mixing glass, muddle the sugar cube, water and Peychaud’s bitters.
Add the rye whiskey, fill the mixing glass with ice, and stir, until well-chilled.
Strain into the chilled glass.
Twist the lemon peel over the drink’s surface to express the oils, then garnish with the peel.
Meanwhile, back on the bus at that Wisconsin music festival, we watched and waited as drops of water slowly landed on the spoons holding the sugar cubes perched atop our glasses, turning the transparent green absinthe milky. We sipped and patiently awaited the appearance of the Green Fairy. The Green Fairy never arrived.
Looking through the window, I noted that the dark sky was becoming luminescent. Was it the absinthe kicking in? Or were we seeing the northern lights? I looked at my watch. It was 5 a.m. The light in the sky was coming from the rising sun! After partying all night, without any sleep and smelling like a campfire, I began my five-hour drive to rendezvous with my wife for our anniversary brunch reservation in Chicago. It was a long drive.
This article appears in Adams Street at a crossroads.
