Mastering What to Mix Absinthe With
The traditional
way of serving Absinthe is by using a technique called The Ritual and also to dilute it with water. A lot of people are uninterested of drinking Absinthe this way and wish to know what to mix Absinthe with. Hopefully this information will enable you to enjoy Absinthe much more.
Absinthe is a strong liquor which happens to be flavored with herbal plants such as grande wormwood (artemisia absinthium), aniseed and fennel. It also sometimes contains petite wormwood (artemisia pontica). The aniseed gives the drink its amazing anise taste as well as the wormwood gives the Absinthe its attribute bitter or slightly sour flavor.
Grande wormwood is made up of thujone, named 3 thujamone or 3 sabinone via the book The IUPAC Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry. Thujone is a ketone and a monoterpene like the other terpenes, menthol and camphor. Other names that thujone extracted from wormwood has been known as are Absinthol, salvinol and tanacetone.
Thujone is the reason why Absinthe was banned in lots of countries in the early 1900s. It was the thujone which was held responsible for the madness and suicide of Van Gogh and lots of artists and writers claimed that drinking Absinthe afforded them their genius and inspiration by way of dreams and hallucinations. The famous Absinthe drinker Oscar Wilde explained of Absinthe:
“After the first glass of Absinthe you see things as you wish they were. After the second you see them as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.” You will never know what might happen after a whole bottle?!
We now know that Absinthe is no more dangerous than some other strong spirit like vodka and whisky, even though it is double the strength. Research has shown that Absinthe only includes traces of thujone and therefore it is not possible to ingest enough Absinthe for thujone to obtain any negative or side effects. It will not make you hallucinate or go insane and it’s now legal in many countries. It’s still illegal in Ireland nevertheless the Irish can order it from abroad and have it shipped for personal consumption.
You can create your personal bottled Absinthe by making use of Absinthe essences from AbsintheKit.com. These essences are made by distilling classic Absinthe herbs and all you must do is to mix them with vodka or Everclear – a straightforward and affordable approach to make Absinthe.
What to Mix Absinthe With
Since Absinthe is legal in many countries, we can easily experiment with utilizing it in cocktails or create classic Absinthe cocktails such as New Orleans Sazerac or Death in the Afternoon.
Sazerac Menu
1 teaspoon of a high quality Absinthe
Ice cubes
A sugar cube or maybe 1 teaspoon of sugar.
1 ½ ounces of Rye whisky (not bourbon)
3 dashes of angostura bitters
1 Lemon peel twist
Freeze a glass in your freezer.
Swirl the Absinthe surrounding the glass to coat the sides and bottom of the glass. Discard (or drink!) the surplus.
Put the additional ingredients in a cocktail shaker or mixer and shake for around ½ a minute.
Pour in the glass, including the lemon peel.
Death in the Afternoon
5 ounces of refrigerated champagne combined with 1 ounce of Absinthe – delightful!
Many people prefer to use mixers for instance lemonade, 7UP and cherryade with their Absinthe and I have even heard of Red Bull being mixed with Absinthe! Be imaginative when deciding what things to mix Absinthe with, use recipes off of the Internet but give them your personal twist or make-up your own. Have a good time.