But these things go down easy, and if you overdo it, all bets are off. One or two and theres no way youll cut your ear off. But mixed with a lot of cold water and a little sugar, it makes for a refreshing drink with a complex, herbal fragrance (think mountain meadow). So you dont want to drink this stuff in shots. Its designed, you see, as a sort of cocktail concentrate: hence the strong herbal notes and the high proof (traditionally, between 120 and 140). But so is taste, and a good absinthe has that in spades - provided you handle it right. Absinthe is a most unusual cocktail ingredient as its the main base spirit in some cocktails while is used as mere. Glamour is a big part of why we drink what we drink. Plus, half the excitement of absinthe was the fact that it was contraband. This is something of a double-edged sword: That same analysis also shows that the old brands that spawned absinthes dark legend didnt have all that much thujone, either - all along it was just really strong, herb-flavored booze. However, modern chemical analysis shows that thujone survives distilling in quantities so small they are actually legal. The government never banned absinthe itself but rather thujone, the wormwood-derived compound that supposedly gives the stuff its mind-bending edge. So what gives? Its a matter of chemistry. Now, the great green elixir of darkness - basically high-proof neutral spirits flavored with wormwood, anise, and pungent herbs - has been illegal in the U. Were talking real, honest-to-Satan absinthe, not some lame-ass substitute. That, or something very much like it, happened last year when two brands of absinthe, the French Lucid and the Swiss Kübler, were approved for sale in the U. Imagine if suddenly you could walk into your local Walgreens, plunk down a couple of twenties, and walk out with a gram of pink Peruvian flake.
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