La Fee Verte
It rained again today. Those of you who have never spent much time in Texas have no idea how significant this is — Dallas heat really sucks that much.
I braved the potential mosquitoes and opened all the windows, and sort of worked away here while listening to the patter patter outside.
* * *
So, on a whim several weeks back I'd acquired some absinthe. Right, the allegedly hallucinogenic 1900-era European liqueur stuff. (Hallucinogenic it's not, by the way, at least under the influence of any sane amounts, though the buzz is not at all like anything else I've ever imbibed.)
I had no idea I'd develop such a liking for the stuff.
Oddly enough, the main draw for me is the flavor. One of the main reasons I was never much of a liquor drinker of any variety, aside from the sparsely occasional gin and tonic or single malt scotch, is the sickly sweet nature of most commercial spirits out there. It seems like every day they're creating some new fruitier, sweeter, more juvenile product ("Hey little girl, you like blow pops? Try this drink!"). It seems like every new liquor flavor is meant for someone about 12 years old — scary in a whole lot of ways I'm not even going to get into here.
Not so with my friend, the Green Fairy. Intense, bitter, and complex, this is not a kiddie drink.
I'm not even sure I like it with the commonly administered sugar cubes — just a little water to make it louche, and I'm ready to go. The more bitter, the better. Great stuff.
Considering the hype under which it was originally banned in the US (keep in mind, absinthe was banned under the same movement that eventually led to prohibition — not to mention that the main poisonous aspects of the spirit were the additives in cheap renditions of the product to contribute to its texture change characteristics or color) I'm wondering what it would take to bring it to widespread acceptance around here again.
The fact that we live in a country where nicotine, which kills one out of three of its customers (and I used to be one — not a killed person, thank God, but a customer in general), is legal, but something which might cause harm in unconsumably large doses (if you don't believe me, I'll be more than happy to try to give you more than three drinks or so of this stuff to see if you can handle it) is considered "too dangerous to sell." What a messed up world. Or country. Or something. You know what I mean. (Incidentally, cf. saccharine — not that I'm a big fan of that either, but at least it points out the double standard — how many smokers have preached to you about how bad saccharine is for you? Scary.)
Don't get me started on the incongruities of tobacco laws in general. If tobacco weren't an inherently American product, there's no way it would be legal here (heck, the Christian Right won't even let you do what you want in a bedroom — kill yourself? No way), but it's all about price, and American politicians' prices are lower than the average Gundam model on eBay. Sad.
Anyway, that's my rant for now.
I braved the potential mosquitoes and opened all the windows, and sort of worked away here while listening to the patter patter outside.
* * *
So, on a whim several weeks back I'd acquired some absinthe. Right, the allegedly hallucinogenic 1900-era European liqueur stuff. (Hallucinogenic it's not, by the way, at least under the influence of any sane amounts, though the buzz is not at all like anything else I've ever imbibed.)
I had no idea I'd develop such a liking for the stuff.
Oddly enough, the main draw for me is the flavor. One of the main reasons I was never much of a liquor drinker of any variety, aside from the sparsely occasional gin and tonic or single malt scotch, is the sickly sweet nature of most commercial spirits out there. It seems like every day they're creating some new fruitier, sweeter, more juvenile product ("Hey little girl, you like blow pops? Try this drink!"). It seems like every new liquor flavor is meant for someone about 12 years old — scary in a whole lot of ways I'm not even going to get into here.
Not so with my friend, the Green Fairy. Intense, bitter, and complex, this is not a kiddie drink.
I'm not even sure I like it with the commonly administered sugar cubes — just a little water to make it louche, and I'm ready to go. The more bitter, the better. Great stuff.
Considering the hype under which it was originally banned in the US (keep in mind, absinthe was banned under the same movement that eventually led to prohibition — not to mention that the main poisonous aspects of the spirit were the additives in cheap renditions of the product to contribute to its texture change characteristics or color) I'm wondering what it would take to bring it to widespread acceptance around here again.
The fact that we live in a country where nicotine, which kills one out of three of its customers (and I used to be one — not a killed person, thank God, but a customer in general), is legal, but something which might cause harm in unconsumably large doses (if you don't believe me, I'll be more than happy to try to give you more than three drinks or so of this stuff to see if you can handle it) is considered "too dangerous to sell." What a messed up world. Or country. Or something. You know what I mean. (Incidentally, cf. saccharine — not that I'm a big fan of that either, but at least it points out the double standard — how many smokers have preached to you about how bad saccharine is for you? Scary.)
Don't get me started on the incongruities of tobacco laws in general. If tobacco weren't an inherently American product, there's no way it would be legal here (heck, the Christian Right won't even let you do what you want in a bedroom — kill yourself? No way), but it's all about price, and American politicians' prices are lower than the average Gundam model on eBay. Sad.
Anyway, that's my rant for now.