Sticking with the breakfast theme, we pair the almond in the orgeat with these almond croissants. (As with wormwood in absinthe, the danger of raw eggs in cocktails can be exaggerated.) In New Orleans, many people consider this a breakfast drink.Īppetizer Pairing: Twice-Baked Almond Croissants. The egg white and cream give the drink a frothy, milkshake-like texture. In this cocktail, absinthe is paired with orgeat, an almond-flavored syrup. Champagne works well with grilled or smoked salmon, and the fennel in absinthe matches the herb rubbed on the fish. Both this decadent oyster dish and the Champagne cocktail contain absinthe-and loads of history.Įntrée Pairing: Fennel- and Dill-Rubbed Grilled Salmon. Drink three to five of these slowly." I heartily recommend drinking less than five of these, and you may also try pouring the absinthe on top instead some brands of absinthe will float for a time on the Champagne, and this makes a nifty visual effect.Īppetizer Pairing: Oysters Rockefeller. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. His instructions are: "Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Death in the Afternoon is not only the name of a Hemingway book, it's also the author's name of a drink he contributed to a book of celebrity cocktail recipes in 1935. This leaves the floor open for absinthe to do what it does best … intrigue and rebel.Ĭaesars.What could be more decadent than absinthe and Champagne? Absinthe and Champagne and oysters. Most countries have no legal definition for absinthe, meaning there are no set rules for how and where it must be made to be classified as the real deal. Despite it being a popular, well-known product, it is different from its peers like gin and whisky. Whilst the promise of hallucination has settled into its role as more marketing ploy than legitimate health hazard, the status of the drink as an established spirit seems to have been overlooked. Indeed, absinthe is not short of a cultural reference. Today, the legacy of absinthe has extended to a show at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and the inspiration for Kylie Minogue’s Green Fairy role in Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 film Moulin Rouge (short clip here). So much so that on bottle labels in America, it must clearly state that this is not the case. When absinthe enjoyed a comeback in the 1990s, it was still tarred with the notion that an absinthe drinking session might result in hallucinations. It makes a ferocious beast of man, a martyr of woman, and a degenerate of the infant, it disorganises and ruins the family and menaces the future of the country.” In 1907 a French addiction support association called La Croix Bleue gathered 400,000 signatures on a petition which declared: “Absinthe makes you crazy and criminal, provokes epilepsy and tuberculosis, and has killed thousands of French people. Modern day science tells us that the actual amount of thujone in the drink is miniscule, meaning that the most dangerous thing about absinthe was the myth that surrounded it. This led to absinthe being banned in 1915 in America and Europe. The wine industry agreed and a smear campaign ensued (ed: this is hearsay but makes a lot of sense). Prohibitionists and conservatives believed the drink to be psychoactive because it contains thujone. Not everyone was enthusiastic about this creative libation. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.” After the second you see them as they are not. Oscar Wilde (who invented a cocktail mixing absinthe and champagne called “Death in the Afternoon”) was a particularly erudite fan: “After the first glass of absinthe, you see things as you wish they were. Bohemian artists, writers and poets would drink a whole lot of it, get drunk and then apparently feel very inspired indeed. It is high in alcohol and (famously) green although it is also sometimes colourless, but is almost always watered down to a misty pastel hue prior to drinking unless one is feeling brave enough to drink it straight.Ībsinthe earned the name “The Green Fairy” (or simply “La Fée” … The Fairy) as it quickly became an aid for artistic exploration and innovation in late 19th century Europe and America. The word itself is derived from absinthium, meaning wormwood, which is the bitter herb that goes into the drink, along with anise (delivering its distinct liquorice taste), fennel and other herbs. This spirit, also known as absynthe or absinth, is an alcoholic beverage with a history replete with artistic liberation, violence, defamation and rebellion. Never has a drink garnered more mystique.Ībsinthe was the tipple of choice for Ernest Hemmingway, James Joyce, Vincent Van Gogh and Oscar Wilde.
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