How to Prepare Absinthe

Per Trixie's request, I will explain briefly how to prepare absinthe in the traditional manner. Be warned: no matter how much you like licorice, nothing will prepare you for your first glass of absinthe. This liquor may be as much as 80% alcohol. Enjoy conservatively.

You will need
Absinthe (available from fine U.S. distributors and from more than one bottler)
A perforated spoon, a dripper, or brouilleur
A drinking glass
A 1 ounce shot glass or a willingness to estimate
A sugar cube
Ice-cold water


Pour 1 oz of absinthe into the drinking glass. Place your absinthe spoon atop the glass and place the sugar cube atop this spoon. Slowly drip 3 to 5 oz cold water over the sugar to dissolve it into the absinthe. (Some purist absintheurs abstain the spoon and sugar.) The water will cause the absinthe to louche, releasing the essential oils therein and becoming opaque - a milky yellowish green.

Rats!

That's all. I just thought that this was a cute picture. I'm trying out Google's news reader and it brought me here, to File magazine.

Reading Level

Kajukenbo

Since I haven't had time to train, I've really missed my twice weekly martial arts sessions. I hope to get together with my teacher again before I have to go back to work. In the meantime, I've been watching and rewatching this short video demonstration of Kajukenbo techniques.

Eerie silence

Several posts back, I turned on comments again.

I realized that there were two reasons I haven't been blogging.

I haven't had time.

I find the blog more satisfying when others read and comment on it.

My students don't read this blog, or even know about it.

My colleagues don't read it.

I write what I want.

I look forward to reading your retorts. . .

Yule Absinthe

I so wanted to share this with you before now since I've been bursting to share - I bought Shel a bottle of absinthe for Yule and gave it to her today. She was completely surprised.
Long thought to be illegal in the U.S., absinthe is 124 proof liquor distilled from Grand Wormwood, anise, and other herbs. Mistakenly believed to be a poisonous hallucinogen, absinthe is a distinctive drink with an elaborate ritual in its consumption. Playing on Shel's belief that absinthe was illegal, I managed to keep this one a complete secret. I gave her a package of half-a-dozen absinthe spoons first, and she instantly recognized them, compounding her puzzlement. When she pulled out the bottle, she asked how I had gotten it - given that it was illegal.
Interested in a bottle of your own? Check out the Lucid website, or that of BevMo, which sells both Lucid and another brand of absinthe, Kübler.

Neat Site

I found this neat site through an advertisement - though, come to think of it, that was a pretty poorly targeted ad, given that I was looking up the meaning of the word moue and an etymology for exacerbate. The site is called Black Jungle and they sell carnivorous plants, terrarium and vivarium supplies, and pretty, oxymoronically non-poisonous poison-dart frogs.