Absinthe: Sorry, can you speak up.....?

As something to post on a quiet (though again gale ridden) Sunday night I thought I'd get round to the obvious full post I was always likely to do on Absinthe.

Can you imagine walking into a pub now and seeing the following greeting you:-



That's how it was back in 1939 - in this case Victor Berlemont serving a glass at Londons "The French House". It's this history, through even relatively modern times, and an almost unlimited number of tales, poems and usage in fiction that interests me. Oh, and the drink and it's effects of course.

So here it is - my Absinthe and it's collected tools of the trade so far. A Pontarlier glass, a spoon, my imported Absinthe ice-water fountain, a bottle of La Fee and, because I'm a completist with more money than sense, even an etched metal beer mat.



Even as a lover of the drink I have to admit that neither of the two related quotes I love the most in any way glamourise it at all.

Firstly, amongst a number of passages and descriptions, Ernest Hemingway wrote the following slightly unsettling entry:-

"Got tight on Absinthe last night - did knife tricks"

The second was as part of a sonnet written by "Valentin", the pen name of Henri-Bourette, who slowly described the intricate process involved in the correct preperation of the drink. He ended it with:-

"Finally, to crown these unparalleled attentions
Very delicately, take the glass, and then
Throw, without hesitation, the whole lot out of the window"

For everything from a virtual reference library, a shop, the history and even a reference collection of related antiques try

"Oxygenee: The Virtual Absinthe Museum"