We followed up our tasting of Blanchette by making the only real cocktail that features absinthe. The Sazerac, called "America's First Cocktail", dates back to the 1830s, as discussed on Sazerac.com. Sure, there are other cocktails recipes that use absinthe. Heck you could even write a book about them if you were so inclined. But they are mostly silly concoctions that don't add anything to the La Fée Verte experience. The Sazerac, though, is the real thing.

Sazerac

• .5 tsp Absinthe (we used the aforementioned Blanchette)
• 2oz whiskey or bourbon (we used Maker's Mark bourbon)
• dash Peychaud's bitters

Shake well in a cocktail shaker full of cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

This particular recipe wasn't anything to write home about, really. All we could taste was the bourbon, which meant it was a waste of some good absinthe. We actually used (gasp!) Angostura bitters, and not the real Peychaud's. We should order some online, just for the authentic taste. A more interesting sounding recipe comes from the Wikipedia, which uses a method more often specified of swirling the absinthe around in a glass. It still doesn't sound like there would be enough absinthe to really show up in a cocktail glassful of bourbon, though. Maybe we should also try a more subtle taste, like Dewar's whiskey.

Yes, you too can own an important piece of absinthe history! Cough up a measely £30 million (only about US$40,000,000) and you can own one of Pablo Picasso's most valuable works, "The Absinthe Drinker". And after a few bottles of absinthe, you'll probably look like the gent in the painting as well.

An interesting quiz can be found in this week's Motley Fool column.  Any absinthe fan should be able to make a pretty good guess at the answer:

I may be No. 2 in wine and spirits in North America, but I'm No. 1 in Europe, Asia and South America. I was formed when two French firms merged in 1975. My brands include Ballantine's, Chivas Regal, Kahlúa, Beefeater, Stolichnaya, Jameson, Martell, Glenlivet and Perrier-Jouët. I bought Seagram in 2001 and Allied Domecq in 2005 (selling off Allied's Dunkin' Donuts business). I sell 78 million cases of spirits and 23 million cases of wine each year, raking in more than 3.5 billion euros. I no longer make absinthe, but my famous Pastis, an anise-flavored liqueur, goes by my name.
Who am I?

Some recent snippets of absinthe in the news, on the web and in the blogs:

• There's a blog meme going around, especially in the MySpace.com community, called a "Drinking Survey", and question number 22 is "Ever drank absinthe?". It is still, it seems, a "forbidden fruit", probably because it is still illegal here in the United States.
• Nice list of absinthe cocktails and a podcast concentrating on absinthe can be found at Behind the Bar, including the classic absinthe cocktail:

  Sazerac

  • 1/2 tsp Absinthe
  • 2oz whiskey or bourbon
  • dash Peychaud's bitters

  One method is to just add all these to a cocktail shaker filled with cracked ice, shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Or you can just swish the absinthe around in the glass, pour it out, and add the bourbon & bitters. Garnish with a lemon twist.

  I will say that he's wrong in calling it a "liqueur". Absinthe is a liquor, because it doesn't have added sugars to sweeten it. Admittedly, you often do this at home with it:-)

• Interesting tale from the Modern Drunkard magazine on downing an entire bottle of 100mg thujone (10 times the legal limit) Czech absinthe: Drinking with Van Gogh.
• Nice, quickie reviews of six different absinthes can be found on ether-mask's blog.