240 Bourbon St.
New Orleans, LA 70112
29.955499,-90.06837
Let me be the first to admit, I like to drink! I'm not quite sure if it is the Cajun in me or what, but what you may call a six pack, I call it group therapy! I'm a particular fan of a good whiskey or cognac during the winter and a top-shelf Anejo tequila during the summer. Make no bones about it, this doesn't mean I will turn down much of anything else but possibly my collar. However, one alcohol that intrigued me for years, due to its notorious nature, would eventually remind me of the old saying, “All that glitters is not gold!”
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| La Fee Verte, or the Green Fairy. |
For years, I had often read up on
the infamous alcoholic drink known as absinthe. Although it originated in
Switzerland in the eighteenth century, it did not really become popular until
the 1800's in France. Absinthe is an anise-flavored spirit derived from
botanicals, including the flowers and leaves of the grand wormwood plant. Due
to its combination of ingredients, the liquor is bright green in nature, giving
it it's signature name la fee verte, or the green fairy. The drink is
already potent enough, being around one hundred to one hundred and forty proof,
but the icing on the cake is in the wormwood ingredient, which contains
thujone, a chemical said to be similar to THC. It is this chemical that is said
to make traditional absinthe highly addictive, giving its consumers a
hallucinogenic effect. Studies have shown that this can be debatable but this
hasn't stopped the popularity of this licorice-tasting beverage. For years,
famed artists and writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Picasso and Vincent van
Gogh were regular drinkers of absinthe, claiming that the drink enhanced their
creativity.
