Category Archives: Drunkenness

To: j hawthone
From: Trysting Fields Central Communications
Date: Friday 26 January 2007, 4:23:36 PM

>(you never really said much about teh fairie, btw, besides that text about
>her being nasty and somewhat evil. forgot to ask you on skype. more detail?)

They had a range of absinthe-y drinks but only three that were called ‘absinthe’ – the Pernod and two by La Fee, Parisian and Bohemian. I went for the Bohemian, which was also, natch, the most expensive at $15 a glass.

Now (disclaimer: like I said, this has always been a total fantasy thing for me, and as such my scholarship is not profound; I make no claims of knowing what I’m talking about.. just glancing at the La Fee FAQ now I’m learning things I didn’t know), my understanding of what constitutes a ‘real’ absinthe experience is that it must conform to three basic criteria:

– must be in the region of 60-75% alcohol
– must contain, famously, wormwood along with other agents that give it legendary psychoactive properties, considerably beyond those normally associated with alcoholic drinks
– should be served with a measure of water, poured over or through a spoonful of sugar

This was served in a half-full goblet with ice and it certainly looked brilliant glowing greenly clasped in my black-nailed fingers, so that was something. It came with a small bottle of no doubt outrageously overpriced imported water – but no sugar or spoon.

Initially I tried drinking it straight, since I suspected it was probably not exceptionally evil as absinthes go and wanted to maximize whatever psychoactive effects it might precipitate. But this proved impossible because it was hella strong and tasted *awful* (I actually have always hated aniseedy things and hence wasn’t expecting to particularly enjoy the taste), and I eventually had to dilute it about 50-50 with the water.

It may well have been in the region of 60% alcohol or so – it got me pretty fucked up. But I certainly didn’t hallucinate or otherwise feel anything other than profoundly drunk.

The experience didn’t put me off absinthe – but it did help to confirm my suspicion that for a real green faerie experience I will indeed probably have to go to Prague or somewhere like that. Or at the very least do some proper research.