Drinking Absinthe - Art of the Drink 58

[Music Playing] Anthony: Welcome to the Art of the Drink. My name is Anthony Caporale, and this week, we have a new drink art girl, I am sure you are going to love her as much as I do, this is Lea. Lea: How are you? Anthony: Good! So instead of a drink this week, we are actually going to do a liquor, I have been wanting to do this for a long time. This is Absinthe which you heard about. Lea: Yes. Anthony: Most people have—has kind of a story past that was illegal for a long time and last year they just allowed it back for sale in United States. You can actually get it here in your work, you cannot get it everywhere yet but you can get it and you get on the internet. So, I want to go ahead and talk a little bit about it and show you how to prepare absinth in a traditional fashion. Lea: Okay. [Music Playing] Anthony: First of all, a little bit of history what makes absinthe different from other pasticcios which is amice or liquorish flavor liqueurs. Lea: I can smell that. Anthony: You can, right? Lea: Yes. Anthony: What makes absinthe different is that it has wormwood in it, in earth called wormwood. It is a bitter herb and wormwood has a substance called Thujone, which for years people taught was a hallucinogenic and with make you go crazy. Lea: Right. Anthony: Which is why they made Absinthe illegal, try up, that is not the case. I am going to show you how to prepare it in the traditional fashions, a little bit more complicated than just dumping it a glass. Lea: Right. Anthony: So, what you want—I am going to g ahead and use a cordial of a glass. If you can find a traditional absinthe which has a little reservoir on the bottom to hold the absinthe, and then flairs out to hold the water, which is you mix it with go ahead and use that, but those are difficult to find. So, I am just going to use a cordial glass and we are going to start with a little bit of absinthe in the bottom. Lea: Okay. Anthony: Now, I am going to put about an ounce of absinthe in the bottom. Now, what you do need is either an absinthe spoon or a fork, when I do not have an absinthe spoon you can use a fork, it does the same thing.\ What you want to do is take a is take a sugar cube, and put that on the absinthe spoon, and then you rest this on the glass, and then you want to take ice cold water, so in this storing pour, I have water and ice cubes and you want to drizzle this. Lea: Right over the sugar cube. Anthony: Exactly! And you want to do it, the whole key to this is you want to do it nice and slow. Lea: Okay. Anthony: And you do not want to dump it in, you want to just kind of drizzle over the sugar cube and dissolve the sugar cube. Lea: Oh! Look at that, it changes color. Anthony: Right, you what is happening? Lea: Yes. Anthony: All right, and you just take in, stir up just a little bit, not cloudiness, that is what you are looking for, okay? Lea: Looks perfect. Anthony: You want between three parts water to one part of absinthe and five parts water to one part absinthes, somewhere in there. I actually like it a little bit more on the diluted side, because absinthe is very, very strong. Lea: Okay. Anthony: Okay, so what is actually happening is here is there are substances in the absinthe that will dissolve an alcohol but will not dissolve in water. So, when you mix the alcohol with the water, this stuff that was dissolved in the alcohol that will not dissolve in the water, now precipitates out and becomes cloudy. Lea: Okay, right. Anthony: So, that is a traditional absinthe preparation, want to give that a try? Lea: Sure! [Music Playing] Anthony: Each week, our Art of the Drink video podcast prize package will consist of a maker’s mark apron. A copy of my Art of the Drink volume one bar essentials DVD and a limited edition version of that special touch, a maker’s mark cookbook, not available in stores. Okay, so first thing, go ahead and put your glass up. Lea: Okay, So, into that. Anthony: Yes! Lea: Put a little absinthe in it. Anthony: Good. Lea: Is this special. Anthony: Perfect, all right. Lea: Okay and I dr