I have noticed that since I started drinking absinthe, I have been able to appreciate other drinks much easier. Recently when I was in San Diego at a restraunt with over 100 kinds of tequila, I decided to try an expensive shot, and see if I could pick out anything more than alcohol. I did a little research and chose a shot of one of the pricer Anjeo style tequilas. I let it air itself for a few minutes and then I took a good whiff of it...to my surprise I smelled rich, woody overtones that reminded me of a high quality cigar. My first and subsequent sips uncovered a very smooth and complicated flavor profile.

Before absinthe, I had never had a respect for the craftsmanship of individual drinks or liquors. Now that I do, I have noticed myself picking out flavors and smells just under the surface of normal drinks and foods.

Anyone else?

Yeah, but it ain't absinthe per se that helped you in this regard. ANY spirit/cocktail for which you have from sufficient respect can (and could've) push you the same direction. It's all about learning how to taste, really taste. For me? A shot glass of warm Tanqueray gin. It was a bar contest many years ago. The prize: a shot of gin of choice. The question: What does SHAZAM stand for? Well, I was a comic book geek so I immediately piped up with Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury. I won! I sipped that warm gin like a heaven-sent nectar. Y'know what? I tasted things I NEVER tasted before in gin, and it was all due to the reverence I gave what I was drinking.

I listen with amusement to those who say they hate, say, Chartreuse, or bitters, or really any interesting spirit. I may not like everything, but ever since that gin experience I can get to the bottom of what people see in a spirit even if I DON'T like it. In other words, I can understand and respect it, flavor and all.

The degree to which this has opened up an entire world for me cannot be minimized. Now I am a cocktail authority influencing others. Really. Learning how to taste has far reaching implications.

Er, but it is absinthe that helped me in that regard....because, that's what I just wrote?




At any rate, I have since moved on to whiskey because a very good tequila is very, very expensive which takes away from my first love in the drinking world. And gin is on my list to explore because of its many herbs. I like gin and whiskey anyway, but to give them more thought will for sure yeild many subtilties to which I have not as of yet been akin.

Yeah, because a really fine whiskey is really really cheap.

That I can still be a drunk and yet also impress my friends.

That I don't usually handle large get-togethers well unless I don't drink it.

That I should never, NEVER ask about the Pernod absinthe. :D

I'm just a gulping drunk...no time to appreciate the finer things!

Thank God you didn't ask about sugar!

That the right drink can turn a boarderline problem into a fascinating hobby.

Startlingly close to the truth - my husband's implied as much, in a much nicer way, of course...

- Johanna

Calculus.

Or (in my case) the other way around.

+1

What about sugar?

Oh, Sugar, Sugar.
You are my candy girl
and you got me wanting you.

"What about sugar?"




oh shut up.

Unfortunately, it hasn't restored your ability to see the difference between adverbs and adjectives just yet.

Damn schoolhouse rock... failed us yet again.
I have discovered a classic.

Absinthe has taught me to appreciate absinthe.

I asked my bottles to teach me something, and they just sat there mute. I waited a long time and still nothing. I guess they were teaching me patience.

Better living through ancient chemistry.

Absinthe taught me that 1 bottle plus 1 bottle plus 1 fest plus 2 bottles = empty wallet.

And that people with widely varied backgrounds can gather due to a single interest and find plenty of other common ground in the process. Some might even still like each other after a couple of years.

That I still have a lot to learn...

All I have learned is that I know nothing.

I've learned that the more I know, the more I know I don't know.

I'm right there with peridot.

Each glass is a lesson.

Time for class to begin.

I think the best thing Absinthe has taught me is to sit back and enjoy the finer things in life. You don't "chug" or "shoot" absinthe you sit back watch it be prepared and slowly louche as it gets ready to drink then you slowly sip it to enjoy the flavor and let the taste of the different herbs run over your tongue and down your throat its something that if you've never had it you wont know what I'm talking about but i know everyone here will, and its just taught me to take a step back and watch things rather than go through this life as your typical fast paced American.

Still learning, as the saying goes, yet absinthe has radically strengthened my belief that life in Kansas is much the sweeter for the occasional visit to Oz.