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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gauguin who wrote (18096)	2/28/1999 10:28:00 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 71178

Lucky me, the article was in the Washington Post: search.washingtonpost.com Absinthe Minded In London, Bar-Hoppers Are Once Again Going Mad Over the Fabled Green Liqueur By Tara Mack Special to The Washington Post Sunday, February 21, 1999; Page E01 An excerpt: Christopher Davy cranes his neck through the crowd in the Alphabet bar in London to watch the bartender mix his drink. The bartender pours a capful of electric green liquid into a port glass, fills a long-handled spoon with sugar and dips it into the liquid. Then, his foot tapping to the beat of the drum and bass music, he sets the sugar alight. After the sugar burns for a few seconds, he twirls the spoon in the glass with a squirt of water so the liquid turns from neon green to a cloudy emerald. Finally, he hands the glass to his eager customer so that Davy can have his first taste of absinthe. In bars dotted around the city, young Londoners are tasting, with eyebrows furrowed, the liqueur that has not been widely available here for more than 80 years. Absinthe, once called the Green Fairy, was a favorite of Parisian bohemians near the turn of the century--Oscar Wilde, Toulouse-Lautrec, Edouard Manet. It was a symbol of hedonism and decadence--the emerald liqueur that stoked the imagination and might drive the drinker mad. One of its key ingredients, essence of wormwood, was reputed to be hallucinogenic. And in the early 20th century, after reports of addiction, epileptic attacks and delirium, absinthe was banned in the United States and most western European countries. But a new British company, Green Bohemia, recently discovered that absinthe had never been prohibited in the United Kindgom, and has begun importing it from the Czech Republic. It sells absinthe at its Internet site and through several bars and clubs in London and other major British cities. According to Green Bohemia's Web site, this is not the absinthe of yore. Theirs, they say, "is a cleaner version of the absinthe produced and consumed in 19th century France. . . . We had it fully tested for [European Community] Food and Drink regulations. . . . We carried out over 30 tests, and . . . passed each one." The Alphabet, crammed amid other pubs and shops on a narrow Soho street, was one of Green Bohemia's first customers--and now absinthe is the most popular new drink the bar has ever had, according to the owners. Inside, the low-ceilinged bar is packed with a suited, after-work crowd. Davy, 30, decided to visit after he read in the paper that absinthe was becoming available again. "I have no idea what it's like. I have no idea what it does," he said as he waited for the bartender. "I know it's dangerous, but I've got to try it." In addition to the Alphabet (61 Beak St., London W1) absinthe is available in London at, among other places, the Pharmacy Restaurant and Bar, 150 Notting Hill Gate; the Fridge, 1 Town Hall Parade, Brixton; and Detroit, 35 Earlham St.