DOSE:

4 oz

oral

Absinthe

(liquid)

BODY WEIGHT:

235 lb

My wife and I procured a supply of 4 bottles of 'Strong Czech Absinth' via European mail order for $150. Both of us being veterans of the underground of American culture were eager to experience the unique concoction.

Setting: We spent the evening at home in our living room. Most of the time we listened to music, a mix of The Cure, The The, Live, and Sarah McLachlan, stopping at one point to watch Stargate SG1 and half of Letterman. We both had not eaten anything in at least several hours.

Method: We began with two champagne glasses mostly full of straight absinthe. Using short salad forks in lieu of the appropriate slotted absinthe spoon we first tried burning sugar cubes over the liquid. Igniting the cubes was much easier after briefly soaking the cubes in the liquid. This practice did little more that provide ritual and entertainment, as the cubes did not caramelize as we expected. We drank half of our glasses after going through two cubes each. We then moved to dripping cold water over the cubes with a spoon until each glass was again full. I later diluted my remaining drink further finding it much easier to imbibe.

Experience: At first the flavor of the straight absinth tasted like Licorice flavored rubbing alcohol, but began to take on a more sinister flavor as my wife read about the history of the primary herbal ingredient Wormwood. Each sip was uniquely bitter and had a earthy medicinal quality. I found it difficult to drink quickly or more than in small sips.

After getting through half a glass in about 20 minutes, I noticed that while talking about the drink I was fixated on the alcohol clinging to the sides of the glass, as I swirled the mixture trying to dissolve the settled sugar. I them experienced an odd hallucination of the finger shaped streaks of alcohol on the side of glass appearing to be reaching up from the absinthe freely into the air. This startled me briefly as my brain locked back into the conventional perception of the liquid in the glass. Later I also notice some trailers when moving the spoon back and forth between the absinth glass and the water I was drawing from.

I noticed that I felt somewhat out of sorts and a bit fuzzy after the half glass (2oz) drunk straight. My partner was a bit jealous, as she was more eager to get altered on the substance. I tend to be very sensitive to mind altering substances and generally take things slow and light, and was not surprised to get a buzz sooner.

After taking a short break to tend to a neighbor’s cat we were charged with watching, we changed to drinking the absinth diluted about 50/50 with water. This made the drink somewhat more palatable though I still snorted, as I tend to do when drinking harsh liquor straight. I later found that mixing it 1 part to 4 parts water made it much more drinkable, while she proceeded to drink her next two glasses at about half strength. She found that she developed a taste for it as she drank more.

We both found the absinth resulted in a mild buzz but neither of us felt overtly altered by the drink. We have mild tolerances due to occasional wine consumption, and thus did not get particularly inebriated from the alcohol. Interestingly the buzz did not seem to get noticeably stronger after the initial onset. I became sleepy soon after finishing my 4oz portion, as I tend to after drinking more than two drinks, while she became more animated and talkative as she does while drinking (nothing unusual there). She ended up drinking approximately 7oz. total before spending the rest of the night chatting online as she usually does in the evening.

The next morning she felt much more hung over than did I, and complained of pain in her calves and ankles. She slept in somewhat more than me.

We are thinking of giving the remaining bottles away as gifts while retaining a small supply for novelty and entertaining guests. However we did not find the drink as mind altering and creativity enhancing as the legends purport.

Exp Year: 2003	ExpID: 24851
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Sep 30, 2004	Views: 85,534
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Absinthe (4) : First Times (2), Small Group (2-9) (17)