Thu, 9 Sep - Absinthe Forum: da ja vu!

I was born in Louisiana. As a child each time I passed The Old Absinthe House in the French Quarter I felt a strange connection; as if I had been in that establishment on many occassions....truly compelling!
As a child my family and I would dine at Brennan's, where they featured the Absinthe Suissese, which on my 13th birthday I coaxed my father into letting me try one. Of course, it was made with Pernod and not absinthe, however the licorice flavor filled me with a warmth that seemed to come from my past. Later as an adult I traveled a great deal to Europe with my job as an airline F/A, where I finally tried my first real absinthe. It all came back. I was in The Old Absinthe House in the Quarter in a former life. It was the effect that absinthe had on me, allowing me to clearly see I had lived before in the Quarter, where I enjoyed the drink. Quelle eccletique!~
When I found absinthe was now legally available in the USA I was delighted. I am going to New Orleans soon just to see if I can get a real sazerac made with real absinthe, at the venerable Sazerac Lounge in the Roosevelt, and take a hajj to The Old Absinthe House in hopes they have several varieties for me to try, and a mixologist who truly knows how one should be made.

'Meeting the Green Fairy' is a metaphor sometimes used to describe the curious effects of the green liquor.

About the effects of absinthe

When it comes to the effects of drinking absinthe, people's opinions -- and experiences -- vary wildly. Some go as far as to claim the drink is psychoactive, while others say there is no "secondary" (that is, other than alcohol-induced) effect at all.

As early as 1993, Matthew Baggott posted his Absinthe FAQ in the Usenet newsgroup "alt.drugs" (there wasn't much of the web as we know it back then). As you will suspect from the newsgroup's name, the issue of absinthe's "psychoactive qualities" was one of the interests of the document.

Some people take it further still. We definitely do not recommend any experiments with Paxil and absinthe (nor, for that matter, mixing any medicine with alcohol). Anyway, it's quite clear which way the wind blows here, since Jasmine Sailing's bizarre piece more or less concludes absinthe is a narcotic. Is it really? Yup, it does read like the girl was out of her mind when she wrote the page -- and no, we don't think the Fairy was to blame!

A far more sober look at the effects of the Green Fairy can be found in "The Return of the Green Faerie", an article written by Frank Kelly Rich of the Modern Drunkard magazine (no pun intended). Recommended reading.