What is considered the “proper” way to drink Absinthe?
The traditional method for drinking absinthe is to pour one ounce (roughly) of absinthe into an empty glass. A FLAT absinthe spoon (An absinthe spoon is not deep-bowled. It’s FLAT. Look on eBay.) is placed across the glass, a sugar cube placed atop the spoon, and ice water slowly dripped into the glass, dissolving the sugar. As many absinthes are pre-sweetened nowadays, some find the addition of sugar unnecessary. I suggest trying it both ways. WARNING: Pouring absinthe directly over ice will cause the anethole (a compound present from anise and fennel) to come out of suspension and clump. You’ll have little clumped floaties in your drink, and the flavor will be thin-to-non-existent. If you’ve purchased an “absinth” instead of absinthe, and the bottle suggests lighting it on fire, that generally means it’d serve better use as lighter fluid than a cocktail. This method of preparation was invented as a marketing gimmick by Czech Republic-based producers of undistilled macerates, typicall
