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I remember a whole long time ago I did a whole bunch of research on absinthe, just for the hell of it I guess. Read a bunch of Hemmingway books and that was his drug of choice.

From all the reading I did - what I picked up, or what I think the case to be - and feel free to bust my ass on this since I've never tried it - is that you have to drink a pretty good deal of for even like subtle effects (different from bein straight drunk) to take place. The fact that most Absinthe is around 120 to 140 proof I think leads to most people just being utterly horrified at the taste and quitting after maybe three drinks - and then claiming that nothing happened. And since it's so high in alcohol, I think you really need to be able to handle your liquor to get there. At like 140+ proof - I'd say that about 4 good drinks (assuming I could get through that much) would result in me being far more than buzzed. And the dude in the quote below (from the Modern Drunkard Magazine) is talking about taking EIGHT before getting effects... so I really dunno.



The taste comes on with all the subtlety of a freight train, and unless you're a fan of Pernod or anisette, it takes getting used to. Even with the sugar and ice-water dilution, the flavor is full-bore, uncompromising and, for lack of a better phrase, right up in your face. It wasn't designed by marketing execs trying to kiss your taste bud's collective ass. It's not one of those new liquors that roll out every month that you can shoot, think, "That's cool, I guess," and move on with your life. You drink absinthe and you think, "Holy Christ, what the fuck is that?"

I drank the glass and repeated the ritual, and yeah, I'll admit it, the ritual adds to the event, it provides the same paraphenaliac fetishism that separates the heroin addicts in the art schools from crackheads in the alley. The second glass went down easier and by the third I decided that, yes, I liked the taste of absinthe. I poured a fourth, then a fifth, because I knew to get the real effect you had to drink a lot of it. Back in the day, the hard boys drank 10 to 20 glasses a day, and, as I've said, back then it had a much higher thujone content.

Eight glasses in and I was starting to get drunk-and something else. If you've had your way with modern hallucigens like LSD and psychedelic mushrooms and expect the same out of absinthe, you'll be sorely disappointed. The effect is much more subtle, it's difference between being fired out of a cannon and hang gliding.

After my tenth glass I sat down to write, and that's when I got a grip on what that difference was. I was drunk, yes, but not whiskey or wine drunk, I was drunk and clear-headed. I discovered I could write with a strange sense of cognizance when I should have been scratching unintelligible ravings on bar napkins. The alcohol wave was rolling through me, but instead of drowning, I was somehow above it, coolly observing. No hallucinations, no madness, just drunken clarity.

So there it is. Absinthe provides you with a surfboard (thujone) and a wave (alcohol) on which to ride. That is the singular appeal of absinthe over normal alcohol. While alcohol provides a valuable escape, a vacation from one's self, if you will, absinthe offers the same journey (on a fast, high-powered aircraft, I might add) with the promise of a window seat with a superior view. For the drunkard, it's a fast ride with a twist. For the writer? It's the alcoholic muse on a leash.

So... judging by this article I have no idea whether which is true
Gonna have to disagree, Rusty, that it'd be an after dinner type drink. If you're just having one or two drinks, it would just be very expensive, very strong (but otherwise unremarkable), and very BAD tasting booze.

Full article along with a history of Absinthe is at www.ModernDrunkardMagazine.com

All I know is that you will not see green faeries... like that dumb as fuck Eurotrip movie.