The sugar ‘ritual’ dates from the old days when the taste was so foul that you needed it to improve the taste… the sugar should be burnt b4 going into the Absinthe and burns only coz you poor the Absinthe over it first… you don’t burn the alcohol (call the alc police!)… most Absinthes still taste bad (I tasted about 10) so the sugar is not a bad idea… but if you have a good Absinthe, the sugar remain a ritual… I much prefer doing Absinthe shots shaken on ice… don’t drink it pure…
I forget the brand name of absinthe that I had in Prague, but it was good without sugar or fire. I don’t see the problem with drinking it straight, it tastes like mint and has a slightly bigger kick than my ole fav Jim Beam.
Is it available outside Taipei, like… say… the east coast? I’m getting a little bored with Gao Liang.
http://www.absinthebuyersguide.com/absinthe.html
An excellent resource for all you Green Fairy neophytes.
Also see previous forum threads:
http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?p=255158&highlight=absinthe#255158
accidental doulbe post - deleted
[quote=“BeInBliss”]
The sugar ‘ritual’ dates from the old days when the taste was so foul that you needed it to improve the taste… the sugar should be burnt b4 going into the Absinthe [/quote]
Partially right.
The original sugar ritual didn’t include burning. The burning custom is a very recent invention (last decade or so) - done for its dramatic appearance.
Traditionally, an “absinthe spoon” was placed over an empty glass, and a lump of sugar was placed on the spoon. The absinthe was poured over the sugar, disolving it and passing through the spoon into the glass.