"Bar Month" at OnMilwaukee.com is back for another round! The whole month of February, we're serving up intoxicatingly fun bars and club articles -- including guides, unique features, drink recipes and more. Grab a designated driver and dive in!
Legendary is the allure of absinthe and the Green Fairy cast its spell on everyone from painter Vincent van Gogh to author Oscar Wilde to composer Erik Satie and many of their 19th and early 20th century contemporaries.
And we just gave it a taste test.
The often dreadful effects of the high-alcohol spirit -- it can have up to 75 percent alcohol content -- distilled from herbs led to its being banned in the United States and many European countries by the time the first World War broke out.
That's because one of the herbs used to make absinthe is wormwood, which has had many uses -- including medicinal and religious ones -- for centuries. Absinthe began to grow popular when French troops drank it to stave off malaria in the middle 19th century.
By the 1860s, it is said that absinthe was so popular that 5 p.m. was called "the green hour" in France. The drink was also especially beloved in New Orleans.
Stories of murders and insanity caused by absinthe -- and the chemical thujone in it -- led to the bans.
The European Union began to allow absinthe to be made with wormwood again in the 1990s and the U.S. allowed it, too, not long after.
According to Mike Eitel of the Diablos Rojos group, which owns the French-themed Trocadero, absinthe has yet to find its feet among Milwaukee drinkers.
"There was a relative sigh of non-interest when the absinthe media frenzy came rolling into town last year," he says. "We do sell a fair amount at Troc and even Fat Abbey. The ultra hipster absinthe crowd is small but dedicated."
Eitel says that his Minneapolis bar, The Nomad, hosts invite-only absinthe parites that have been very successful.
Now that the Green Fairy has once again landed, we decided to give it a try.
Expecting everything from inspiration to insanity, we gathered around the OnMilwaukee.com bar with easels, oil paints and brushes and our cell phones at the ready. We pre-dialed the 9 and the 1 and kept one finger hovering over the final 1.
It has been said that the name absinthe comes from an old Greek word for "undrinkable," and a few OnMilwaukee.com staffers would certainly agree. For them, absinthe does not make the heart grow fonder.
But for those of us who have a taste for anise-flavored drinks like Sambuca, pastis, ouzo and anisette, absinthe could become a refreshing, if occasional, beverage of choice, especially in summer when it would certainly be pleasing on the rocks.
Most alluring for some -- and perhaps off-putting for others -- is the ritual that accompanies the drink.
A measure of neon-green absinthe is poured into a special glass. A sugar cube is placed atop a metal spoon with holes -- there is a special spoon for this -- that spans the top of the glass. Ice cold water from an absinthe fountain is dripped over the ice cube until it has dissolved into the glass below, transforming the clear, bright green absinthe into a cloudy, yellowier drink.
The opaquing of the drink is called "louching" and is apparently a testament to the quality of the absinthe. So, if your absinthe doesn't louch, send it back and ask for a better brand!
Even considering the high alcohol content, how the likes of Modigliani got toasted on this stuff when it takes so long to create a single serving is definitely a mystery.
The Pernod we sampled tastes overwhelmingly of star anise and fennel, although we're assured there is also hyssop and wormwood, among other ingredients, in there, too.
We also tried a number of cocktails made with absinthe -- some recipes follow below -- and we especially enjoyed flambé-ing the basic recipe to carmelize the sugar. But, be careful and stand back, because absinthe really goes up.
Happily, none of us leaped off the roof in a fit of insanity after our brief tasting session. Sadly, however, neither did we create any enduring works of art in any medium.
Death in the Afternoon
Invented by Ernest Hemingway.
3 parts Asti Spumante or sparkling Malvasia, or Champagne
½ part absinthe
Pour absinthe into a chilled flute and add iced wine or Champagne until absinthe is "louched."
The Monkey Gland
Delicious, despite the gross name.
2 parts gin
3 parts orange juice
teaspoon grenadine or pomegranate juice
2 dashes of absinthe
Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker and serve very cold.
The Green Devil
For the beer lover.
1 part gin
2 drops absinthe
1 bottle Duvel or other pale ale
Swirl the drops of absinthe into a glass and pour out excess. Add gin and top with a full bottle of pale ale.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
