Why it’s on the list: One of those things that seems to be steeped in myth and mystery, so I want to know what the fuss is all about!

How/when I’ll judge this task to be completed: When I have drunk Absinthe, and survived.

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Well I did it, and survived!! I treated Steve and me to a bottle of Polish Absinthe on May Bank Holiday weekend 2010. The first glass we drank neat ….. aargh! My advice to you – never gargle with Absinthe! It burns your tonsils! Mind you, it certainly hit the spot and I got very giggly and Steve was very smiley.

We’d been doing some research into how best to drink it so for the second glass we tried the slow method, dripping ice cold water through a sugar cube into the Absinthe. I wasn’t patient enough, and a bit tipsy, and very giggly, and ended up spilling most of the water on to the floor, as you can see here:

Personally I reckon we should have had more water in there, however gay that makes us! It had a really weird effect on me – I didn’t feel drunk especially but I did feel almost stoned. I guess that’s the effect of the wormwood. Steve just got merrily pished 😉

And so to glass three (the final one, thank goodness!) This time we went for the full on flame effect. We soaked a sugar cube in Absinthe, then set light to it, let it burn a while, then dropped it into the glass to ignite the rest of the drink. Sadly not as impressive as it sounds … but in our silly state we found it amusing!

Glug glug glug. OK maybe I was pissed. After this glass we both fell asleep watching the telly, then Steve failed to wake me up to go to bed, I did a mad sleeptalking thing and then woke up on the sofa at about 4am. Didn’t have a hangover as such next morning but I felt very delicate and I my limbs felt like they were made of water – very weird!

So there you go, we did the Absinthe thing. We still have half a bottle left for another time …. argh!!