Not just an incredibly potent drink, absinthe is an enigma, draped in mystery and more than a hint of naughtiness
Absinthe isn’t just a liquor, and the Green Fairy isn’t just another name for it. The name absinthe itself is suffused with notoriety, seduction and all that’s enigmatic, debauched, hedonistic and free-spirited of belle époque France. It was the drink of choice of Europe’s first hippies—the bohemians of 19 th century France—including the likes of Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, Vincent Van Gogh, who lived for a while in Paris for their art and turned to absinthe for inspiration. Sipping at her “green distorting pools”, as Baudelaire put it—sometimes along with hashish or opium—poets and painters created art dedicated to absinthe. Visitations by the Green Fairy had the power to transform their minds, turn their souls out, morph them into seers, bestow them visions, blackouts, and give their art not just life but alchemy. So popular was absinthe in Paris then that the magic hours between five and seven o’clock became known as the Green Hour, when people slinked into cafes to imbibe.
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