Last Friday I was invited along to Michelin-starred L’Atelier Joel Robuchon in London for an evening with Pernod Absinthe to kick off London Cocktail Week 2014. Having never tried Absinthe before, I was keen to finally give it a go. To be totally honest I’d always been too scared, what with it being illegal in most countries for many years, and the rumours of hallucinations and the famous ‘green fairy’. But you know what, I didn’t have any hallucinations, and in small quantities, it’s absolutely fine (and mighty delicious)!
Edd met me at L’Atelier, and we headed up to the roof top for the infamous Green Hour (the time of 5pm in Paris when everyone flowed into the bars and roof terraces to drink Absinthe in the 1800s). Tom from Pernod Absinthe greeted us with the ‘Van Gogh in Havana’ cocktail to start with, which is made with Pernod Absinthe, Plymouth Gin, Lillet Vermouth, sparkling wine, fresh mint and almond syrup, and we joined the rest of the group. It was lovely to see a familiar face in Clerkenwell Boy, who I hadn’t seen for almost a year!After tasting my first sip of Absinthe within the cocktail, I was hooked – it tastes just like liquorice! I soon finished it, and then we were on to the ‘Green Beast’ in these awesome pipe glasses! We all exclaimed how we wanted to take the glasses home with us, little did we know that they had prepared goodie bags for us all with the glasses inside them!
The iced water is put into the fountain, and you put a shot of absinthe into the glass, the glass then goes beneath a fountain spout, and on top of the glass rests a stirrer, with a sugar cube resting atop.
You then start by very slowly dripping the iced water onto the sugar cube, thus dissolving it into the glass of Absinthe. Once the sugar cube is dissolved, you then fill up the rest of the glass with the iced water, depending on how strong you like your drink.
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This, ladies and gentlemen, is an absinthe macaron. And the best macaron you will ever taste. #greenhour #pernod #macaron #french
Thanks for having us, we had a really fantastic evening!
Catherine Lux is a veteran travel blogger by night and the Head of Content Marketing at Amazon by day. Originally from Surrey, she spent four years living in Australia (2007-2009, and 2016-2018), and now lives in London. An ex-party girl sometimes prone to relapses, she loves nothing more than sharing her fine dining and luxury travel experiences with her loyal readers.
I saw you going to this on twitter and I thought it looked fab!! I'm a bit of a light weight and I don't think I could really take absinthe…I could definitely handle an absinthe macaron though!
Lots of love,
Angie
SilverSpoon London
Those pipe-shaped glasses are seriously cool. I must confess I'm not a huge fan of absinthe (because of the licorice taste) but I do love the history behind the drink and the ritual of melting the sugar cube into the glass etc. Also it always feels a bit 'forbidden' when you drink one which I suppose adds to the thrill of it 😉
I have to admit I agree on the dislike of absinthe due to the licorice taste, but I think even I would be tempted to drink from those fabulous glasses!
Can you believe I haven't had one cocktail this week? I'm highly disappointed in myself.
Katie <3
It looks like you had a pretty fun evening. I think one drink of Absinthe would make me very merry indeed.