When National Absinthe Day takes place on Wednesday, March 5, several of Philadelphia’s most prominent chefs and bartenders will experiment with the heady brew — a spirit that brought some of the finest artists of centuries past to their knees with (literally) high-minded glee.
“After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were,” wrote Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde. “After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.”
Of all of the memorable quotes written by the immensely quotable Wilde, one of his most beloved references touched upon absinthe’s herbal spirit mix, and how its potent thujone content — a chemical compound found in wormwood — could alter one’s consciousness. Like Wilde, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Lewis Carroll, Arthur Rimbaud and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec were fond of this intoxicating elixir.
In the late 19th and early 20th-century, absinthe was, like psilocybin, considered to be wildly hallucinogenic, and “the green fairy” was banned in the U.S. for a time. In the 21st century, the manufacture of absinthe became more regulated, its effects made non-toxic, and its usable botanicals – wormwood, green anise, and Florence fennel – tamed for the sake of tolerance and sanity. Today, if you order a classic New Orleans-style Sazerac cocktail at your favorite bar, it probably contains new-style absinthe if they’re doing it right.
At Sansom Street’s Time Café, its bartenders make a show of “pouring” absinthe, yielding to its classic, old-school preparation of placing a sugar cube on top of a specially-designed slotted spoon and holding the ab-spoon on a glass filled with absinthe. Water gets dripped over the cube through a vessel, into the spirit, the whole thing turns opalescent, and voila. There’s a grimier manner in which to do this involving the sugar soaked in absinthe, set ablaze, dropped into the glass, all of which ignites the absinthe. Same drink. Different drama.
East Passyunk Avenue’s Le Virtu experimented with the Abruzzese spirit known as Centerba which contains wormwood – one of the root botanicals of the absinthe process – for a heady cocktail called Wormwood & Tonic that additionally has equal amounts of sweet and dry vermouth — both blended in house at Le Virtu — and topped with Fever Tree tonic, served over ice with an olive on a pick.
“We have an atomizer of Centerba that we also spritz on top of the cocktail,” says Le Virtu’s bar manager Chris O’Brien. “One of our bartenders came up with this concoction, and this is a classic Americano cocktail with tonic water instead of soda – so it’s vermouth forward – and using Abruzzese ingredients. Centerba is one of the oldest digestifs in Italy with a super high-octane level of alcohol – like 70 percent.”
Having had several of Le Virtu’s Wormwood & Tonics without releasing its octane levels, yes – it is as potently heady as it is tasty.
“Actually, Centerba used to be used as a topical application for things like severe burns, so to sterilize,” adds O’Brien.
Italian Market restaurant owner-chef Dave Conn is reminding boozy food-heads of the existence of his absinthe-based dessert on the menu of Alice with his Absinthe Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream, and its “adult play” on mint chocolate chip ice cream for National Absinthe Wednesday.
“As a material to work with, absinthe is very layered, complex and spirit-forward,” says Conn of mixing his Pernod Absinthe reduction (which cooks off alcohol and concentrates its flavor) and churning it with a classic crème Anglaise. “We wanted to do a spirited ice cream, and think that such a rich, creamy ice cream base is the perfect backdrop for such intense layered favors.”
That intensity is enhanced by Conn’s addition of folded-in hand-chopped 53.8% bittersweet dark chocolate chunks — “to highlight all of absinthe’s complex anise flavors” — with a bit of organic all-natural food coloring to give its incandescently spooky pale green hue.
“Absinthe is an intricate, challenging ingredient to work with beyond our sweet, neutral ice cream base,” says Conn, who’ll garnish his dessert with lightly-sweetened Chantilly cream, a dusting of cocoa powder, and an offer of an Espresso Martini or a pour of Pernod Absinthe on the side. “Our Absinthe Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream has a fun adult sort of nostalgia for mint chocolate chip with more of a complex, intriguing and refined flavor profile than the ice cream you had as a kid.”
Most certainly.
