Last week there was a 3 day wine and food festival in Scottsdale Arizona that drew people from all over the US. Bravo TV’s “Top Chef” reality show’s winner Stephanie was in attendance along with other very notable chefs. Food And Wine Magazine was also there. But the highlight of the celebration, at least for me, was Saturday’s $85 per person “Great Tasting Event”. There were 40 restaurants and over 200 wineries and distilleries in attendance, all offering samples. Digestif Restaurant had several booths including one that they asked me to help with – the Lucid Absinthe from Ted Breaux and Viridian booth. We prepared the Lucid in the traditional way using a fountain, absinthe spoons and glasses. This drew allot of people in because of the ritual that everyone found facinating. We then poured the glasses into small plastic sample cups. This was one of the more popular booths, handing out over 600 samples to people and we had allot of return visits. It was very educational for people who had never heard of absinthe. And even people familiar with absinthe learned allot. A great time was had by all and I must say I’ve never seen such a large, well behaved group of really drunk people in my life. It was such a success that I’m sure we’ll be doing it again next year. Hope to see you there!

Last week I was in Paris and stumbled over an Absinthe Party. The party was called “WowWow” . It was a party in honor of Charles Bukowski (the writer) . Of course Absinthe was served. Here´s a little pic of it.

If any of you out there are like me, then you know that asbinthe and music go hand in hand. My favorite thing to do is get an absinthe buzz and listen to music. I really like to watch live DVD concerts. Pink Floyd is my favorite while cavorting with the Green Fairy. Tops on my list is the 1994 live concert “Pulse”. It’s really an awesome concert with all of Pink Floyds’ greatest hits including the whole “Dark Side of the Moon ” albumn. Last night I drank some Epoque Absinthe and put on the newly released “David Gilmour Live in Gdansk” DVD. It’s a great listen and of special note is the live version of the VERY spacey masterpiece “Echoes” from the “Meddle” albumn. If you haven’t had the chance – check it out. I’d really love to hear from others that like live music while buzzed, especially Pink Floyd fans.

I stumbled across this site whlie searching the internet and it’s pretty cool. You guys have a nice selection. I’ve tried the Epoque Absinthe and the Clandestine LaBleue Absinthe and they are both great. But what I really wanted to talk about is Libertine Absinthe. I have had all 3 versions of the European Libertine and thought they were pretty good. So I was really excited when I heard that a local bar had Libertine. I was surprised when I got one and it was clear. The European Libertine has kind of a golden-green color to it. And then I tasted it and was very dissapointed. It didn’t taste anything like I expected. It wasn’t very good. Does anyone know what’s up with this? Did they change their recipe for the US market or what? Is this really Libertine Abinthe? If anyone knows anything about this please let me know.

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Click on pictures for larger version

Some of my absinthe collection

My family and friends

A sold out crowd enjoyed gourmet food and lots of absinthe last Sunday at Scottsdale restaurant Digestif. World renowned absinthe expert Ted Breaux was in house for the festivities. It was a 4 course dinner with an absinthe cocktail with each course. Between courses Ted talked about his absinthe experiences. He’s a really nice guy and very easy to talk to.  For the last course waiters brought out 50 fountains so that each person had their own tap for the last absinthe. How cool is that? I had a display of some of my absinthe memorabilia there as well. We had an awesome time and by the end of the night we were all very absinthe minded indeed. In the coming weeks I’ll be posting more pictures from this event, so stay tuned.

            All photos courtesy of Digestifs’ Mari Markogianis

I’ve seen some really cool T shirts on ebay for Anubis Absinthe, but I can’t find any info about it. Does anyone know – is this just a T shirt, or does it really exist?