Absinthe’s history mirrors the way it’s meant to be prepared: a mix of the misunderstood and the legitimately unusual. For most of its existence, the spirit has been slandered, ostracized and, in ...

Despite absinthe’s notorious reputation, over the past century and a half, the spirit has redeemed itself in all sorts of cocktails, from the Sazerac to the Corpse Reviver No. 2. But there’s no ...

Reader Bites celebrates dishes, drinks, and atmospheres from the Chicagoland food scene. Explore all of our favorites at chicagoreader.com/food/reader-bites. The ...

It all started in Provence with a glass of rose wine. Well, actually, a glass of pastis before the rose. While Paul Sanguinetti, lead mixologist for the Patina Group, was in France studying wine, he ...

One of my favorite parts of tending bar is clearing up misconceptions about alcohol. The biggest one has to be the old saw about beer before liquor or vice versa. (Answer: It doesn’t matter, except ...

The phrase “think green” is supposed to stir ecologically friendly mental images of clean air, unpolluted streams and lush foliage. But for this country’s lovers of absinthe, the term has an entirely ...

Le louche refers to the transformation that happens when water is added to absinthe, turning the liquor from a deep green to a milky, iridescent shade. At left, a classic pour. At right, an absinthe ...

It’s time to set the record straight on absinthe. Enough with the myths about green fairies and the fear about illegal swill. Absinthe is a delicious spirit with a rich history, end of story—er, make ...

After nearly a century on ice, absinthe is back on the street. Served as a mysterious milky elixir, fashioned into creative cocktails or set aflame and drunk by the shot, the heady, anise-flavored ...

Graydon Carter’s semiprivate club carries over absinthe’s tradition as the spirit of choice for the artistically inclined: from Rimbaud and Toulouse-Lautrec to… Well, we’re not sure who dines there; ...

A sugar cube is cradled by a slotted spoon balanced on top of a glass of absinthe. (Courtesy of Southern Food and Beverage Museum) There's something romantic about absinthe — that naturally green ...