Fairy Tale ‘Green fairy’ charms Bay Area absinthe distilleries BY Christian Chensvold
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REGAL Emperor Norton boasts a100-point score from Wine and Spirits Journal.
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EAST BAY MAGAZINE | EASTBAYMAG.COM | MAY/JUNE 2022
one not nearly as complex as the jigsaw puzzle of women’s undergarments. The traditional way of drinking the moss-colored spirit—nicknamed “the green fairy” for the supposed buzz it brings—is to start by pouring an ounce of the potent potable in a glass. Next, perch on the rim, like a vulture hovering over your soon-to-be comatose self—a slotted spoon holding a sugar cube. Now, slowly pour ice water over the cube, which takes the sugar down into the glass, releases the oils of anise, fennel and wormwood, and turns the verdant elixir a cloudy white known as the louche. The next part is easy: down the hatch. But be forewarned, overindulge and the green fairy may suddenly appear as a hologram-hallucination of Edgar Degas, who’s sketching your stone-
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PHOTO COURTESY OF EMPEROR NORTON
ell into the 20th Century, an aging Frenchman recalled his youth and said that you hadn’t really lived unless you’d experienced the pleasure of undressing a woman in turn-of-the-century clothing, when one lacy layer gave way to another and the erotic tension mounted to a frenzy. Alas one can’t help but think of Marcel Proust’s bittersweet discovery, made during the same era of corsets and petticoats, that anticipation is often more pleasurable than pleasure itself. Absinthe, the signature drink of Belle Epoque France, also had a ritual based on delayed gratification, though
