Absinthe Salon.

I remember a road trip that I took with a couple of uni-mates and their other halves a few years back. My then fiance and I were going back to Melbourne for our annual ski/snowboard trip. We decided to plan a road trip to Port Fairy with our uni-mates and stay by the river for a little fishing and bumming for a few days. At the airport, we decided to buy a bottle of vodka and we hankered over what else to buy till we spotted absinthe. I thought it was a good idea to bring along a bottle of the green fairy. I must declare that the boys are terribly good drinkers on most accounts. They polished the bottle of vodka with ease even pairing it with nachos and fruit gum snakes. They were still terribly sober after that one bottle of Absolut. Then came the bottle of absinthe. They made it only halfway through the bottle and were in a bad state. We are talking about 5 boys (and 4 girls, forget about the girls, we drank little. More beer and wine) who were in a terrible state. They hated absinthe, were vomiting in the front lawn, walking out in the wee hours of the night to our private jetty while puking. Another one just broke up with his girlfriend of many years, was talking trash and crying. I've never seen the boys so trashed. The girls were just high and laughing at the state of the boys. All these bring back fantastic memories of a carefree life.

Absinthe has been controlled and hard to acquire for the longest time. Recently, it has been made popular again. In Sydney, an Absinthe Salon has opened in Surrey Hills to promote the forgotten culture of drinking absinthe, traditionally. By the way, the water fountains, perforated spoons and vintage looking glasses are also for sale online through their website. This could be fun for a drinking party, lots of novelty and sure to have your friends talk about it for weeks to come.