![]() Twice over, by raising his hand, the master of ceremonies interrupted the fall of the liquid, which he doubtless considered too brutal or too abundant: after examining the beverage with an uneasy manner that gave way to reassurance he signalled, by a mere look, for the operation to be resumed. In the liquid, whose level was slowly rising, I could see a milky mist forming in swirls which eventually joined up, while a pungent smell of aniseed deliciously refreshed my nostrils. The pouring Infanta was as motionless as a fountain, and Isabelle did not breathe. ![]() The poet, his chin almost touching the table between his two hands placed flat on it, was watching this operation very closely. Placing one hand on her hip with a graceful curve of her arm, the Infanta lifted the pitcher rather high, then, with infallible skill, she let a very thin jet of cool water - that came out of the fowls beak - fall on to the lumps of sugar which slowly began to disintegrate. Then he turned towards his wife: she was already holding the handle of a 'guggler', that is to say a porous earthenware pitcher in the shape of a cock, and he said: He placed this contrivance on the rim of the glass like a bridge, and loaded it with two lumps of sugar. He next took up from the tray a kind of small silver shovel, long and narrow, in which patterned perforations had been cut. He seemed to measure the dose with suspicious attention for, after a careful check and some reflection, Then he took the bottle, uncorked it, sniffed it, and poured out an amber coloured liquid with green glints to it. He set the glass - a very big one - before him, after inspecting its cleanliness. Then, in deep silence, began a kind of ceremony. One of the most evocative of all descriptions of the absinthe ritual is in Marcel Pagnol's "The Time of Secrets": Seeing the drink gradually change colour was part of its ritualistic attraction. Historically, true absintheurs used to take great care in adding the water, letting it fall drop by single drop onto the sugar cube, and then watching each individual drip cut a milky swathe through the peridot-green absinthe below. Usually three to four parts water are added to one part of 68% absinthe. Iced water is then very slowly dripped on to the sugar cube, which gradually dissolves and drips, along with the water, into the absinthe, causing the green liquor to 'louche' (“loosh”) into an opaque opalescent white as the essential oils precipitate out of the alcoholic solution. ![]() The classic French absinthe ritual involves placing a sugar cube on a flat perforated spoon, which rests on the rim of the glass containing a measure or “dose” of absinthe. This not only counters the bitterness, but in well made absinthes seems also to subtly improve the herbal flavour-profile of the drink. All true absinthes are bitter to some degree (due to the presence of absinthin, extracted from the wormwood) and are therefore usually served with the addition of sugar.
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