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The drink history wanted to forget

Aurelio Icasiano

<p>When the sun sets in Makati, you always know what to expect. Outside, traffic lights flash their colors to the slow parade of cars, commencing the gridlock of the city’s infamous rush hour. People leave their offices at an emotional crossroads— too tired to stay but dreading the long trip home.</p><p>Is traffic the reason Makati’s night life is so active? Where Eastwood and Malate once ruled for night crawlers, Makati is now the place to bar hop. Try something new while waiting for the traffic to die down.</p><p>A few blocks away from the main office district, Jupiter Street flares with neon signs announcing a whisky bar, dimly lit restaurants, and a karaoke lounge that never closes. Once the main drag of one of Makati’s older residential villages, Jupiter Street has been incarnated several times over—from being restaurant row to hosting hip clubs. Today, standing out in the neon light show is a bar that  refuses to advertise. It even refuses to have a proper front door.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/ancx/food-n-drink/2018/10/2absinthe.jpg"/><figcaption>ABV stocks a broad selection of spirits from around the world, including absinthe, whisky, and vodka.</figcaption></figure></div><p>The way to ABV is through the basement of a nondescript building. Past a ramen place and beside a Japanese bakery, a flight of steps leads to the Lazy Bastard, a burger joint that barely fits 20. But this is the facade for what lies deeper within.</p><p>“Is this where ABV is?” I ask the lady at the Lazy Bastard counter.</p><p>“Oh” she says, smiling slyly. “I’ll help you in.” </p><p>She steps away from the cash register and slides open a wooden door that seems like the entrance to a stockroom. We go through a steel grating, then a fire exit, and walk into a fully decked bar straight from the 1920s. Even in the dim glow of Edison bulbs, you can see the glint of whisky bottles, rows of leather stools and booths, and small water fountains scattered throughout.</p><p>ABV—which stands for Alcohol by Volume—is styled as a speakeasy, those secret bars that served alcohol during the Prohibition, the era from 1920 to 1933 when alcohol was illegal in the United States. ABV is one of the few places in the metro where you can find absinthe, a once banned alcoholic beverage with a reputation wrapped in myth and mystery since the 1800s.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/ancx/food-n-drink/2018/10/3absinthe.jpg"/><figcaption>ABV is styled as a speakeasy, those clandestine bars that were prominent during the Prohibition era in the United States. Dim lights, dark wood counters, and leather upholstery create a secluded, conspiratorial atmosphere.</figcaption></figure></div><p>Inside ABV, Lee Watson sits on a barstool waiting for me. Watson, an American who has lived in the Philippines for the past few years, created the bar’s drink menu with his partner Patrick Cuartero. The joint has made it to the list of the World&#x27;s 50 Best Bars twice. Much of ABV&#x27;s popularity, I suppose, lies in the cloak-and-dagger way one goes about locating it, plus the thrill of trying absinthe. Distilled from the flowers and leaves of wormwood and other plants like anise, absinthe has a greenish hue. This, coupled with the supposedly hallucinogenic properties of wormwood, earned it the nickname “The Green Fairy,” personified vampishly by pop star Kylie Minogue in a scene from Baz Luhrmann’s <em>Moulin Rouge</em>.</p><p>Watson and I chat for a while, then he pulls up a water fountain from the bar top.</p><p>“There’s something about absinthe that lends itself to ritual,” he says, adding ice to the small fountain, then filling it to the brim with water.</p><p>He pours some absinthe into an ornate glass, places a slotted spoon on it, puts a sugar cube on top of the spoon, then turns on the fountain’s tap. The water hits the sugar cube, melting it. A few seconds after the dissolved sugar flows into the glass, the absinthe turns from clear to a light milky white. This, Watson tells me, is known as “louching,” a process that absinthe drinkers turn into an art form.</p><p>Absinthe was said to have originated in Switzerland in the eighteenth century, where a French doctor named Pierre Ordinaire sold it as a cure-all for ailments. The formula was acquired by Henri-Louis Pernod who established his first distillery in Couvet with his family. Moving to France in 1805, the group took the drink with them, and began its mass production. By the nineteenth century, absinthe became the favorite drink of artists and writers, and by the twentieth century, it had cemented its place in the history of drink. Five o’clock became known as the green hour, when bars started serving absinthe. Famous Parisians such as Paul Verlaine, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Émile  Zola, Edouard Manet, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, and Guy de Maupassant were said to have found their muses at the bottom of an absinthe glass.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/ancx/food-n-drink/2018/10/4absinthe.jpg"/><figcaption>Absinthe fountains can be found all over the place, making it clear what the bar’s most popular drink is.</figcaption></figure></div><p>Watson pushes the glass to me; it’s my turn to dance with the Green Fairy. I sip as we continue to talk.</p><p>“Am I supposed to hallucinate now?” I ask him after I had emptied my glass.</p><p>“No. I tried very, very hard and I’ve never seen the Green Fairy.”</p><p>“Never once?”</p><p>“I tried very hard. The night was hazy, admittedly, but I’ve never seen the Green Fairy.”</p><p>Despite its reputation, absinthe isn’t as harmful as the stories make it sound. At the height of its popularity, it had spread to the US, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Great Britain, with personalities such as Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Oscar Wilde, and the infamous Alistair Crowley as its proponents. Its association with bohemia led to the view by conservative society that the drink unleashed man’s darker side. The winemaking industry, hit hard by absinthe’s popularity, urged this idea along. By the early 1900s, absinthe’s reputation had turned hysterical, blamed for causing madness, tuberculosis, epilepsy, and criminal activity.</p><p>The coup de grâce occurred in 1905, when a Swiss farmer named Jean Lanfrey killed his pregnant wife along with his two children, before attempting to take his own life. Lanfrey had consumed two glasses of absinthe, and though he had also taken copious amounts of wine and brandy beforehand, absinthe took all of the blame for his actions. The drink was subsequently banned. Belgium and Brazil declared it illegal in 1906, The Netherlands in 1909, Switzerland in 1910, the US in 1912, and France in 1919. Some countries, like Spain, Australia, and the Czech Republic, refused to stop producing it, though it became unpopular anyway, and so absinthe was nearly forgotten by the world. Still, production continued in other countries, openly or in secret.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/ancx/food-n-drink/2018/10/5absinthe.jpg"/><figcaption>From left to right: La Pontissalienne, (Francois Guys, France), Jade Terminus (Combier Distillery, France), 1797 Roquette (Emile Pernot, France), Mata Hari (Fischer Schnaps, Austria), La Maison Fointaine (Metropolitan Spirits, France).</figcaption></figure></div><p>It wasn’t until the 1990s that absinthe experienced a renaissance. The movement began in the UK, where absinthe was never formally declared illegal, and quickly gained popularity. This prompted a review of the beverage, and extensive studies were made on its properties. Thujone, the chemical in wormwood that was supposed to have caused hallucinations, spasms, and even death, was only present in trace amounts by the time it was distilled. And thus, absinthe was vindicated. The rest of the world slowly followed the UK’s open fondness for the drink. Absinthe was made legal again in many countries. By the early 2000s, it was once again being mass produced in France and its birthplace, Switzerland.</p><p>Back at ABV, Watson is showing me their selection: Mata Hari, Pontissalienne, Jade Terminus, Fontaine, and Roquette 1797. In a display case are two small vials of Pernod from the early 1900s, and one from 1890. ABV stocks well over 30 labels of absinthe from around the world. On a good night, Watson tells me, they easily sell over 30 glasses of the fairyless drink.</p><p>He pushes me a second glass. Even knowing what I now do, I hesitate. I ask if there are any side effects. Maybe hangovers.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/ancx/food-n-drink/2018/10/6absinthe.jpg"/><figcaption>Absinthes from before the Prohibition: Edouard Pernod (c. 1890, France), Pernod Fils (c. 1914, France), Premier Fils (c. 1900, France).</figcaption></figure></div><p>“Premium spirits are less prone to give you hangovers,” he tells me. “But, you drink enough, you’ll get a hangover. I guarantee it. There’s a certain point where anything can give you a hangover.”</p><p>I believe him and down the drink, then go for a third. Outside, there’s a slight drizzle, which turns into a downpour after a few seconds. I wonder if Jupiter street has began louching, turning the gray pavement into something cleaner by the time I decide to leave.</p><div> </div><div><em>Photographs by Paul del Rosario</em></div><div><em>This article is an updated version of what appeared in Vault Magazine&#x27;s Issue No. 23.</em></div>

<p>Absinthe was a drink of ill repute, having been associated with flaneurs of the nineteenth century and the perceived dissolute or criminal behavior that were its supposed aftereffects. </p>

Absinthe was a drink of ill repute, having been associated with flaneurs of the nineteenth century and the perceived dissolute or criminal behavior that were its supposed aftereffects.