Pernod Absinthe x L'Atelier Joel Robuchon.

Last Friday I was invited along to michelin-starred L'Atelier Joel Robuchon in London for an evening with Pernod Absinthe to kick off London Cocktail Week 2014. Having never tried Absinthe before, I was keen to finally give it a go. To be totally honest I'd always been too scared, what with it being illegal in most countries for many years, and the rumours of hallucinations and the famous 'green fairy'. But you know what, I didn't have any hallucinations, and in small quantities, it's absolutely fine (and mighty delicious)!

Edd met me at L'Atelier, and we headed up to the roof top for the infamous Green Hour (the time of 5pm in Paris when everyone flowed into the bars and roof terraces to drink Absinthe in the 1800s). Tom from Pernod Absinthe greeted us with the 'Van Gogh in Havana' cocktail to start with, which is made with Pernod Absinthe, Plymouth Gin, Lillet Vermouth, sparkling wine, fresh mint and almond syrup, and we joined the rest of the group. It was lovely to see a familiar face in Clerkenwell Boy, who I hadn't seen for almost a year!

After tasting my first sip of Absinthe within the cocktail, I was hooked - it tastes just like liquorice! I soon finished it, and then we were on to the 'Green Beast' in these awesome pipe glasses! We all exclaimed how we wanted to take the glasses home with us, little did we know that they had prepared goodie bags for us all with the glasses inside them!

After drinking up our Green Beast cocktails, we were then taught how to drink Absinthe the traditional method - with an Absinthe fountain, sugar cube, and iced water. I actually got a video of the entire method, so I'll get this up for you at the weekend as it's actually really interesting! For now though, I'll give you some photos and a quick explanation;

The iced water is put into the fountain, and you put a shot of absinthe into the glass, the glass then goes beneath a fountain spout, and on top of the glass rests a stirrer, with a sugar cube resting atop. You then start by very slowly dripping the iced water onto the sugar cube, thus dissolving it into the glass of Absinthe. Once the sugar cube is dissolved, you then fill up the rest of the glass with the iced water, depending on how strong you like your drink.