Post #618702 by Vince Martini on Mon, Dec 26, 2011 1:58 PM

I am sure the original recipe is interesting, although I am not a big fan of the flavor of abisinthe as a central ingredient to anything. I much prefer Jeff Berry's recipe which he reproduced from Don the Beachcomber's original recipe from 1953. The bit of Pernod in this recipe is much more palatable.

It is interesting that the islands still has abisinthe at this time, because this is just a few years after abisinthe became the first alcohol to be deemed illegal. This became law in France in 1915. Primarily propelled by the wine/champagne growers, with the help of politicians, of France (and Western Europe) who were trying to re-establish their markets after being devastated by a disease known as phylloxera that destroyed much of the vineyards in 1870, further helping propel the popularity of abisinthe. So, I guess what remaining abisinthe which had already been produced, was shipped off to far away colonies and contributing to the rise of this recipe.

A good refernce on the history of abisinthe: http://www.youngmiller.nl/abisinthe/content.asp?MenuID=1140273105687

[ Edited by: Vince Martini 2011-12-26 14:01 ]