Can't believe I didn't think to ask this sooner.

Does anyone know where you can get mead or absinthe around here? I haven't had any luck in either case...

Thanks!

You can get absinthe in the ABC stores, but I think they use a different type of wormwood... thinking of trying it this weekend.

I hate to ask, but what category does that fall under (gin, whiskey, etc)?

I asked if they had potato vodka once, and they said "no" instantly, and then I spent ten minutes looking and found it on the shelf. I'd rather not go through the hassle again.

I think I found it near the liqueurs.

Well.

I know what I'm doing this weekend, then.

It's like drinking a liter of Goldschlager. You will puke. Trust me. It's not the same as in Europe. Too syrupy and tastes like cough medicine, even after diluted and sweetened. You're better off with shrooms.

You have to order it online from companies in France. The stuff they sell in ABC stores isn't really absinthe.

http://www.absinthebuyersguide.com/

You have to serve it right, and even then, the effect is almost imperceptible. At least it was for me, but I expiremented with the standard fare of recreational drugs in College, so maybe I had higher expectations. Shrooms and Weed have distinct effects. Absinthe didn't have a very distinct effect.

You also have to pour cold water over a sugar cube on a spoon over the absinthe. Something about the sugar helps to increase your body's absorption of the wormwood oils or something.

My friend brought a bottle of absinthe and a box of sugar cubes over a few weeks ago. I'd been wanting to try it ever since reading about it in Modern Drunkard Magazine. It definitely wasn't the hallucinatory wonderland that everyone's expecting, but it did (and this could very well be psychosomatic on my part) seem like a slightly different drunk to me. I was a little bit more cognizant than if I had been drinking an equal amount of, say, rum.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just talking out of my ass. I do know that even the absinthe you buy overseas doesn't have the same concentration of thujone as it did in Van Gogh's ear-ectomy days.

FWIW, there was a thread about absinthe awhile back....

http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/read/2/92587.html

A faux-absinthe liquor called Absente, made with southern wormwood (Artemisia abrotanum) instead of grande wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), is sold legally in the United States. This was the first US approval referring to "absinthe" on the front label; the front label says "Absinthe Refined" but the TTB classified the product as liqueur.



-from wiki

Tell you what; I'll go to the ABC store, get a bottle, drink only that, and provide feedback. I'm seriously not expecting a religious experience.

I'll do it, y'know, for science.

Any ideas on mead? I've heard conflicting reports that it's available at a Total Wine store, that no it's not, that it's not really mead, etc.

I have seen mead on the shelf at Total Wine in McLean.

Try Norm's Beer and Wine in Vienna. Apparently they have some Chaucer's mead. And they have always been cool about ordering me Kasteel Rouge - so I'm sure they'd be happy to order more mead for you.

You all are more awesome than boobs. Thanks for the info.

Most descent Celtic pubs will gladly provide with a glass (or twelve) of mead.