The Little Green Book of Absinthe: An Essential Companion with Lore, Trivia, and Classic and Contemporary Cocktails

Read Paul Owens and Paul Nathan's posts on the Penguin Blog

A celebration of "the green goddess"-this is the first book to share absinthe recipes since it was recently legalized in the U.S.

This enticing little volume presents a collection of more than 100 absinthe cocktail recipes that draw upon the classic roots of the drink as well as its new iterations. Readers will be entertained with nuggets of absinthe history and trivia, including the tradition of the green fairy, famous devotees of the drink, and the myths (or facts) of its hallucinatory properties.

Readers will learn that:
•America's most famous early cocktail, the sazerac, was a New Orleans creation that called for a dash of absinthe

•When the absinthe backlash started in the 1890s, Edgar Degas' masterpiece L'Absinthe was booed off the auction block at Christie's in London

•An experienced absintheur can identify a brand from across the room just by watching how it louches-the way the herbs' oils cloud the drink as the bartender adds water

Paul Owens discovered absinthe while traveling through Europe in the mid-1990s and later joined San Francisco’s absinthe underground, led by magician and infamous bootlegger Paul Nathan. Two of his favorite absinthe cocktails, the Mexican Wrestler and the Deep End, are on the menu at his restaurant, Tortilla Heights.
Paul Nathan has been drinking absinthe since the 1980s and throwing absinthe parties in the United States since the millennium. As a professional magician, he’s had the chance to travel across Europe exploring absinthe culture for months at a time. In December 2006 Paul was busted for selling absinthe in the only absinthe bust in modern times. He is also the founder and owner of Absintheology.com and Absintheparty.com, which throws absinthe parties and events worldwide. He lives in San Francisco.