Pastis de Marseille Prado Export | French Liquor

An herbalist, working with a local plant called wormwood, thought to be a magical cure for everything, made the first batch. She found the curative properties of his discovery enhanced when he steeped the herbs in 136* alcohol, which became the traditional strength for absinthe. In the 1890s, artists, poets, and society types made absinthe, "the green goddess", the drink of café and bistro society. They drank it with ice-cold water, added drop by drop through a special spoon and a sugar cube.