From the Palm Beach Post:
Blame Johnny Depp's dazed bathtub scene in 2001's From Hell for making absinthe popular. Blame the fall of the Berlin Wall for making it available. It was the post-Soviet Czech Republic that gleefully jumped on the absinthe manufacturing bandwagon.
The Czech stuff is noxious, according to connoisseurs. But now that the Food and Drug Administration has determined there's little chemical basis for the milky green drink's reputation as a hallucinogen and aphrodisiac, a 95-year ban on imports has been lifted, and French and Swiss absinthe is trickling into South Florida - both legally and illegally - just in time for New Year's Eve. This holiday marks the first New Year's absinthe can be legally served to partygoers. They appear to be ready for a sip of the spirit.
I probably won't be trying any myself, at least not this year. I'm going to exercise the "precautionary principle" on this one and see how others react first.
