Absinthe, Chapter 2

When you are taste-tested in Eric Felten’s WSJ “How’s Your Drink” column, you’re playing with the big dogs.

So be prepared to find absinthe-based cocktails appearing at an upscale bar near you or have them thrust upon you at your next trendoid party with the glitterati-manqués. All the more so since the versions Felten rates range in price from $50 to $76. When something costs the earth, it’s going to hit the charts.

(You know the liquor has made it to the mainstream when some “boutique” distillery in quasi-rural western Washington is manufacturing the stuff. In a state that’s just announced raising the taxes on spirits from 39% to 52%.)

Felten gives us a brief history indicating that not only is the “green fairy” an acquired taste, it’s not really acquired by many outside of the artistic crowd who have a vested interest in pushing the brain-damaging envelope. Even Oscar Wilde couldn’t get over the taste, try though he might to appear the style-setting iconoclast.

But take a look at Felten’s taste-test ratings. The one he developed a new category, “Yucky” for is what Virgin America is selling on its flights. All the more reason to watch out for any fellow passengers ordering it, even in watered-down form.