Louisa Chu of Movable Feast was recently a juror at the annual Absinthiades festival in Pontarlier, the birthplace of French absinthe, and got to taste ten absinthes in the course of two hours. So what's judging an absinthe contest like? "During the judging, I made good use of the giant sand-filled spit buckets but my mouth still went numb and I did experience the infamous lucid intoxication - then again I was just terrified that I might pass out. I did stay surprisingly sober, and even managed to scribble some hopefully comprehensible notes." Alas, real absinthe is still illegal to distill in or import into the United States, so American afficionados resort to smuggling it in or buying it from clandestine black market distillers.

[via The Grinder]