Absinthe Drip
An Absinthe Drip is 30ml of absinthe in a stemmed glass, with a slotted spoon across the rim holding one sugar cube, and 90 to 150ml of iced water dripped through the cube at about a drop a second until the spirit turns cloudy. At 68% ABV, our working figure within the 55 to 72% the Oxford Companion gives as typical for absinthe, the drink carries about 2.0 UK units. The cloud is the louche. The Oxford Companion says the anethole from aniseed, star anise and fennel seed dissolves in high-proof alcohol but not in water, so it comes out of solution as the spirit is diluted. The Oxford Companion gives five parts water to one of absinthe as the ratio most commonly used, from historical labels, and says the drip may be sweetened or not according to the drinker’s preference; Difford’s Guide dilutes to between three to one and five to one. A fountain only makes the slow drip easy; a small jug poured patiently does the same job.
Glassware: Absinthe Fountain & Glass
Garnish: None
Ingredients
30ml
A distilled verte. Check the strength on the label: the Oxford Companion gives 55 to 72% ABV as typical for absinthe, we work to 68%, and strength sets both the water and the units.
1 cube
Optional, and one is plenty. It softens the bitterness of the wormwood; a well-made absinthe is balanced enough to drink without it.
90 to 150ml, dripped
Three to five parts to one of absinthe, straight from a jug of ice, added at about a drop a second.
Instructions
Pour the absinthe into a stemmed absinthe glass.
Rest a slotted spoon across the rim and put the sugar cube on it, if you are using one.
Set the glass under a fountain tap, or hold a small jug of iced water over it, and drip the water through the cube at about a drop a second.
Stop when the spirit has turned fully cloudy and you have added three to five parts water.
Stir once with the spoon to dissolve what is left of the sugar.
Expert Tip
Set the drip to about a drop a second and leave it. Fast water louches the spirit in streaks; a slow drip turns the whole glass opaque in one even change, and you can see and taste the difference. Use iced water, not merely cold. The colder the water, the slower and more even the louche, and the aroma comes through in stages rather than all at once. Stop at three parts water, taste, and carry on only if it is still sharp. Strengths vary from bottle to bottle, so the right dilution is the point where the anise has opened but not yet thinned.
Behind the Absinthe Drip
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The Oxford Companion says absinthe reached its peak popularity in France, and the usual story is that Paris cafés called five o’clock l’heure verte, the green hour; we have found no primary record.
The Oxford Companion describes the absinthe fountain, a glass globe of iced water with two to six spigots, which let a server prepare up to six or eight glasses at a time. Difford’s Guide says France banned absinthe by presidential decree in January 1915, and Difford’s says the French re-legalised it as a named spirit category after a Senate vote on 14 April 2011.
What the Louche Is
The Oxford Companion says absinthe is rich in anethole, the essential oil of aniseed, star anise and fennel seed, which dissolves readily in high-proof alcohol but is insoluble in water.
As water dilutes the spirit, the Oxford Companion says, the anethole drops out of solution and forms a suspension of microscopic oil droplets, the opalescent cloud called the louche. Neat absinthe holds that back; water lets it out.
Why Drip It Slowly
Pour the water in all at once and the oils come out in patches, wherever the strength drops first. The glass shows streaks and clumps rather than an even cloud.
Dripped slowly, the strength falls evenly through the whole glass and the louche rises from the bottom in one smooth change. The aroma arrives in stages too.
Absinthe Drip dilution, 30ml of absinthe at 68% ABV
90ml
- Ratio
- Three to one
- Total volume
- 120ml
- ABV in the glass
- About 17%
- UK units
- 2.0
120ml
- Ratio
- Four to one
- Total volume
- 150ml
- ABV in the glass
- About 14%
- UK units
- 2.0
150ml
- Ratio
- Five to one
- Total volume
- 180ml
- ABV in the glass
- About 11%
- UK units
- 2.0
| Water | Ratio | Total volume | ABV in the glass | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90ml | Three to one | 120ml | About 17% | 2.0 |
| 120ml | Four to one | 150ml | About 14% | 2.0 |
| 150ml | Five to one | 180ml | About 11% | 2.0 |
Every row holds the same 2.0 UK units: the water lowers the strength in the glass, not the alcohol in it. An absinthe fountain holds the drip steady at any of the three.
The Burning Sugar Cube
Difford’s Guide calls the flaming sugar cube a contemporary Czech method, which it thinks was adapted from the Café Brûlot, and says it should only be practised with Czech absinth.
Burning caramelises the sugar into a bitter note that has nothing to do with anise, and a hot spoon can crack the glass.
How to Serve It
In a stemmed absinthe glass, ideally one with a reservoir that marks the 30ml, with the spoon across the rim. Set the drip, leave it for two or three minutes, and drink it slowly.
Make it at home
The Spirit
AbsintheAbsinthe is a high-strength spirit whose flavour comes from fennel, green anise and grand wormwood, bottled strong; our recipes assume 68% ABV. Regulation (EC) 110/2008 gives it no definition of its own, so it goes on sale as a spirit drink, and Regulation (EC) 1334/2008 limits drinks made from wormwood to 35mg of thujone a kilogram. Cocktails take it by the rinse, the dash or the half teaspoon, and only occasionally by the measure.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you use an absinthe fountain to louche absinthe?
What is the louche?
How much water should I add?
Do I need an absinthe fountain?
Should the sugar cube be set alight?
How strong is an Absinthe Drip?
Why is it called the green hour?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Gwydion Stone), “absinthe” (secondary source: typically bottled at 55 to 72% ABV; diluted at about five parts water to one; peak popularity in France; bans of 1906 to 1915).
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Gwydion Stone), “louche” (secondary source: anethole from aniseed, star anise and fennel dissolves in high-proof alcohol but not in water; the louche is a micro-emulsion of oil droplets).
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Gwydion Stone), “absinthe fountain” (secondary source: a glass globe with two to six spigots; up to six or eight glasses at a time).
- Difford’s Guide, “How to Serve Absinthe: Drip, Fountain, Burn” (secondary source: the Absinthe Drip is the traditional French method, diluted 3:1 to 5:1; the flaming sugar is a contemporary Czech method, probably adapted from the Café Brûlot, for Czech absinth only).
- Difford’s Guide, “Prohibition of Absinthe: Bans Across Europe” (secondary source: France banned the sale on 16 August 1914 and absinthe by presidential decree in January 1915).
- Difford’s Guide, “French Absinthe Legalisation: How It Returned” (secondary source: re-legalised as a named spirit category after a vote in the French Senate on 14 April 2011, law in mid-May that year).
You Might Also Like
Sazerac
The IBA’s Sazerac is 50ml of cognac stirred with a sugar cube and two dashes of Peychaud’s bitters, then strained, with no ice, into a chilled rocks glass rinsed with absinthe, and finished with lemon zest. About 2.1 UK units. New Orleans more often makes it with rye whiskey. The Sazerac Company’s own history places Aaron Bird at the Sazerac House beside the Merchants Exchange from 1852 and dates the switch to rye to 1885. The Oxford Companion says the Sazerac cocktail was first mentioned in print only in 1899, and that the company’s account, which follows the historian Stanley Clisby Arthur, is undercut by numerous errors. The absinthe never goes into the mixing glass. It coats the glass and is poured away, leaving anise on the nose of every sip.
Death in the Afternoon
Death in the Afternoon is 30ml absinthe in a cold flute, with about 90ml of very cold Champagne poured in slowly until the drink turns cloudy. No garnish and no ice. About 3.1 UK units, two-thirds of it from the absinthe. The recipe was published in the Internet Archive’s scan of So Red the Nose, or Breath in the Afternoon, a cocktail book of 1935 with contributions from famous authors, and the drink shares its name with Hemingway’s 1932 book on bullfighting. His instructions, as the book prints them: pour one jigger of absinthe into a champagne glass, add iced champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness, and drink three to five of these slowly. That milkiness is the louche, anise oils falling out of solution as the wine thins the spirit, and it is your cue to stop pouring.
Doctor Funk
A Doctor Funk is a long rum drink seasoned with absinthe: 60ml white rum, 22.5ml fresh lime juice, 15ml fresh lemon juice, 10ml grenadine, 10ml sugar syrup and 7.5ml absinthe, shaken hard, strained over fresh ice in a collins glass and topped with 60ml soda water and a lime wheel. The result is dry, sharp, faintly aniseed and pale pink. It is named after Dr Bernhard Funk, a German doctor in Samoa and, as Frederick O’Brien wrote in 1921, physician to Robert Louis Stevenson. Frederick O’Brien’s 1921 book Mystic Isles of the South Seas describes the doctor’s drink: absinthe, a dash of grenadine, the juice of two limes and half a pint of siphon water. Don the Beachcomber later added rum, a change Difford’s Guide dates to the early 1950s. A glass holds about 2.9 UK units, more than its length suggests.
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026