absinthe spoon is a piece of flatware used in preparing an Absinthe Drip when a sugar cube is used for sweetening. It is usually flat and trowel-shaped, with perforations to allow the water and melting sugar to pass into the absinthe below, and a small raised area in the handle to hold it in place on the edge of the glass.
The absinthe spoon became widely popular in the latter half of the nineteenth century, after the invention of the sugar cube in 1843. Prior to this, absinthe was typically sweetened with simple syrup or gum syrup. See simple syrup and gum syrup. Hundreds of designs were made, some very simple and some fanciful, but most were inexpensive utilitarian pieces, comparable to today’s stainless steel restaurant flatware. Few examples of fine flatware absinthe spoons have been recorded. Nonetheless, vintage examples are highly collectable these days.
An absinthe “grille” was created around the same time as the absinthe spoon. It usually consisted of a very shallow metal dish with decorative perforations, suspended by three prongs on the top of the glass and was used in the same way as the absinthe spoon.
Also common was the brouilleur, or “absinthe glass,” as it is called in early mixology treatises. The brouilleur is a small glass or metal bowl with a single small hole in the center to deliver a very thin stream of water slowly into the absinthe below. It is made to sit directly on top of the absinthe glass.
See also absinthe and Absinthe Drip.
Conrad, Barnaby, III. Absinthe: History in a Bottle. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1988.
Nathan-Maister, David. The Absinthe Encyclopedia. Burgess Hill, UK: Oxygenee Press: 2009.
Wormwood Society. http://www.wormwoodsociety.org (accessed January 7, 2021).
By: Gwydion Stone