It was after dinner at my 8^th annual Thanksgiving blowout. There were about 15 of us in the kitchen and it was time to mellow out with a little dessert. We had a bottle of the traditional go to, Jagermeister, and broke it out but with 15 of us doing shots,one bottle didn't take long to finish. We searched for something else. One of the bartenders from Rain Nightclub had worked a house warming party for Gavin Maloof a week prior and had brought home an extra bottle. It was a cool looking carafe with a devil’s face on it and he was so excited to show everyone how it was done that he didn't even tell us what it was.

He lined up 15 shot glasses, grabbed a mixing tin, a bottle of water, a funny looking spoon with star shaped holes and all of my espresso sugar cubes. He went off to his own area of the room and started making shots as the rest of us kept talking. We were about 10 minutes into his mixing and the crowd had grown to watch the show. He was so meticulous when making this mystery drink that everyone had to see. He had filled the mixing tin with ice, poured in a little water, and filled it to the top with this green liqueur. A long gentle stir until ice formed on the sides of the tin led into a painfully slow drip over my sugar cubes that rested on that spoon. It was amazing how slow that drip was and everyone grew impatient. I knew this was going to be good and appreciated the care he took to do it right.

The shots were poured and handed out to eager hands. They thanked me for cooking and I thanked them for coming and with final cheers, we all did our shots. Ice cold, slightly sweetened and cut with a bit of water. Not overwhelming in the anise and licorice department, but strong and herbal enough to be the perfect digestive after dinner.

I remember the flavors, the drinking of the history, the show of the preparation, the crowd of friends watching. It brought us all together for a moment and stood up to all expectations. It was that day that I fell in love with the green fairy.