To Make a Drabsinthe

The bar was bustling at a much earlier time than Ares had expected when he’d arrived, a box of drink picks held in his hoof. Hops’ manager had ordered the extra box after Hops had accidentally spilled a box of them on the floor, so he’d heard. He couldn’t imagine how many of them had rolled off somewhere or had ended up stepped on.

Several buns were behind the bar with Hops today, although none of them paid him any heed until Hops spotted him and approached.

“Oh, are those the drink picks?” She didn’t even wait for Ares to answer, taking the box and shaking it in her hooves. The box rattled as expected. “Great!”

“The bloke already paid me beforehand, so I suppose I’ll be moving on—” Ares began, before Hops seized his wrist. “…eh?”

“You should join us; I’m having a mixology class.” Hops smiled, in that way that would make customers of all sorts follow her off a cliff. “Please, Ares?”

“Hops, I’m pretty busy—”

She gave him a look that plainly told him that they both knew he was speaking a load of tosh. “I know I was probably your last task for the day, because you’d be smoking with Jackal in about an hour. Am I wrong?”

Ares didn’t have a rebuttal. When Hops was right, she was right. With Ares, she was right just as often as she tripped and broke something, which made it often.

Finally, the envy bun sighed. “All right, all right. You got a fee or anything?”

“Great! We’ll discuss the fee afterwards.” Hops pulled him to the rest of the crowd at the bar, who Ares could recognize as a few regulars. It seemed they were interested in learning more about how Hops mixed drinks as well. “Well, since we had someone show up just in time, let’s begin, shall we?”

Once Hops freed up Ares’ wrist, he couldn’t help but rub it a bit as she made her way to her supplies. He knew that she was a working bun, even if he couldn’t say she was a hard worker thanks to her penchant for sharing drinks with others (himself included), but he could almost forget the strength required to carry all those trays and bottles for hours on end.

Hops selected a few glasses, bottles, and fruits and laid them out on the bar. She accidentally dropped a strawberry, but another bun caught it before it could hit the floor. With a chuckle, she waved a hoof, allowing the helpful bun to eat it as she spoke.

“We’ll be making a decently skilled drink today." Selecting a wine glass, she continued. “Let’s go ahead and start with a Drabsinthe. While most buns think it’s a pretty simple drink, there’s steps to take when making it.”

Pouring some absinthe in the glass, she then took what appeared to be a strange knife and laid it across the glass’s rim. “Who can tell me what this is?”

A couple of buns whispered, and Ares kept his mouth shut. After a few moments, Hop nodded and continued.

“This is an absinthe spoon! It’s a tool used to help make absinthe by allowing us to prepare the sugar for the drink.” Hops pointed at the glass, adding, “While you can use wine glasses around the house, this specific glass is an absinthe glass. It fills the tiny little area down here with absinthe when we pour the water into the glass.”

She then placed some sugar on the “spoon”, before starting to pour water from a bottle over it slowly. “This is ice-cold distilled water, so it helps you to keep a cold drink, and also helps to dissolve the sugar. See, watch!”

All the buns moved closer to watch the sugar dissolve. As it did so, the drink began to fill with a cloudy appearance, making the bright green absinthe appear a bit paler.

“Now, we continue pouring a biiiiit more water…” Hops squinted as she did this part, signaling this was a tried-and-true ritual of sorts. After a few moments, the bottle of water was pulled away. “And now that we’ve gotten the water done, we just stir it, and…”

She removed the absinthe spoon briefly to stir it, before placing it back on. “Tada! A bona fide Drabsinthe!”

All of the buns clapped, even as Hops took a bow…and accidentally smacked a bottle of gin off the bar, causing it to smash when it hit the floor. Her eyes widened as she waved her hoof, muttering under her breath.

Ares stepped forward, checking over her hoof to make sure she hadn’t accidentally bruised herself or broken it. “You gotta be more careful, heard a right proper noise when it collided…”

“I know, I know!” Hops said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. “I’ll be more careful next time…”

Some of the other buns chuckled, even as she added, “All right, that’s our first lesson done! Come back in a few days for our next lesson!”

As the other buns began to leave, Ares finally let go of her hoof, satisfied that she hadn’t hurt herself. “Here, I’ll help you clean up…”

“Oh, that’s real nice of you!” Hops smiled, before she moved to get some cleaning supplies. “Are you gonna be here next lesson?”

“Eh?” Ares blinked, even as Hops shoved a broom in his hooves. “But we haven’t even discussed the fee for this one?”

“Consider it waived for the help.” Hops followed him to the other side of the bar, where they began to clean up the remains of the gin bottle. “The less my manager knows, the better.”

“Yeah. Feel free to tell him to talk to me if he wants testimonies,” Ares replied, only half-jokingly. “He won’t know the lads weren’t getting right cheeky or taking the piss, I’m sure.”

She laughed, even as she helped Ares deposit the glass shards in the trash, before starting to wipe up the spilled gin. “No, he won’t ask, but…I appreciate it.”

“You got a lot of buns willing to stick up for you, me included.”

Hops rose when she was done cleaning the mess, before giving a nod. “And I appreciate every single one of you.” She offered a wink as she added, “But you really should come to next lesson! I’m planning to show how to make a Dracquiri!”

Oh, that was hard to resist. Ares sighed. “Can’t even say you’re almost as much of a temptress as Angora is, because you have more firsthand experience…but fine, I’ll join your next lesson.”

“Great!” Hops beamed. “I’ll see you then!”