Absinthe: Double the Vision, Double the Fun

Vintage spirits, bohemian New Orleans, and fine illustration.

In 2009, Dirty Coast raised a glass to one of New Orleans’ most notorious muses — absinthe. A drink that blurs the line between sin and sophistication, it’s as much myth as it is spirit. For centuries, the “Green Fairy” has fluttered through cafés and cabarets, intoxicating poets, painters, and the merely curious with her emerald glow. Toulouse-Lautrec, Wilde, and Hemingway all claimed her as muse. Here in New Orleans, she never really left.

The Absinthe design, illustrated by Avery Lawrence, captured that blend of elegance and excess — a hallucinatory nod to the city’s bohemian heart. Two mirrored figures toast in symmetry, their elongated forms dancing between reverie and rebellion. Lawrence’s linework channels turn-of-the-century art nouveau, filtered through the haze of a French Quarter afternoon. It’s New Orleans distilled: vintage decadence with a wink.

Released alongside other culinary and cocktail tributes like Save the Sazerac and Death by Crawfish, the shirt became an instant Dirty Coast classic. It spoke to the city’s duality — refined and reckless, sacred and profane — and the eternal invitation to taste life twice.

After all, in New Orleans, everything worth doing is worth overdoing. Cheers to double vision — and double the fun.

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