National Absinthe Day

Eric Litton / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)

National Absinthe Day is on March 5th in the United States.

Absinthe is a drink that is an anise-flavoured and highly alcoholic spirit that is derived from the flowers and leaves of the grand wormwood. Sweet fennel, green anise and other herbs are added as well.

Absinthe has a natural green colouration, which led to its nickname of "the green fairy," but it can also be colourless. Absinthe originated in Switzerland in the 18th century and became very popular in late 19th to early 20th century France, especially amongst Paris's artistic community.

Absinthe was banned in many countries for its supposed addictive and psychoactive properties, and was believed to cause hallucinations. However, studies do not seem to show it as being any more dangerous than other spirits, and it has recently become legal again.

Absinthe is served by perching an absinthe spoon on top of a glass containing a measure of absinthe on which a sugar cube is placed. Iced water is then dripped or poured over the sugar to mix with the absinthe, which then turns a cloudy white colour.

National Beverage Day

National Beverage Day is on May 6th in the United States.

Here's a day that's the absolute opposite of some of the really specific days out there. This one is pretty much as vague as it can get.

A beverage is a drink - which are liquids intended for human consumption. As a consequence, this day can be celebrated with (almost) absolutely any drink of any kind. Oddly, one form of drink that the word beverage is not considered to refer to these days is water itself. Although all drinks do contain water, water by itself isn't classed as a beverage.

You can therefore celebrate this day with a whole bunch of different drinks; hot drinks such as tea, coffee and cocoa; cold drinks such as cordials, fruit juices and carbonated drinks. Even alcoholic drinks are beverages.

Some drinks are better than others for celebrating this day. Generally, high sugar drinks are not the best at any time, and many popular drinks are best consumed in moderation.

National Eggnog Day

National Eggnog Day is on December 24th in the United States.

It's not truly known when and where the drink eggnog originated. It may have come from East Anglia in England, or it may be descended from the medieval drink known as a posset, which was made with hot milk. It moved to the Americas in the 18th century.

Whilst many versions of this drink do contain alcohol, this is an optional extra, although spirits are the most usual ones used. The basic constituents of eggnog are eggs (not surprisingly), milk and /or cream and sugar. The eggs are supposed to be raw, although this is uncommon these days due to health reasons, and whipped to give it a frothy texture, and the finished drink is often garnished with spices, typically ground cinnamon or nutmeg. The drink is traditionally served warm.

This is a drink much associated with this time of year, both Thanksgiving and Christmas, in Canada and the United States. It can be drunk by itself, or added to other drinks, especially those which commonly have milk added, such as tea and coffee, and other foods.

Carbonated Beverage With Caffeine Day

Today, November 19th, is Carbonated Beverage With Caffeine Day in the US.

This may seem like a long winded way of saying Coca-Cola (or, if you prefer, Pepsi Cola) Day, but that is not necessarily true.

Certainly, cola, no matter who manufactures it, is probably the best known carbonated beverage with caffeine, but they aren't the only ones, and there are others that qualify.

As well as cola, both coffee and tea contain caffeine. Now, these aren't normally served carbonated, but there's no reason why they can't be - especially if you're having a chilled variant, such as iced tea or all the different varieties of cold coffee around.

The ice cream soda, or float, too, can qualify. These drinks are made with either a soft drink or carbonated water, so the obvious choice here is an ice cream soda based on a cola, such as the Coke Float. One with espresso in it would also qualify.

So, if you choose to celebrate this day, you needn't be limited to the popular brown fizzy drinks.