Not only do sales of pastis represent one-fifth of all spirits sold nationwide, but it's the default aperitif drink as far north as Picardie. "It's not like some of those other regional aperitifs ...

Bartenders, BBC notes, are trying to spruce up Pastis cocktails. According to an entire country, there is only one way to drink Pastis, but the aniseed might re-inspire a creative spin on the liquor.

Drinking a Mauresque cocktail is one of the greatest joys of visiting Marseille but you don't have to fly to France to drink one. Instead, learn how to make the delightful French cocktail at home.

This put pastis at an advantage, according to Collins: absinthe, she said, was seen as "the drink of degenerate artists" (including Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec and ...