I drank absinthe in London a few years ago and I can report it tastes a lot like one might imagine cleaning fluid tasting - perhaps cleaning fluid chased with a bucket of rusty nails shot into your throat from a cannon. And that was while drinking it only a shot at a time with plenty of sugar "melted" into the drink (i.e. the bartender put a spoonful of sugar above the glass as she poured and then lit the sugar on fire so it would melt down into the drink). The stuff is incredibly harsh. I think I and my friend only managed to down three or maybe four shots before giving up - literally in disgust. So I'd suggest diluting it with as much sugar or maybe sweet fruit juice as possible.
Here are some recipes online...
http://www.rain.org/~philfear/cocktails.html
The last one with the grenadine looks most promising IMO. Let us know if it doesn't kill you, k?
