Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway, Gauguin, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Degas are among the famous artists and writers who enjoyed drinking Absinthe.
Absinthe is a strong alcoholic beverage distilled at high proof but generally served diluted with iced water or in cocktails. Absinthe is flavored with herbs and essential oils along with wormwood (Artemisia Absinthium), aniseed and fennel and made from a wine alcohol base. Hyssop, lemon balm, star anise, angelica, juniper, nutmeg, dittany, calamus root and mint are the other herbal ingredients used in the manufacture of Absinthe.
Information about Absinthe History
Absinthe has a very long and interesting history. Wormwood has been used in medicine since ancient times. Absinthe was produced by a French doctor, Dr Pierre Ordinaire in the late 18th century in the Swiss town of Couvet in the Val-de-Travers. Ordinaire gave it as a tonic to his patients.
By the turn of the 19th century, Henri-Louis Pernod was using the Absinthe recipe to distill Absinthe in Couvet and then the French town of Pontarlier, under the name of Pernod Fils. Everyday the production of Absinthe was 30,000 liters by the Pernod company!
Not only in France but also in several other nations Absinthe was a well known drink. The French people liked drinking Absinthe more than the wine. Simultaneously there were concerns related to health and the effects of Absinthe. The Bohemian culture of Montmartre was combined with the liquor. The thujone content of wormwood was believed to be psychoactive that cause psychedelic effects, convulsions, insanity, brain damage and death.
Van Gogh’s insanity and his suicide, murder of a family and the rising rate of alcohol abuse in France were the events for which Absinthe was blamed. Absinthe was made illegal in 1912 in the USA and in 1915 in France. It was also illegal to buy and sell Absinthe in other nations.
Absinthe Revival
During the ban, people either drank absinthe substitutes, such as Pernod Pastis, or bought bootleg Absinthe. Many people were convinced that the claims made about Absinthe were untrue and studies and research took place.
As per research thujone in Absinthe cannot cause any harmful side effects and intaking Absinthe was not risky than intaking other alcoholic beverages.
The EU legalized Absinthe with up to 10mg/kg of thujone in the late 20th century and in 2007 the USA legalized certain brands of Absinthe which contained up to 10 ppm of thujone .
France, home of Pernod’s original Absinthe still has a ban on products labeled “Absinthe” and France also strictly regulates drinks containing fenchone, a chemical in fennel which is a key ingredient in Absinthe. To be sold in France, Absinthes have to be called another name like “spirit a base de plantes d’absinthe” and only contain up to 5mg per liter of fenchone.
In these times of revival, it is possible to order Absinthe online, buy it in a liquor shop or buy real wormwood Absinthe essences to make your very own Green Fairy – see AbsintheKit.com for further information about Absinthe essences. They also sell replica Absinthe glasses and spoons like a Pontarlier glass and Eiffel Tower spoon.
