The mythical drink Absinthe, the Green Fairy was the favorite drink of many famous artists and writers like Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway, Gauguin, Baudelaire, Verlaine and Degas.
Absinthe is a strong alcoholic beveragedistilled at high proof but generally served diluted with iced water or in cocktails. Absinthe liquor is usually produced from a wine alcohol base and is flavored with herbs and essential oils as well as wormwood (Artemisia Absinthium), fennel and aniseed. Hyssop, lemon balm, star anise, angelica, juniper, nutmeg, dittany, calamus root and mint are also involved in the production of Absinthe.
Information about Absinthe History
Absinthe has a very long and interesting history. Wormwood has been used for medicinal purposes since ancient times. Legend says that Absinthe was created by a French doctor Dr Pierre Ordinaire in the late 18th century, in the Swiss town of Couvet in the Val-de-Travers. Ordinaire used it on his patients as a medicine which gave amazing results.
In Couvet Henri-Louis Pernod was using the Absinthe recipe to distill Absinthe and under the name of Pernod Fils in the French town of Pontarlier. It is said that the Pernod company was producing 30,000 liters of Absinthe every day by the middle of the 19th century!
Absinthe was a popular drink of various countries along with France, La Belle Epoque. The popularity of Absinthe was more in comparison to wine in France. Simultaneously there were concerns related to health and the effects of Absinthe. One can also find the liquor to be connected with the Bohemian culture of Montmartre. The psychedelic effects, convulsions, insanity, brain damage and death was believed to be the causes from thujone.
According to the people’s thought Absinthe was the cause behind Van Gogh’s insanity and his suicide, a man killing his family and the rising rate of alcohol abuse in France. Absinthe was unauthorized in the USA and in France in the year 1912 and 1915 respectively. Absinthe was unauthorized in other countries also.
Absinthe Revival
During the ban, people either drank Absinthe substitutes, such as Pernod Pastis, or bought bootleg Absinthe. A large number of people were satisfied with the results that came out from the studies and research related to Absinthe.
Studies showed that Absinthe was no more dangerous than consuming other strong alcoholic beverages, such as whisky and vodka, and that Absinthe contained only very small amounts of thujone – not enough to cause any harmful side effects.
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 Absinthestill 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. Absinthe containing only up to 5mg per liter of fenchone is allowed in France.
One can now get Absinthe from online or from a liquor shop.For further information about Absinthe essences one can go through the site AbsintheKit.com. They also sell replica Absinthe glasses and spoonslike a Pontarlier glass and Eiffel Tower spoon.
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