Absinthe wormwood is commonly Artemisia Absinthium or Grand Wormwood that’s actually a variety of wormwood which does not contain a vast amount of the compound thujone. Several brands of Absinthe utilize Roman Wormwood, Artemisia Pontica, together with Grand Wormwood and also this kind of wormwood also contains thujone absinthe-kit, so drinks with 2 types of wormwood might have more thujone. Thujone amounts may vary between brands significantly, some Absinthes just have negligible amounts of thujone, whereas others have up to 35mg/kg. Only Absinthe which includes negligible quantities of thujone is legal for sale in the USA because thujone is an outlawed food additive there.
Why is there controversy about Absinthe Wormwood?
Common Wormwood, Artemisia Absinthium, is a plant which was used in medicine since ancient times. It has been used:-
– To deal with poisoning due to toadstools and hemlock.
– As a tonic.
– To relieve a fever.
– As being a stimulant to digestion.
– To treat parasitic intestinal worms.
It is the herb Wormwood that gives Absinthe its bitterness, its green color and its name. The essential herbal oils in Absinthe are usually responsible for the famouse “louche” effect, the cloudy that occurs when water is added into the drink.
Absinthe was restricted in early 1900s in many countries because of the alleged harmful effects of the chemical thujone, seen in Wormwood extract. Absinthe drinking was associated with violent crimes, critical intoxication, insanity and thujone was thought to have psychoactive and psychedelic effects and to be a hallucinogen. It was even claimed that a french man wiped out his whole family after drinking Absinthe – he was actually an alcoholic who ingested copious sums of other alcohol right after the Absinthe!
From becoming a trendy Bohemian drink enjoyed by many writers and artists, such as Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and Oscar Wilde, it was suddenly a restricted and illegal drink. It was restricted in numerous European countries and in the USA but was not ever banned in the UK, where it had never been popular, Spain, Portugal or even the Czech Republic.
Absinthe Wormwood Revival
There was never any real evidence linking Absinthe drinking to hallucinations or insanity and it is now regarded that Absinthe isn’t any worse than some other highly alcoholic drink. Absinthe has approximately twice the alcoholic content of spirits like whisky and vodka and so must be consumed sparingly, but Absinthe wormwood is not believed to be harmful. Numerous Absinthe drinkers do report feeling a funny lucid or clear headed form of drunkenness when consuming a tad too much Absinthe – this could be due to the mixture of the sedative effects of a few of the herbs (as well as the alcohol content) as well as the stimulating effects of the Wormwood along with other herbs.
Since Absinthe was legalized in many countries in the 1990s there has been a renewed interest, a resurgence, in Absinthe drinking. There are several types and brands of Absinthe on the market and buyers can even order Absinthe essence, to produce their very own Absinthe, online from manufacturers like AbsintheKit.com.
Absinthe Wormwood continues to be the most important component in Absinthe these days but thujone content is firmly governed in the European Union (no greater than 10mg/kg) and the United States where only trace portions are permitted. Search for Absinthes that contain real wormwood and herbs not man-made flavors.