The end results of Absinthe are notorious. Ask anyone regarding Absinthe and they’ll remember Absinthe as the green liquor that was notoriously banned all over the world mainly because it drove men and women to insanity. Many of these individuals have never tried Asbinthe and cannot comment from personal experience.
Absinthe was at first developed as being an elixir or tonic by a doctor in the Swiss town of Couvet. Dr Ordinaire managed to make it out of a wide range of herbs recognized for their medicinal components absinthesupreme.com. His recipe finally got into the hands of Henri-Louis Pernod who made Absinthe from a wine base and added herbal ingredients just like aniseed, wormwood, hyssop, fennel, star anise, angelica root, lemon balm, nutmeg, juniper and also dittany. Some other producers used various kinds of herbs in combination with Pernod’s recipe, herbs such as calamus root and mint.
The Green Fairy, or Absinthe, was presented to French soldiers in the 1840s to take care of malaria and have become popular with the troops who brought it back home along where it grew extremely popular in bars in France. Several bars even had Absinthe hours – L’heure vert – the green hour.
The Absinthe Ritual was an important part of the enjoyment of drinking Absinthe. Absinthe was served in bars in exclusive Absinthe glasses using an Absinthe spoon, a sugar cube and cold water. The barman or waiter would make use of a carafe or fountain to drip the water on the sugar on the spoon and the client would observe the Absinthe louche as the water combined with the liquor.
Absinthe became a popular drink amongst the artists and writers of the Bohemian portion of Paris – Montmartre. Artists and writers, like Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Degas, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Oscar Wilde and Gauguin, all claimed that Absinthe gave them their genius and inspiration. Absinthe and Absinthe drinkers are showcased in many works of art for instance Albert Maignan’s “Green Muse” from 1895 displaying an Absinthe drinker that has a fairy (the green fairy) and Degas’ “L’Absinthe” from 1876.
Oscar Wilde wrote “After the first glass of Absinthe you see things as you wish they were. After the second you see them as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.”
Others have described the effects of drinking Absinthe as a “clear headed” or “lucid” drunkenness and this might be because Absinthe is made up of both sedatives and stimulants.
Effects of Absinthe and also the Ban
Absinthe was notoriously suspended in France in 1915 and several other countries around the globe also banned it. The prohibition campaigners had been able to persuade the French government that Absinthe would bring about the country’s pitfall and that extented drinking of Absinthe, Absinthism, caused the subsequent effects:-
– Hallucinations
– Hyper excitability
– Deterioration of the intellect
– Insanity
– Brain injury
– Lack of control
The chemical substance thujone, seen in one of the vital ingredients of absinthe, wormwood, was viewed as like THC inside the drug cannabis. Thujone was alleged to be a neurotoxin, to be psychoactive and also to result in psychedelic effects. The wormwood in Absinthe was held accountable for Van Gogh’s suicide and for a man killing his family.
Many studies have indicated that thujone should be consumed in large amounts to cause such awful effects and when Ted Breaux, Absinthe maker and creator of the “Lucid” brand, examined bottles of vintage pre-ban Absinthe he learned that Absinthe only was comprised of minute quantities of thujone. Absinthe has therefore been legalized in lots of countries now.
Absinthe is mainly alcohol and is an extremely strong spirit, about doubly strong as other sorts of spirits like whisky and vodka find more. It would therefore be essentially impossible to ingest a great deal of thujone as you would not be able to consume so much alcohol and still have the capacity to drink!
The results of Absinthe are really just stories, part of the myth and legend that is all around this glorious drink. Try a few yourself by getting a bottle of real wormwood Absinthe online or by developing your own personal by making use of Absinthe essences coming from AbsintheKit.com.