Absinthe wormwood is usually Artemisia Absinthium or Grand Wormwood which is actually a variety of wormwood which does not have a large number of the substance thujone absinthesupreme.com
. Several brands of Absinthe use Roman Wormwood, Artemisia Pontica, together with Grand Wormwood and also this form of wormwood also includes thujone, so drinks with two types of wormwood might have more thujone. Thujone amounts may vary between brands significantly, some Absinthes just have negligible levels of thujone, whereas others have approximately 35mg/kg. Only Absinthe that has negligible amounts of thujone is legal for selling in the USA simply because thujone is an unlawful food additive at this time there.
Why is there controversy regarding Absinthe Wormwood?
Common Wormwood, Artemisia Absinthium, is a plant which has been used in medicine for thousands of years. It has been used:-
– To counteract poisoning brought on by toadstools and hemlock.
– As a tonic.
– To reduce temperature.
– Being a stimulant to digestion.
– To deal with parasitic intestinal worms.
It is the herb Wormwood that gives Absinthe its bitterness, its green color as well as name. The essential herbal oils in Absinthe are also the reason for the famouse “louche” effect, the cloudy that happens when water is added to the drink.
Absinthe was banned during the early 1900s in lots of countries due to the alleged side effects of the chemical thujone, seen in Wormwood extract. Absinthe drinking was connected to violent crimes, significant intoxication, madness and thujone was believed to have psychoactive and psychedelic effects and to be a hallucinogen. It was even claimed that a french man killed his whole family after drinking Absinthe – he was in fact an alcoholic who used copious levels of other alcohol right after the Absinthe!
From becoming a trendy Bohemian drink enjoyed by many writers and artists, like Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and Oscar Wilde, it had been instantly a prohibited and illegal drink. It was forbidden in a lot of European countries and in the USA but was never banned in the UK, where it had not been popular, Spain, Portugal or the Czech Republic.
Absinthe Wormwood Revival
There was clearly no real evidence linking Absinthe drinking to hallucinations or insanity and it’s now identified that Absinthe is no worse than any other highly alcoholic drink. Absinthe has roughly twice the alcoholic content of spirits such as whisky and vodka therefore must be consumed moderately, but Absinthe wormwood is not considered to be harmful. A lot of Absinthe drinkers do report feeling an interesting lucid or clear headed form of drunkenness when consuming a bit too much Absinthe – this may be a result of the combination of the sedative effects of a few of the herbs (and the alcohol content) and the stimulating effects of the Wormwood as well as other herbs.
Since Absinthe was legalized in several countries in the 1990s there have been a renewed interest, a revival, in Absinthe drinking. There are several types and brands of Absinthe for sale and buyers can also order Absinthe essence, to create their particular Absinthe, online from companies like AbsintheKit.com.
Absinthe Wormwood is still the most significant component in Absinthe today but thujone content is firmly regulated in the European Union (no greater than 10mg/kg) and the United States where only trace sums are allowed. Try to find Absinthes that have real wormwood and herbs not synthetic flavors.