Other botanicals are used for flavoring, but these three are required to be called true absinthe. So What is Absinthe?Ībsinthe is a distilled spirit flavored with aniseed, grande wormwood, and fennel-these botanicals are known as the “Holy Trinity”. In fact, there is more thujone found in sage than there is wormwood and no one worries about its toxicity. However, the amount of thujone found in wormwood is so small that you would die of alcohol poisoning before you would die of thujone poisoning. Thujone offers up a menthol-like aroma and it’s toxic if consumed in large quantities. Still, this stigma stays with thujone and therefore absinthe. However, extreme alcoholism and unscrupulous producers were likely to blame. Thujone was blamed for absinthe drinkers going mad during the height of its popularity. So what is thujone, you might ask? Thujone is a chemical compound found in a number of plants, but most famously it is found in Artemisia absinthium or grand wormwood. Since most authentic absinthes have trace amounts of thujone in them, they are, and had been, legal to sell. In the US, that amount is ten parts per million or 10mg/L (the EU regulation is 35mg/L). In short, the law regarding Artemisia absinthium states that it must be thujone-free. Thujoneįast-forward to the early 21st century, the laws regarding absinthe in the US were reinterpreted in 2007. Spain and Czech Republic continued to produce and legally consume it, but much of the world forgot about absinthe. In fact, several other countries joined suit over the years. Shortly after the First World War began, it was outlawed in France (in the US it was banned in 1912). However, the temperance movement-assisted by winemakers-targeted absinthe as the reason for society’s problems and wanted it banned. It was served everywhere in France and parts of Europe and even New Orleaneans were drinking absinthe as it made its way across the pond. It was served in French cafes, cabarets, bistros and music halls.
When phylloxera, a vine disease, decimated the wine industry in the 1870s, its popularity grew as it was inexpensive and easy to produce using neutral spirit as a base.īelle Époque portrait featuring Kübler Absinthe /Photo Credit: Kübler Absintheĭuring the Belle Époque, it was known to be the beverage of choice for many artists and poets of the time such as Van Gogh, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Manet, Wilde and Toulouse-Lautrec, among many others.
There it was used as an antimalarial and was mixed with wine to make it palatable. Its popularity grew in France in the 1830s after French soldiers came back from fighting in Algeria. Modern-day absinthe dates to Switzerland where it was being produced commercially at the end of the 1700s. A Brief History of Drinking AbsintheĪlthough drinking absinthe was at its height in the late 1800s during the Belle Époque in France, its use goes back to ancient Egypt when it was used for medicinal purposes. For the rest of us, we can be glad that we can once again enjoy the L’heure Verte-The Green Hour-to our hearts content. But for those seeking out hallucinations, they will be sadly disappointed when they don’t see the Green Fairy materialize after a few glasses. As a once illicit spirit, it seems that drinking absinthe will never escape appearing dangerous or forbidden. No other drink has had such a mythology attached to it like absinthe.
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