![]() ![]() Ăbˈsĭnth: an emerald-green, toxic liqueur distilled from wormwood and other aromatics, including angelica root, sweet-flag root, star anise, and dittany, which have been macerated and steeped in alcohol. Does absinthe really make the heart fonder? Dance with the green fairy and see for yourself.Įtymology: French absinthe, from Latin absinthium, from Greek apsinthion Some local liquor stores sell absinthe because the export version contains no wormwood.Ībsinthe’s reputedly an aphrodisiac. Fact is, it’s just another alcoholic beverage, albeit a unique one.Ībsinthe’s making a comeback and in 2007 it became legal to sell authentic varieties using 19th-century distilling methods. For a long time absinthe was unfairly lumped with opiates, cocaine, and marijuana. Experts attribute absinthe’s past effects such as insanity and suicide to toxic artificial green colorings such as copper sulfate. The green creamy appearance, by the way, is what caused absinthe so much trouble. True absintheurs drop the water slowly, watching each drip cut a milky swath through the peridot-green absinthe. As the water hits the liquor a white cloudiness, the louche, swirls through the liquid, creating quite the spectacle and releasing the absinthe’s herbal bouquet. Drip iced water (three parts water, one part absinthe) over the sugar cube. Place a sugar cube on a flat perforated spoon and rest the spoon across the glass. In its heyday, it enjoyed a cult-like following that had much to do with how you drink it. It faded away though pockets of underground users here and there kept its myth alive. Today, some experts attribute absinthe’s delirious effects to toxic artificial coloring like copper sulfate. By 1915, the United States and most European countries had banned it. The prohibitionists portrayed absinthe as an addictive psychoactive drug. Those acts did nothing to help absinthe’s image. Van Gogh, Picasso, and other artists featured absinthe in their works, and some went insane some committed suicide. If you binged on absinthe, alcohol poisoning would get you long before thujone could.Ī lot of writers and artists drank absinthe with wild abandon and it acquired a reputation as a dangerous substance. That hint of licorice comes from herbs, especially Artemisia absinthium, the infamous wormwood with its thujone, a convulsant poison similar to marijuana’s T.H.C. I opened my bottle of Liqueur Aux Plantes D’ Absinthe (110 proof!) and inhaled licorice. Upon returning, she handed me a slender box with art of a green, shapely nude woman bearing wings. So when a woman bound for southern France said, “I’m bringing you some absinthe,” I was ready to dance with the green fairy. ![]() Word play, for wormwood is a prime constituent of absinthe, known as “La Fée Verte” (The Green Fairy)-a tribute to its seductive powers.Īn air of danger, a wild romance with writers, and a tortured history: that’s why absinthe fascinates me. The woodworms are so bad and eat hell out of all the furniture that you can always claim the woodworms did it.” Great success shooting the knife underhand into the piano. “Got tight last night on absinthe and did knife tricks. “takes the place of the evening papers, of all the old evenings in cafés, of all the chestnut trees that would be in bloom now in this month ….” Reading For Whom the Bell Tolls in Alicante, Spain, appropriately enough, I came across these lines by Hemingway. It packs a punch and in Hemingway’s time some people believed it enhanced creativity artists and writers especially believed that. Genuine absinthe is 70 to 80 percent alcohol. Strongly associated with southern France, it’s an emerald-green liqueur distilled from wormwood, anise, and other aromatics, all steeped in alcohol. It was Hemingway who introduced absinthe to me-a drink romanticized more than any other. Absinthe was a word I never heard until late in life. Growing up in a dry county left me somewhat unworldly regarding adult beverages. ![]()
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