Absinthe: The Green Fairy

The name Absinthe conjures up thoughts of misspent nights in Amsterdam and the frat boy mentality of getting as wasted on drugs and alcohol as humanly possible. But Iâ??d like to present the case that Absinthe, sometimes referred to in French as "La Fee Verte" or "The Green Fairy", is a very versatile, enjoyable drink for a person looking to experience one of the absolute classic drinks of Europe. Absinthe has an extremely rich history, perhaps one of the most interesting of all alcoholic beverages, and is still considered a controlled substance in the United States, unless it is considered to be thujone free. The latter type of Absinthe is still not technically legal, but it is not a controlled substance.

By this time you’re probably wondering just what the heck is in Absinthe that makes it so illegal in The US and in many European countries still to this day. The drink started out in Switzerland as an herbal elixir of sorts. It was used to treat everything from coughs to headaches to manic behavior. The actual make-up of Absinthe includes herbs like anise, anise seed, fennel, licorice, hyssop, veronica, lemon balm, angelica root, dittany, coriander, juniper, and nutmeg. The key ingredient that has made it illegal however is called wormwood. Absinthe has a very strong and very characteristic licorice flavor and is often diluted with water in a process called louching. Often, to increase the speed at which the alcohol is absorbed through the stomach walls and into the bloodstream, Absinthe drinkers will pour the liquid over a slotted spoon resembling a prop from a Tim Burton film that usually a sugar cube. Adding pure sugar to any alcohol will quicken the effects of the drink and hasten the state of drunkenness.

Going back to the subject of much controversy, wormwood is a perennial plant that grows in central Europe and the Caucasus mountain range. When cooked and distilled, the wormwood releases a psychoactive chemical called thujone. It is this thujone that some claim gives Absinthe its psychedelic or hallucinogenic properties. In recent years, scientific testing of vintage Absinthe from as far back as 1899 has shown that thujone levels in even the most potent bottle of Absinthe are only about 1/50-1/100^th of the thujone level that was previously believed to be contained in a bottle of the green beverage. But since thujone is highly regulated, especially in the US, Absinthe containing it is still a controlled substance.

Absinthe has a history of being used as a scapegoat for many of the French and European social and historical problems during the late 19^th and early 20^th century. It was even banned in France and Switzerland during this time, but the ban has been lifted recently for the Swiss population and French authorities are unlikely to prosecute anyone consuming or possessing it these days. The biggest reason why Absinthe was hated and ultimately banned in France in 1915 was because the French wine producers complained that Absinthe was quickly eclipsing wine as the most popular drink in France at the time. Many famous artists, authors, and musicians were said to have consumed the drink only to be inspired to create their masterpieces in small flats and studios in and around Paris. While this collective cultural memory may be quite cliché, the argument that Absinthe was a destroyer of consumers’ brains and responsible for many of France’s social ills of the period was pushed quite heavy onto the French Government by these very same wine producers. So, in primarily order to preserve and protect French wine as the staple beverage of the population, Absinthe was banned in France after a long hard-fought propaganda campaign was launched against its distillers.

It is a peculiar and amusing fact that when there are wine shortages and rising wine prices in France, Absinthe becomes the popular alternative. This has been the case in recent years and was the case more than a hundred years ago when French wine makers were striving so hard to ban the drink. History often has a way of repeating itself for better or worse, and Absinthe has often been at the center of the drug and alcohol regulation argument for over a century now.