Tell me your Absinthe story...Have you met the little green fairy?!
Tell me your Absinthe story...Have you met the little green fairy?
Answers:
I danced with that little green fairy whilst drinking Hemmingways (champagne & absinthe) what a marvellous afternoon - but we did have some trouble getting the baboon off the cheeseboard.
Alas for my drinking partner that day absinthe made her f@rts go Honda.
I've had plenty of absinthe...the green fairy is just a myth.
Stay away from Czech absinthe...you'll see far more of the porcelain god than the green fairy.
I've heard the fairy-inducing magic that is Absinthe is from a plant called wormwood.
While I was backpacking through the spongy summer tundra of Denali National Park in Alaska, I found this wormwood plant. I took the leaves and crunched them up and stuffed them inside my pillowcase.
I had some of the most psychedelic dreams of my life.
Unfortunately the Net is full of false ideas and myths about "the green fairy", poor little lady, a victim of many misunderstoods and confusions... here's what's real:
It's totally and completely false that absinthe causes hallucinations, it has been proven over and over again scientifically, either in surviving XIX century absinthe bottle either in todays modern brands of real absinthe.
Absinthe was banned because the early XX century wine producers, being threatened by the huge sales of absinthe lobbied together with religious conservative movements to forbid it under many false pretexts. Eventually, they did it. It was never banned in England, Spain and Portugal, in these two countries it is still produced today. The USA are currently the only country in the world still forbidding absinthe.
The hallucinogenic myth is being perpetuated by unscrupulous vendors (who make fortunes out of the ignorance of mainly american customers) and some manufacturers of a "thing" that is not absinthe. I'm talking about mainly czech producers who claim their "absinth" is "high on thujones".
Wormwood, arthemisia absintium, the plant, does in fact contain the mollecule thujone that despite looking similar to THC is not the same nor does it have the same effects. Before you had any hallucinations with thujone you would die first from it's toxicity since you had to ingest a massive ammount of it. The thing is that the very small ammounts of thujone in wormwood almost disappear completely through the process that any absinthe must suffer to be considered an absinthe: Distillation.
Further example of the ridiculousness of that myth, the aromatic plant used in some dishes, sage, has more thujone than wormwood, not enough to be toxic, of course.
So please, enjoy absinthe for what it really is: the most complex tasting drink made by Man, it can even be superior to the best red wines, and this because:
- ABSINTHE IS: Grape spirit distilled together with up to 9 different herbs, among them green anis (the main constituent), wormwood, petite wormwood, fennel, hyssop, melissa, angelica of the alps, star anis and sometimes coriander seeds. This process of slow distillation is very difficult and complex, it takes up to 18 hours of a carefully monitered distillation, a little too much temperature and it's ruined. That's why it can't be reproduced by amateurs. All spirits after distillation are clear as water, including whiskey and absinthe. Some absinthes are sold that way, others are coloured with natural herbs, so that green is simply clorophile, not some E-23758590...
-ABSINTHE IS NOT: cheap vodka with wormwood soaked in it, it would taste horrible because wormwood contains the second most bitter substance known to Man;
cheap grain alcohol artificially coloured and flavoured (the czech "absinths").
Final note, never, BUT NEVER burn a sugar cube over your absinthe, that's a fake, stupid commercial gimmick invented by the czechs in the 1990's, nobody ever drank absinthe that way in the XIX century. They drinked it this way:
- on a large, clear glass pour no more than two fingers of absinthe; then slowly, very slowly, drop by drop if you can pour ice cold water, no less than 2 parts of water to one of absinthe; you may notice your absinthe will become cloudy, opaque, it's a sign of it's authenticity. Now again very slowly and calmly, proceed with the tasting, absinthe is not to be stupidly gulped down like a shot, it must be appreciated with ease so that all the subtle flavours may toy with your pallate.
This said, the best brands of REAL absinthe in the market, available online, are french and swiss, namely more "cheap" ones like Un émile or Verte/Blanche de Fougerolles or Kubler, or more pricey but top notch like La Clandestine and especially the Jades.
I've drunk absinthe several times, its no big deal especially if you already like aniseed flavored drinks like the Greek Ouzo and French Pastis -- which I do -- except its an awful lot more expensive. The last time was last month at at tasting of several different types of absinthe in London, where it was never banned.
Absinthe is an aniseed flavoured spirit that is clear until water is added to it, when it turns milky. Many look iridiscent green before the water is added, and retain a pale green tint - hence the nick-name Green Fairy
Absinthe contains a number of herbs and spices, but the one that got it that reputation - most likely unfairly - is wormwood. Wormwood has an ingredient called thujone which has a structure similar to T.H.C. which is the active chemical in cannabis.
There is a tiny amount of wormwood - used for its bitter flavours - in Absinthe, and you'd have to drink an enormous amount of it to be affected. Bear in mind that absinthe has a very high alcohol content, around 70% alcohol (normal spirits are 40%), but that it is drunk with 6 -8 times as much water, thus diluting the alcohol and active ingredients.
However, it was made illegal in France and some other countries because of fear that people were made mad by absinthe. The stories about the effect of the wormwood content were over exagerated. But there was tremendous consumption of absinthe in France and people certainly drank too much.
What does it do? Same as any other spirit. It makes you drunk if you have too much of it. Does it make you high? Well, it didn't affect me. I think you'd have to drink so much of it that you'd be drunk from its high alcohol content first
Does it still have wormwood in it? Yes of course. Bear in mind it wasn't made illegal in all countries and even though France made absinthe illegal and thus Pernod made a wormwood free replacement drink known as Pastis, Pernod continued to make real absinthe for export.
I'm not a lawyer but the absinthe merchants say that it is only illegal to SELL absinthe in the US, but legal to buy and consume it, and so companies like eabsinthe.com ship personal orders to the US and guarantee refund if a consignment is lost or seized.
However, if you want to know what absinthe is like without buying it, go to any bar or pub and ask for a glass of Pernod or Ricard pastis. Pastis is the wormwood free replacement produced after absinthe was made illegal. These also have lower alcohol, so you add less water. The taste and look of pastis is the same as absinthe.
This online merchant that will ship absinthe to US customers from the UK - see http://www.eabsinthe.com