And the Absinthe arises…

The day after my 21st birthday I waltzed into the local liquor warehouse of Worcester, Massachusetts [you all know State] to make my first legal purchases. I quickly breezed through their piss-poor California wine section to the harder stuff and, to my shock/awe/disbelief I came across four brands of legal Absinthe. Prices varied but essentially amounted to $50 for a half litre. Yes, it is quite a steep price. I mulled over in my head the idea of the FDA relaxing rules for selling of products containing thujone, the hallucinogenic ingredient in absinthe responsible for the old green fairy folklore, and wondered how this could be possible. So to the internet I went – and the internet answered.

Real Green Fairy?

 

Indeed, the U.S. has relaxed the rules on a nearly hundred-year old ban on this slightly psychedelic drink. In late 2007 a few brands were approved for sale provided they contained such trace amounts of thujone that it can be considered thujone-free. It turned out, though, that absinthe never had very much of it to begin with. But there is so much more to the fabled drink of French Bohemia. The main ingredients are three herbs – a trifecta of pure inebriated bliss: grande wormwood, green anise (also used to make Greek Ouzo), and florence fennel, two of which used to grow in my back yard in California. Historically, most types of absinthes range in proof from 120-150, about 60-75% alcohol by volume. Though there are many styles, the end result of consumption is the same: truly uninhibited intoxication. You have such a good time, you will never want to remember it the morning after. Believe me, I would know.

So are these U.S.-approved brands the real deal? Not exactly. They are for the most part on the lower end of the absinthe proof scale. The only brand I have found with extensive information available about their product is Lucid, pictured on the right. Lucid contains all of the original ingredients but to a lesser degree. For more information about the Lucid Absinthe Supérieure, check out their website at http://www.drinklucid.com/. You may not feel like it’s the 1800’s and you are lounging around at Moulin Rouge like all the famous artists, but it’s pretty damn close.

Absinthe is typically prepared by pouring one ounce (30 mL), or for the more adventurous an ounce and a half (45 mL), into a small glass, usually with a “dose line”. A slotted spoon is placed over the glass and on top of that, a sugar cube. Then, cold water is poured over the sugar so it can dissolve into the drink until the water level reaches 3:1, or for the less adventurous, 5:1. It is stirred in order to break up the chemical compounds and release all the flavors usually suppressed by the anise. But many people have also preferred to mix absinthe into a cocktail, and many famous concoctions have been coined over the years, including the “Green Lantern”, Ernest Hemingway’s “Death in the Afternoon”, and even an Absinthe Bloody Mary. When I was in Amsterdam three years ago, my curiosity overcame me and I tried absinthe the old fashioned way. I was still an art student after all, and had just spent the day at the Van Gogh museum. I guess I wanted to live a little in the shoes of one of my idols.

Make no mistake, most people find the taste of absinthe appallingly awful, myself included. It is not the drink you order to enjoy. It is the drink you order to get, well, as they say in the army, FUBAR. I think it is something everyone with a fondness for liquor to try once in their lives. As for me, I’ll be in the U.K. for a year where it is not banned so rest assured I will document my next excursion into the world of the green fairy.