Everything About Absinthe
December 24th, 2009 | by admin |Absinthe had been the favorite drink of several popular artists and writers.
Absinthe is a strong alcoholic beveragedistilled at high proof but generally served diluted with iced water or in cocktails. A wine alcohol base used in the making of Absinthe and is flavored with herbs and essential oils including wormwood (Artemisia Absinthium), aniseed and fennel. Absinthe is also prepared from other herbal ingredients like hyssop, lemon balm, star anise, angelica, juniper, nutmeg, dittany, calamus root and mint.
Information about Absinthe History
Absinthe has a very long and interesting history. Since ancient times wormwood has been used as a tonic and to stimulate digestion. According to the legend Absinthe was created by a French doctor, Dr Pierre Ordinaire in the late 18th century, in the Swiss town of Couvet. It was used as an elixir by Ordinaire on his patients.
During the 19th century, Henri-Louis Pernod was using the Absinthe recipe to distill Absinthe in Couvet and under the name of Pernod Fils in the French town of Pontarlier. Everyday the production of Absinthe was 30,000 liters by the Pernod company!
Not only in France but also in several other nations Absinthe was a well known drink. Absinthe became the favorite drink of the French people. Contemporary there were concerns about health and the effects of Absinthe. The liquor was linked to the Bohemian culture of Montmartre. People became convinced that thujone, the chemical in wormwood, was psychoactive and caused psychedelic effects, convulsions, insanity, brain damage and death.
Van Gogh’s insanity and his suicide, murder of a family and the rising rate of alcohol abuse in France were the events for which Absinthe was blamed. Absinthe was banned both in the USA and in France. Other countries also restricted Absinthe.
Absinthe Revival
During the ban, people either drank Absinthe substitutes, such as Pernod Pastis, or bought bootleg Absinthe. Studies and research showed that the claims made about Absinthe were untrue.
Studies showed that the thujone content in Absinthe was so small that it cannot cause harmful side effects and drinking Absinthe was no more dangerous than other strong alcoholic beverages.
Absinthe with up to 10mg/kg of thujone was legalized in the EU and with 10 ppm in the USA .
France, home of Pernod’s original Absinthestill has a ban on products labeled “Absinthe” and France also strictly regulates drinks containing fenchone, a chemical in fennel which is a key ingredient in Absinthe. One can get Absinthe with up to 5mg per liter of fenchone in France.
In these times of revival, it is possible to order Absinthe online, buy it in a liquor shop or buy real wormwood Absinthe essences to make your very own Green Fairy – see AbsintheKit.One can get more information about Absinthe essences on AbsintheKit.com. They also sell replica Absinthe glasses and spoonslike a Pontarlier glass and Eiffel Tower spoon.
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