Here is some information about the mythical drink Absinthe, the Green Fairy, the favorite drink of the likes of Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway, Gauguin, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Degas and many other famous artists and writers.

Absinthe is a strong alcoholic beveragedistilled at high proof but generally served diluted with iced water or in cocktails. Absinthe liquor is usually made from a wine alcohol base and is flavored with herbs and essential oils including wormwood (Artemisia Absinthium), aniseed and fennel. Other herbal ingredients used in the manufacture may include 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. Wormwood has been used in medicine since ancient times. In the Swiss town of Couvet in the Val-de-Travers a French doctor, Dr Pierre Ordinaire made Absinthe. Ordinaire used it on his patients, as an elixir, with miraculous results.

In Couvet Henri-Louis Pernod was using the Absinthe recipe to distill Absinthe and under the name of Pernod Fils in the French town of Pontarlier. By the middle of the 19th century, the Pernod company were producing 30,000 liters of Absinthe each day!

Not only in France but also in several other nations Absinthe was a well known drink. Absinthe’s popularity affected wine producers as it overtook wine as the favorite drink of the French people. Health and the effects of Absinthe was also considered at the same time. The liquor was linked to the Bohemian culture of Montmartre. According to the people’s thought thujone was a psychoactive resulting in psychedelic effects, convulsions, insanity, brain damage and death.

Van Gogh’s madness and his suicide, a man killing his family and the rising rate of alcohol abuse in France all had been caused due to Absinthe. Absinthe was unauthorized in the USA and in France in the year 1912 and 1915 respectively. Buying and selling of Absinthe was also illegalized in other countries.

Absinthe Revival

During the ban, people either drank Absinthe substitutes, such as Pernod Pastis, or bought bootleg Absinthe. Several people were influenced with the proves given by studies and research.

Studies showed that effects of Absinthe was same as consuming other strong alcoholic beverages and the thujone content in Absinthe is not harmful for anyone.

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. The fenchone content in Absinthe is 5mg per liter in France,.

Now it is possible to get Absinthe or Absinthe essences from anywhere.The website AbsintheKit.com provides all the information related to Absinthe essences. They also sell replica Absinthe glasses and spoonslike a Pontarlier glass and Eiffel Tower spoon.