News & Comments Juno Editor/Paula Guran on 16 Dec 2007 02:48 pm
La Fee Verte Legal Again
Earlier this year, federal authorities approved the sale of absinthe if manufacturers could prove that thujone levels were almost undetectable, and if they added a qualifier to the word “absinthe,” such as “absinthe superieure.” Many other countries, such as France and Switzerland, also have lifted their bans. A French brand, Lucid –based on a formula by New Orleans chemist Ted Breaux who reverse-engineered an old bottle of absinthe to devise his formula — won legal approval earlier this year and went on sale during the summer, followed soon after by Swiss-made Kubler and the Brazilian Absinto Camargo.
St. George Spirits of Alameda, CA has now, after seven applications, received approval for its brand, St. George’s Absinthe Verte. On December 3, the small artisan distillery sold its token first bottle, becoming the only American company since 1912 to sell absinthe in the United States.
And what is the allure of this liquor thats taste has been described as a “complex Luden’s cough drop”? (From personal experience, I’d say: Distilled and fermented licorice with a touch of Vicks VapoRub.) Like most legends, absinthe doesn’t quite live up to its hype. As The Virtual Absinthe Museumstates: “Absinthe — because of its beautiful and ever-changing green colour, its air of danger and seduction, and above all because of its allegedly psychoactive properties — was romanticized and captured in artwork and writings by countless artists, playwrights and authors. The surrealist Alfred Jarry, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Toulouse Lautrec, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allen Poe, Picasso, Hemingway and many others all featured it prominently in their works. All these artists were celebrated not just for their work, but also for their often outrageously bohemian lifestyles. Some even went mad, or at least behaved as if they were (facts that would later be used by prohibitionists as proof of absinthe’s evils).”
Dirk Lachenmeier, a scientist at the German food surveillance laboratory CVUA Karlsruh, explains absinthe’s popularity with all those artists and writers is ineluctably unromantic. “It was the psychotropic drug (due to ethanol, of course) with the highest availability and lowest price in this time frame,” he says. In other words, it was Belle Epoque Thunderbird. “I presume that Van Gogh, Degas, and consorts would have been equally excellent artists if they had drunk nothing or other beverages like wine, gin, or vodka.”
There’s also the fascination of the traditional absinthe-drinking ritual. Although you can drink absinthe by the shot or as an ingredient in numerous cocktails, the traditional way is to place a flat slotted spoon across a tulip-shaped glass with a “dose” of absinthe in it, balance a sugar cube on top, then trickle cold water on the the sugar cube. This gradually melts the sugar and it drips, along with the water, into the absinthe, causing the green liquor to louche (French for “shady”) into an opaque opalescent white as the essential oils are released from the alcoholic solution. Seeing the swirl of the louche and the drink gradually change color from deep green to white is all part of the coolth.
[Experts claim the “so-called Bohemian absinthe ritual” — where alcohol-soaked sugar is set alight — is not a
traditional method, but developed less than 10 years ago and is a historical travesty…and tastes yucky.]
Absinthe was eventually banned primarily due to its popularity. It started as as fairly expensive, but by the second half of 19th century, it was — as mentioned — the Thunderbird of the the time. During the same era, there was a shortage of French wine (vineyards had to be replanted after infestations of aphids and a nasty mildew) and a consequent rise in its price. Affordable absinthe became the working class drink. As the wine industry recovered, it lobbied for prohibition of “unnatural” products like absinthe.
There were pseudo-scientific claims the drink caused “absinthism” (a syndrome that led to madness, criminality, depravity, and worse) that came to be generally accepted as true. Now “absinthism” is seem as an effect of the alcohol and, perhaps, poisonous chemical adulterants used in cheap absinthes.
Now that it is no longer a forbidden high and has no more a connection to creativity and bohemianism than any drug — will absinthe become as mundane as the cosmopolitan? Perhaps. Decadence requires a certain elegance and absinthe, if imbibed with all the ritual and paraphernalia, is still more stylish than swigging Bud Light from the can.
The Virtual Absinthe Museum: An excellent Web resource on the subject
A cute litlle multimedia production: “Absinthe: Demystifying the Storied Drink”
NYTimes: A Liquor of Legend Makes a Comeback
NYTimes” Connections: Absinthe Returns in a Glass Half Full of Mystique and Misery
SFChronicle: Alameda distiller helps make absinthe legitimate again
All About Absinthe
Boston Globe: Green Light: Absinthe, illicit and alluring, is now available in Boston
[Art: (TOP) Privat-Livemont’s 1896 poster advertising absinthe; (BOTTOM) “L’Heure”, a photograph by Damian Hevia (2004)]
on 16 Dec 2007 at 3:55 pm 1.Carole McDonnell said …
Oh gee! All I remember about Absinthe is how poor Oscar Wilde’s body pretty much exploded and foamed from all his orifices the minute he died. All from that dang absinthe. When I read that, it made me think of a fermented volcano overflowing. Not a great way to look after one’s death. Turned this literature major off any romance that the mention of the word “absinthe” might have brought to my mind. -C
on 16 Dec 2007 at 3:56 pm 2.Carole McDonnell said …
Wait a second, I thought it was the sweet-tasting lead in all that paint that Van Gogh ate that drove him mad. -C
on 16 Dec 2007 at 6:46 pm 3.Saskia said …
There’s a Spanish absinthe with added pomegranate juice. It’s the only I’ve tried that doesn’t give me heartburn.
Carole, I’ll sell you an advance ticket to my volcano. No refunds if it doesn’t happen, though. 
on 17 Dec 2007 at 4:01 am 4.bettie said …
I have two bottles of absinthe in the house right now–both X-mas presents for my hubby, who collects bottles of interesting liquor the way other men collect baseball cards. One is the clear Swiss Kubler Absinthe Superior which is legal in the states and was purchased here. The other is imported from the EU. We haven’t tried either yet (we’re waiting for Christmas). Despite all the effort and expense, I have a feeling I won’t like it–I’ve never been fond of anise.
(
on 17 Dec 2007 at 9:13 am 5.TheSceptic said …
Dirk Lachenmeier, a scientist at the German food surveillance laboratory CVUA Karlsruh, explains absinthe’s popularity with all those artists and writers is ineluctably unromantic. “It was the psychotropic drug (due to ethanol, of course) with the highest availability and lowest price in this time frame,” he says.
Yeah, and it had 100s of times more thujone originally (unlike today) Thujone causes the GABA receptors to fire randomly, according to scientists at Berkley University.
I don’t know what CVUA is, but Professor Wilfred Arnold, Biochemist, University of Kansas was quoted here:
“But the biggest controversy surrounding the liquor–once dubbed “one of the worst enemies of man”–is about not its resurgence but rather its authenticity. Enthusiasts claim the thujone-free brands, which contain less than 10 parts per million (p.p.m.) of the chemical, are made with the same relatively small amounts of thujone as the old brews. But scientists wrote in the British Medical Journal that absinthe bottled before 1900 packed up to 260 p.p.m. of thujone–which may not sound like much, but consider that only 15 parts per billion of lead in drinking water is enough to scare regulators. “They are playing pretend,” study co-author Wilfred Arnold says of the liquor’s new cheerleaders. “It is nothing like the old stuff.”
Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007 Time Magazine
on 17 Dec 2007 at 11:21 am 6.Juno Editor/Paula Guran said …
Well, Skeptic, read a little more. You’ll find that other scientists dispute the BMJ as to thujone content of the original stuff.
on 17 Dec 2007 at 1:28 pm 7.TheSceptic said …
Hi Paula
Which scientists?
on 17 Dec 2007 at 2:59 pm 8.Carole McDonnell said …
LOVL! ROTFLOL! Oh Saskia. Best laugh of the morning. Let me see how this little debate between Paula and TheSceptic re the thujones works out before I buy those tickets. -C
on 17 Dec 2007 at 3:32 pm 9.Juno Editor/Paula Guran said …
Sigh. You know — this was supposed to be a light-hearted little article about the “return” of absinthe. It is not in-depth. It is not complete — no more than any of those stories I linked to. And if the New York Times need not cover all aspects of this topic as a current event — I don’t need to either.
Suffice to say: Yes, there is debate on the topic. Am I going to spend one more minute looking for the data to continue informing “the public” about it? No.
on 06 Jan 2008 at 4:26 pm 10.In Liquor-Related News… « Skid Roche said …
[…] In Liquor-Related News… Recently Paula Guran at Juno Books posted a great article about absinthe on the event of St. George Spirits in Alameda getting the legal okeedokee to offer the greeny liquor for sale. It’s been illegal in the US, though available illicitly, since the teens. […]
on 23 Jul 2008 at 6:45 am 11.Mike Unruh said …
I just got back from Tales of the Cocktail 2008 in New Orleans, where I visited the Absinthe Museum and tried absinthe for the first time. As I am a huge fan of black licorice, I love the taste of absinthe. I learned a lot about the drink, and sampled various brands like La Fee, Lucid, and Marteau. As far as drinking it straight, you can choose to go with or without the “ritual”. That means straight from the bottle into the glass equally mixed with water. In this case, I liked Marteau the best. However, I preferred the ritual dripping of water from the fountain, into the sugar cube, and through the spoon. It was close between La Fee and Lucid here, but I give the nod to La Fee. The next thing that I learned was that absinthe mixes amazingly well with other spirits to make a wide variety of delicious drinks. My favorite, as well as Ernest Hemingway’s, is a drink called Death in the Afternoon which blends iced champagne 3:1 to absinthe in a chilled champagne flute. Great drink, and Vive l’Absinthe!