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Absinthe

© James Dixon

Although Absinthe has been banned in most EC members and the United States since the beginning of this century, it was never made illegal in Britain. A fact which a company in England has recently started to exploit by importing Absinthe from the Czech Republic. It has since become a very fashionably (and expensive) drink in trendy bars around the country, but there are many that have strong objections to the drink.

Dr. Pierre Ordinaire invented absinthe in 1797 but it was Henri-Louis Pernod who opened the first Absinthe distillery, in Switzerland before moving to a larger one in Pontarlier, France in 1805. Originally Absinthe was wine based and only affordable my the Upper classes with which it was very popular, however, during the 1870s it started to be made with grain alcohol and hence affordable by all.

Arnold (1989) informs us that Henri-Louis Pernod macerated angelica, aniseed, dittany, fennel, hyssop, juniper, lemonbalm, nutmeg, star anise and veronica with wormwood plants. He then left this blend of herbs and spices to sit before adding water and distilling it. Dried herbs were then added, including more wormwood and the mixture was diluted with alcohol to give a concentration of about 75% alcohol. Chlorophyll is then added to give it a green colour, giving rise to the name la fée verte (the green fairy), and l'heure verte (the green hour) in the evening during which Absinthe was drunk for its aperitif qualities.

Absinthe was a very popular drink among artists and writers who believed it stimulated creativity and acted as a curative and aphrodisiac. Probably the most famous are Edouard Manet (see the Absinthe Drinker, 1959), Oscar Wilde, Pablo Picasso (see the Absinthe Drinker from 1901 and 1902), Ernest Hemingway, and Vincent Van Gogh.

People became concerned over the consumption of absinthe during the 1850s when it was believed to produce a syndrome called absinthism, the systems of which included epileptic attacks, delirium, and hallucinations. At the beginning of this century the awareness of alcoholism as a problem in France increased, but because wine was considered a healthy drink and absinthe was the most popular liqueur at the time it became the focus of early prohibition efforts, and was banned in 1915.

In the U.S. Absinthe was considered a 'lady-like' drink and enjoyed in many coffee houses. However, it faced strong criticism most notably after Jean Lanfray murdered his wife after supposedly only two glasses of the drink in 1905 (the so called 'Absinthe Murder'). After a series of experiments on wormwood Absinthe was banned in 1912.