Archive for the ‘Back to basic’ Category
About Absinthe - The Video
On June 30, 2008 in Back to basic
Nice video from Jade Liqueurs about how they made their superb absinthe.
Will absinthe make me trip to the skies ?
On October 08, 2007 in Back to basic
No, it will not.
It’s easy to find, on the internet, descriptions of alleged absinthe “trips”. They were either written by idiots, or the substance upon which the describers tripped was something other than absinthe, or both. There are no psychoactive (in the sense of LSD, THC, etc.) ingredients in absinthe. Absinthe will not make you fail a drug test, either, unless the test is designed to find the ingredients in absinthe, all of which are legal substances. If absinthe makes you fail a drug test due to false positives for illegal substances, your problem is not absinthe, but an incompetent drug tester. Yes, you can find glorious descriptions of absinthe highs in 19th century literature. They’re largely so much flowery hot air, written by poets. Poets tend to exaggerate things. There are odes to the divine attributes of whisky and beer. There are thousands of poems about wine. You get the point.
Will Absinthe hurt me ?
On October 08, 2007 in Back to basic
It certainly will, if you drink a bottle of it and drive into a tree! But it won’t poison you or make you crazy. The dyes used by producers of old to turn the lesser-quality products green were sometimes little short of poisons themselves, but no commercial absinthe producer could stoop that low today even if he wanted to, due to food and drug regulations.
In addition, because absinthe followed back to its roots is a “home remedy”, it must be considered that every plant in it is there for a reason - they all have some effect on the human body. These effects, such as the reduction of fever, were obviously considered desirable by the writers of early herbals and pharmacopeias.
Just as the discerning consumer of herbal products from the health food store should inform himself as to the possible ramifications of ingesting these substances, the consumer of absinthe, especially if he is in poor health, should do his homework. Epileptics in particular should be wary, as some of the substances found in small quantities in absinthe are convulsants. A discussion of the effects on the human body of all the herbs that might be found in absinthe (none of them are illegal plants) is beyond the scope of this FAQ, but is covered in some of the other documents on this site.
Most importantly of all, 140-proof liquor is not a thing to be taken lightly, even by a completely healthy person.
Why is Absinthe green ?
On October 08, 2007 in Back to basic
The colorless product that runs out of the still was traditionally fortified with additional herbs to strengthen its fragrance. These herbs transfer chlorophyll to the clear liquor, turning it green. The original intent was probably not to create a green color – this was likely just a happy accident – although one that has certainly contributed over the years to absinthe’s popularity.
The chlorophyll in the absinthe degrades with time and turns brown, just as leaves do on trees - the French call the result “feuille morte”, and the process is considered desirable. Very old absinthe is usually amber-brown. Depending upon the herbs used for coloration and the method, absinthe freshly colored with herbs may range from pale yellow to dark green. A shade commonly compared to the gemstone peridot was apparently the color of the best absinthes of the Belle Epoque. We say apparently, because there was no color photography, and as noted previously, 100-year-old absinthe is no longer green. Therefore we must get our clues from period paintings and textual descriptions.
Absinthe producers who wanted to short-cut the delicate and tedious natural coloration process simply dyed the clear liquor green, which missed the point, but fooled the undiscerning or indifferent consumer.
Why was Absinthe banned ?
On October 08, 2007 in Back to basic
Because that stuff makes you crazy!! After all, the French slogan goes “Absinthe rend fou!”, and they ought to know, right?
One French politician who supported the ban claimed that if absinthe remained legal, half the population would eventually be employed in fitting the remaining half with straightjackets as a result. The facts are less lurid. A number of purportedly scientific studies performed in France in the latter half of the 19th century claimed to prove that absinthe was harmful to human health. The foremost of the researchers who carried out these studies was one Dr. Valentin Magnan, whose specialties were alcoholism and insanity. Due in large part to the efforts of Dr. Magnan and his supporters, a political struggle ensued between the liquor industry on one side and prohibitionists on the other. The prohibitionists were eventually victorious, forcing the passage of laws that banned the manufacture and sale of absinthe in Switzerland in 1910, in France in 1915, and in many other western countries in which it was popular, including the United States in 1912. It must be noted that in some countries, such as Spain, Portugal, and Britain, absinthe was never banned.
What the hell is Absinthe ?
On October 08, 2007 in Back to basic
Absinthe is the French word for wormwood. It’s pronounced ab´- sant. Wormwood is a plant, or to be more precise, a number of plants classified within the genus Artemisia.
Liquid preparations made from the Artemisias have been used as medicines and tonics for as long as human history has been recorded. Once such medicine, based upon the plant Artemisia absinthium (known to the French as grande absinthe, literally, “tall wormwood”, but usually given in English as Common Wormwood) came to be so greatly appreciated in France and Switzerland in the 18th and 19th centuries that people took to drinking it for pleasure. That elixir, a distillate of wormwood and other herbs in alcohol, was called “extrait d’absinthe” (wormwood extract), or, less formally, absinthe. An ever-growing demand for this medicine turned aperitif as the 19th century rolled into the 20th engendered an enormous absinthe industry in Switzerland and France. Absinthe became an emblem of Belle Epoque France, and was intimately associated with the explosion of literary and artistic activity that characterized the era. The industry and the era ended with the prohibition of absinthe manufacture and sale in Switzerland and France, in 1910 and 1915 respectively.