2 Alcohol questions: Absinthe; and beer as a carb builder

Factual Questions
1

Related thread:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=54268

  1. A friend of mine just proudly showed me a bottle of abisinthe he got illegally off the Internet from Spain.

The legend I hear is that abby was banned because it is more
than just an alcoholic spirit, but actually a highly addictive narcotic.

Nonsense, calims my friend, who by the way is a very, very good registered nurse. He sez that it is NOT a narcotic, but just a very potent (70 p) alcoholic beverage, and the reason it is banned is that it’s strentgh makes it the preferred drink of alkies.

What is the straight dope with this possibly lethal liquer?

  1. I heard this story on a sports talk radio show, and want to check it out. The story is that after a basketball game, Wilt Chamberlain would drink an entire case of beer. He did this for 2 reasons:

-Beer back then was so heavy in carbohydrates and sugar,it would replenish him
-He was 7-2, 300+ pounds and could drink a case of beer!

Is this possible, and are there other athletes
that drank beer after games to get their mojo back?

2

The site I visited ( http://chemweb.calpoly.edu/chem/bailey/377/PapersSp2000/Ann/absinthe.html ) tells of some of the physical ramifications of absinthe usage. The active ingredient is thujone, a toxic chemical found in the wormwood which is absinthe’s main ingredient. It never says that absinthe is a narcotic, but it does cause some other problems.

About Wilt the Stilt, maybe he was just a drunk. :smiley:
Beer does have carbohydrates, which is why the sedentary beer-guzzler develops a beer belly from the fat those carbohydrates are so easily turned into. Same with the sugars. Remember, alcohol itself is pretty easy to burn, but it has a depressive effect on the central nervous system. I can’t reccommend beer as a source of carbs, though. The effects of the alcohol are too harmful.

3

**

I’m going off of memory here so my facts might be a little off. Abisinthe was a drink comprised of alcohol and some sort of wormwood extract. To drink it you took a special spoon with holes and balanced it on a cup. You placed a sugar cube on the spoon and poured the abisinthe over the cube dissolving it into the liquid in the cup. Then you could drink up and enjoy!!

It was a very popular drink for a short period of time. After it was made illegal various companies tried making it without wormwood but alas the fad had already passed. I doubt your friend has the version with wormwood in it. He probably has the kind without wormwood. Although I understand there are still a few countries were traditional abisinthe is still legal. I just doubt he has the real deal.

Marc

4

While not the same as Absinthe, I just got a bottle of Absente (see http://www.crillonimporters.com/absente-prods.html ). The FAQ says it uses Southernwood, a less bitter cousin of Wormwood that contains only very small amounts of the neurotoxin Thujone. Its very tasty, and pretty strong at 55%.

5

I saw an ad in Viz recently for absinthe, and I got jealous of all the people living in Britain who could buy the stuff, but if it’s made with a non-Van Gogh-vision-inducing wormwood substitute, never mind.

Are there any legal sources of thujone in the U.S.?

6

Well, as has been said Absinthe isn’t illegal because of its alcohol content. The Absinthe I had not to long ago was 140 proof. Any college drunk knows one can legally get Everclear at 196-200 proof.

I’ve heard rumor that wormwood’s addition to the mix is a relative of opiates, and therefore may be a narcotic, but I’ll let the chemistry geeks confirm or deny that.

As for Wilt, yes beer contains alot of carbs. But there are alot of things that contain even more than beer. Second, the body uses water to metabolize the alcohol. Athletes likely have a more urgent need for water than sugars after a workout. This said in the short term, beer would be a poor method to rejuvenate oneself. It would work, but its not very efficient. Consider the long term, and beer looks like a really silly choice. Its safe to assume that 1) Wilt has a penchant for exaggerating and 2) Wilt is a drunk hedonist.

7

Grow your own. Artemisia absinthium is a perennial hardy in most of the U.S. (zones 4-9). Ask your local nurseryman for “Absinthe Aster” if doesn’t recognize the Latin.

8

Absinthe:

Flavored with wormwood extract, which indeed, is the reason which it is illegal. The active principal involved is a substance called thujone, and there is some debate as to whether absinthe really contains enough of a concentration for this to be a significant factor, given that the stuff is 120 - 170 proof in the first place. Thujone is not chemically related to the opiates, but does have some structural similarity to THC. It does not appear, however, to act on the same receptors. According to the source below, the mechanism of action is currently unknown.

All the background info you want will be found here:

http://itsa.ucsf.edu/~mbagg/roughabsinthefaq.html

When absinthe was outlawed, some manufacturers produced similar liquers which did not have the wormwood. The most prominent of these is Pernod.

Vermouth also takes it’s name from the wormwood plant, but not all vermouth is still flavoured with wormwood, and the low proofage of vermouth means that it absorbs only a small amount of thujone from wormwood flavouring in any case, so it is still legal.

There are some countries where absinthe is still legal, notably Spain, Portugal, Andorra, and Czechoslovakia. I have heard that the UK has recently changed the legal status of absinthe as well, though there are apparently no UK manufacturers. One of the UK dopers might confirm this.

This is a Czech outfit which makes supposedly “good” absinthe, and sells online:

http://www.seborabsinth.com/

Note that prices are in pounds, however. The legality of obtaining the stuff for private use in the US via ordering online is murky.

9

Oh, and I’ve heard it claimed that liquor stores in US neighborhoods containing an active Portuguese community may sell absinthe under the counter. So, if you can find such a neighborhood, and convince the liquor store owner that you’re Portuguese, you may be able to buy some black market absinthe.

10

I saw a segment on @Discovery.ca a couple of days ago that dealt with absinthe. It specifically discussed the chemical properties of Thujone etc., and implied that the drink available in some areas of Europe still contains Wormwood. I was only half-paying attention so I can’t remember very many details. However, the sentence that really caught my attention was Jay Ingram’s statement that absinthe would soon be legally available in Ontario and BC?! Did anyone catch that segment or know any further details? Damn, I wanna try that stuff.

Cheers,
Hodge

11

I read that just yesterday in the newspaper, but as yet I’ve been unable to find any at the LCBO, or anywhere else for that matter. So apparantly, it’ll be here soon enough… I’m still thinking of ordering off for a black market bottle of the real stuff though, I want to give the stronger ones a taste!

Cheers indeed.
-Mnem

12

The OP says the friend got the absinthe from Spain. Absinthe (with wormwood) is legal in Spain, so he probably got the real deal.
BTW, real absinthe is good stuff. You basically just get drunk, but there is a dreamy quality to your drunkeness that’s rather pleasurable.

Sua

13

Absinthe seems to have been used a lot in 19th-c. Europe, too… as a sedative, or as others have pointed out, because it was so darn powerful. IIRC, one of the Impressionists did a painting with a woman who had had quite a bit of absinthe. My art history prof noted in lecture, “Now - this is kind of an interesting picture. Note how stoned she looks.”

looking it up on Google

Here we go - Degas is responsible for it…oddly enough, it’s called “L’Absinthe.” http://www.mystudios.com/art/impress/degas/degas-absinthe.html

14

http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/3/0,5716,3433+1+3398,00.html?query=absinthe

15

http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/3/0,5716,3433+1+3398,00.html?query=absinthe