I’m reading up on the “Absinthe Refined” beverage we can purchase today… Apparently the replacement of Wormwood with Southern Wormwood causes a decrease in thujone which therefore makes it legal…
Now, does anyone know if you can still get the trippy, mind altering effects from Absente? Also, how much thujone is the ‘legal’ amount & how much thujone did Absinthe used to contain?
Thanks.
Doesn’t answer all of your question, but here’s what Cecil has to say about Absinthe and Absente.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/011026.html
Woohoo! My first chance to quote The Master! My lurkerness will soon be a thing of the past…
I don’t know if there is a ‘legal’ amount of thujone and I can’t search now. As far as how much thujon was in absinthe back in the day, nobody knows for sure. In fact, nobody knows exactly how much is in the stuff being made today. Measuring thujon content is more guesswork than science. The strongest that is available today is 100 mg/cl or something (I don’t remember what it is measured against). I’ve seen some claims that back in the day, thujon got upto 300 mg/cl. At that strength it was bound to be a very bitter drink.