Concerning this Cecil article, the article is actually rather dated. It says Absinthe is illegal just about everywhere. Actually, now the opposite is true. You can buy it practically everywhere–including the USA.
I’ve been buying it at local liquor specialty stores for about 10 years now. (My first bottle [ah! my first–I digress], I bought over ten years ago, from a foreign distributor online.)
I love unique liquor items. And that is why I love my bottle of Absinthe. It is unique. And it has a unique history behind it (as well, as Mr. Adams put it, its own pouring ritual). I can’t say I think everyone would like it. But as I said, I have unique tastes.
As for the Thujone causing hallucinations, I couldn’t say. They limit that ingredient greatly now. And I never drink that much. (It is so prohibitively expensive, I just put a couple drops in my Martini, like FDR is reputed to do.)
Any of the rest of you have any experience with Absinthe you would like to share?
BTW, I still can’t decide if this should go in “Comments on Cecil’s Columns/Staff Reports” or “Café”. On the one hand, it is in response to a Cecil column. And I do answer at least one of his questions too (if it causes hallucinations, sort of at least). And on the other hand, it is related to the enjoyment of a food item. Surely, you can all see my dilemma.
I will be interested to hear the moderators ruling on this. Because I honestly don’ t know:).
Once when drinking it with a g/f everything turned green, like I was looking through a green gel filter. Many other times nothing that obvious, it is enjoyable and may have other ingredients then just alcohol that add to the effect, but the hallucinogenic part seems to be so irregular as to not expect it but be happy if you get it.
I remember an episode of No Reservations (Paris), in which Tony Bourdain sampled a bunch of different types of absinthe, including an illegal bottle of “the good stuff” from back in the day. He did get pretty messed up, but he attributed it more to “waaaayyyy too much absinthe” than “there must have been something special in that sixth shot I drank”.
Absinthe is classically extremely high proof- like 170 or so, and it is theorized that most of the effects were really from people drinking booze that’s twice the normal strength, not because of some kind of unprovable hallucinogenic effects from thujone or any of the other herbs.
From what I’ve read, the amount of thujone wasn’t nearly as high as originally thought; the imperfect measuring methods of the day pegged it much higher than it really was, and that testing 1890s bottles of absinthe shows about the same amount of thujone as today’s absinthe.
The article is dated October 2001. Back then, Microsoft was unstoppable, Blackberry was the ultimate in cool devices, and nothing was going to stop those tech companies. Their stock was going to go up and up and up and never coming down! I was also young and handsome.
Well, at least I was younger, and back then, dogs wouldn’t put their tails between their legs and high tail it away at the mere site of me.
Time moves doth move on and I could use a drink. Good thing that Absinthe has been legal in New Jersey since 2010.
I knew about its controversial history and purported hallucinogenic effects so several years ago when it became available again I did buy a couple of bottles, Pernod I believe, and try it curious as to if it was anything like what was reported. No, I didn’t experience anything hallucinogenic but it did have some effect, only hard to describe. I really felt out of it, not sloppy drunk because I didn’t have that much but it was more just a state of confusion, then not remembering much the next day and still feeling very ‘cloudy’ long after the consumption. Really I didn’t enjoy it much at all, only a downside as opposed to imbibing a good whiskey or gin or craft beer and never bought any again. I can’t imagine what kind of shape you’d be in if you drank a whole lot of absinthe but it couldn’t possibly be good. It’s very different from classic liquors… and not in a good way.
I’ve had a couple of different varieties of absinthe over the years and I’ve never experienced a state substantially different from the intoxication I experience from more mundane liquors.
I had vividly colored dreams that I remembered clearly when I used to drink the stuff. Normally, I do not. The dreams were not so wonderful as to be worth the expense, though, especially as I do not particularly like the taste of absinthe. I have toyed with the idea of buying a bottle now that it is legal here, but it is still relatively expensive and I still won’t like the taste.
I like the stuff. The Jacques Senaux brand makes 4 colours in graduated levels of alcohol. The Black is 85%, Blue at 80%, Red at 75% and Green at 70%. i have a special shelf over my bar with a bottle of each on it.
Each have a different flavour and all can affect different people different ways. I’ve drank it the traditional way and also had it as shots, which is scary. 3-4 shots of the Blue one one night had my cousin tripping out climbing a tree in the park next door. Once coaxed down he crawled under his car to go to sleep before being dragged out and thrown into the back seat.
Despite the high alcohol content I see to be able to drink a bit of it without getting as noticeably drunk as I would with similar quantities of other less alcoholic stuff, but do have some particularly vivid dreams after a session on it.
