I read an article recently about how absinthe, The Green Fairy, a drink banned for almost 100 years but lauded in 19th- and earlty 20th Century poetry and art, is now becoming available again in Europe and soon in America as well.
While it is highly alcoholic (around 140 proof, if Wikipedia is to be believed), it’s drunk after diluting with water and its effects are mainly attributed to the use of wormwood in its distillation.
Has anyone ever tried it? What is its effect like? I’ve read that “modern” distillations lack the impact of the 19th Century recipes (lost after the banning), which possibly added other things now deemed toxic/poisonous to the mix. Still, the description of a kind of “intoxication of lucidity” is pretty interesting: Oscar Wilde wrote that after the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world. (Kind of like pTerry’s “Klatchian Coffee” I guess.)
The Master Held Forth on the subject a while back, but it was mostly speculating on the nature and cause of the historically claimed effects but having no way to validate them as there was none available for testing. Well, now it seems there is… Anybody want to write a field report?
I’ve had it several times and several different brands when I lived out in Central Europe. It has the effects you would expect from drinking a 140 proof liquor: it gets you drunk fast if you’re not careful. Otherwise, neither I nor anyone else noticed anything different about the drink. If thujone had some drug effect on you, it’s obviously not present in enough quantities today.
I’ve tried two different forms of absinthe: homemade, which was made with a rather odd recipe that called for port but used wormwood and produced a very mellow, drifty feeling after only a little glass; and store-bought in the US so not exactly authentic as it was made with a different kind of extract of wormwood which is legal and does not produce the same effects as the traditional absinthe, which tasted disgusting (like licorice, which I understand real absinthe does) and produced no effects whatsoever except to make me nauseous from the disgusting taste.
Someone with access to the real McCoy will have to give you a more apt description, I’m afraid. The homemade was good stuff and I’d drink it again, only now I’m much older and much more cautious about drinking stuff I’ve mixed at home containing potentially poisonous ingredients! :eek:
I’ve had it, supposedly the real stuff. It was okay, but I couldn’t say that it created an intoxication different from regular alcohol. The wormwood gives a strange aftertaste, which is unpleasant at first but quickly gets easy to deal with. It taste like licorice as you might expect. I didn’t see la fée verte, I might have if I drank more, but it wasn’t my bottle to begin with.
It was I think French-produced but purchased from Germany. You can buy it in the US, but the importation fees cost more than the bottle itself.
I don’t think it’s ever been banned in GB, to my knowledge. I’ve tried it, anyway. Nothing special except it’s deceptively easy to get drunk off your ass on it, even knowing how strong it is.
I have a bottle of the good stuff from Europe sitting in my liquor cabinet right now. I would concur with the other posters, in that I have not had any unexpected effects from drinking the Absinthe.
One thing I did learn after starting to drink absinthe (and fortunately not the hard way) is that thujone is chemically very similar to THC. If you consume absinthe, you may come up hot on a drug test for marijuana.
Back in 1979 I was working a summer job (I was 20) and a coworker who was a few years older invited a handful of us over to his apartment during lunchtime. He was a vet and told us he snuck a bottle back from Spain in his footlocker. He shared the bottle with us. I think had two “shots” of the stuff. I was definitely out of sorts for about 6 hours. It’s been so long but I seem to recall I felt somewhat like being really stoned.
Never had the opportunity to repeat the “experiment”.
I had a check product called Absinthium 1792 a few years ago. I didn’t hallucinate or anything, but it might be the most enjoyable alcoholic drink I’ve had. (I don’t drink often.) Since it’s apparently legal everywhere at this point, I’ll drag myself to a liquor store some time and get another bottle.
I think the hallucinogenic stuff and the stories about insanity came from the fact that people were making the drink at home and were poisoning themselves. So obviously the modern drink won’t duplicate that.
Are you in the US? How did you get it in? I don’t think it’s legal to have in America. I know this because I asked my friend to get me a bottle of it while he was in Europe and he said he couldn’t bring it over, that he’d tried before and wasn’t allowed.
I’d love to try it. I want to see the pleasure domes of Kubla Khan for myself.
I’ve had it several times and brought a bottle back from what I’m thinking was Spain. It tastes just like an anisette to me and I haven’t really noticed any effects other than getting extremely drunk. I really enjoy the ritual of lighting a sugar cube soaked in it and lighting it on fire.
Apparently it is legal to buy it through various importers stateside.
Same story here. A friend brought me a bottle from the Czech Republic a few years ago. It tasted horrible, and the effects were not noticeably different from those of drinking very strong alcohol.
My friend and I brought back some from Mexico (in Listerine bottles, such seasoned criminals!) and I could not get a buzz off it at all. Also tastes like evil black sewage licorice from hell.
Maybe we were doing something wrong.
I’ve had some. Aside from being exceptionally strong, it also tastes exceptionally foul. In fact, my friends and I made it somewhat more palatable by mixing in a teaspoon of caramelised sugar before drinking it. Also, a couple of glasses will put all but hardened drinkers on their arse, so caution is advised.