Author Hemmingway was famously quoted as saying 'Got tight last night on absinthe. The artist Degas painted l'Absinthe depicting a shoddy woman drinking her absinthe whilst sat in a French cafe. Victorian era men however, found women freely enjoying absinthe distasteful!īy the end of the 1900's there was a following amongst the artisan crowd with the most notable being Gaugin and Van Gogh that helped grow the mystique and publicity around the green fairy drink and became headline news when Van Gogh cut off his own ear after an eventful night out! It was one of the few drinks considered ladylike and women freely enjoyed it in the coffee houses where it was most commonly served. It was exported to New Orleans and reached the same acclaim in the United States. It's popularity soared from 1880 onward through advertisements touting it as being healthy. Authors and artists were proponents for inducing creativity. In these early days was the l'heure verte (the green hour) where one or two absinthe were drunk as an aperitif and was said to be both an aphrodisiac and a narcotic. Henri-Louis Pernod was the first to open an Absinthe distillery in Switzerland and then moved production to Pontarlier, France in 1805. Whether these manifest themselves after one sip of the drink or not until one has become a hardened enthusiast is somewhat contentious, but it is safe to say that the intoxication the drink encourages is certainly unusual. There have been various studies of this peculiar substance over the years, and it is generally agreed that it does possess certain psychoactive qualities. The undiluted product contained anywhere between 60 - 85% alcohol, and the obvious effect of this potency was compounded by the presence of a chemical in the wormwood, called thujone. In 1792, Dr Pierre Ordinaire wrote a recipe for a drink containing a variety of essential oils, including an extract of wormwood (Artemisia absinthium). No other drink has managed to acquire such a fearsome reputation. In 2005 it was withdrawn, followed by Belgium in the same year.From the latin, Artemisia Absinthium.

In the Netherlands the sale of absinthe was prohibited by the absinthelaw 1909. Other absinthe -producing countries such as Spain and Portugal, have never known a ban on absinthe.

In countries like Germany and France since the 90s again absinthe produced. However, the current absinthe is not comparable with those of the past: the maximum concentration of thujone in absinthe is legally established and is now at least 25 times lower. Today, absinthe is again allowed in the European Union. Only in rare cases, the green color is obtained by adding copper or indigo. The green color of absinthe is derived from chlorophyll from an extract of leaves of wormwood, lemon balm, hyssop and fennel. Recent research has the psychoactive properties of thujone can show only at very high doses, much higher than that of normal absinthe consumption exists. Other manufacturers entered the market with their pastis, which the herbal extracts but not by distillation were obtained by maceration. If surrogate developed the company Pernod famous anis, actually an absinthe without wormwood. The reason for the ban was the tragic case of the Swiss alcoholic Jean Lanfray After excessive alcohol consumption, including two glasses of absinthe, his family killed off. Absinthe at the beginning of the 20th century in several European countries banned because of alleged hallucinogenic effect and neurotoxicity of the substance thujone.

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