What is absinthe?

Absinthe is an alcoholic drink made from Artemisia absinthium (a plant better known as grand wormwood) and a range of other herbs such as fennel, anise, melissa and hyssop. Actual recipes have always varied by country and manufacturer, as has the quality of each absinthe brand. Traditionally, the drink was quality-classified as either absinthe suisse (the best grade; alcohol content of 68-72%), demi-fine (50-68% alcohol) or ordinaire (45-50%). Today, it is thought that there are about fifty brands of the absinthe drink available, produced mainly in France, Switzerland, Spain and the Czech Republic. Absinthe is usually green, although there are a few Swiss varieties that are clear. Best absinthes are made exclusively with all-natural ingredients and have no artificial colourings added. Quality green absinthe always gets its colour from the chlorophyll released from the herbs.

Absinthe: The iconic drink of the bohemians

Absinthe first gained its notoriety in the latter part of the nineteenth century, when it became the drink of choice among bohemian intellectuals, writers, poets and artists in France and across Europe. Soon, the emerald green liquor was consumed by people from all walks of life. While the lower classes celebrated l'heure verte (the green hour) in Parisian bars and cafes (a pre-dinner period when patrons drank a glass or two as an aperitif), painters and poets created art and poems dedicated to La Fee Verte (the "Green Fairy" ) as the drink became known. At that time, absinthe was far more than just another alcoholic beverage: absinthe was the very icon of la vie boheme, even a way of life for some. The Fairy reached the shores of America, too, where the drink became especially popular in New Orleans. Absinthe was originally served with chilled water, which was poured into a glass of the green spirit over a sugar cube that was placed on a perforated spoon resting on the top of the glass. Although other methods of drinking absinthe have evolved since, especially in the late 1990s, the original nineteenth-century ritual of preparing absinthe, known as la louche, remains an important part of the absinthe experience for all serious absinthe connoisseurs.

A drink with strange powers? A drink with strange powers?

It is believed that the louche process of adding water to the strong alcohol allows the release of essential oils from the herbs from which the absinthe drink is made, particularly thujonebearing wormwood. These oils, drinkers believe, not only counter the usual intoxicating effects of alcohol, but they also bring the mind to a peculiar state of alertness, enhance one's sensory perception and even unlock hidden creative powers -- hence absinthe's popularity among nineteenth-century avant-garde artistic community. Perhaps the most remarkable celebrity absinthe drinker of that age was the Dutch postimpressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painters Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Gaugin were also fond of absinthe, as was the child rebel poet Arthur Rimbaud. Paul Verlaine, Charles Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway and many others writers, poets and artists also drank absinthe for its unusual effects.
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A fairy or a devil?
The amazing popularity of the Green Fairy caused her eventual downfall. Many European governments, as well as the U.S. administration, gave in to the pressures of the anti alcohol lobby and banned the drink in the early years of the twentieth century. Absinthe proved a relatively easy target for the anti-alcohol movement, which blamed wide-spread "absinthism" - a mental condition the drink supposedly caused -- for a whole range of social problems. French winemakers, nervous about the sharp decline in wine consumption, also backed the calls for the banning of the "green devil". The drink was never banned in a few European countries, notably in Spain, the Czech lands and the United Kingdom. Consumption was relatively low, however, and it took almost a hundred years for the Fairy to make the grand comeback we are witnessing today.

So is absinthe legal again?

Absinthe is legal once more across all member states of the European Union, thanks to a 1988 Europe-wide law that re-allowed wormwood as ingredient in alcoholic beverages. In the United States, absinthe still cannot be sold in bars or stores, although personal possession and consumption is legal. Absinthe is sold in Canada, Australia, Mexico and Japan. Laws in other countries vary. Modern-day celebrities who have developed the taste for the drink include Johnny Depp, for example, as well as the controversial Marilyn Manson and Eminem. The singer Bjork brought the latest absinthe fever back to her native Iceland a few years back. A host of Hollywood stars are known aficionados of the Green Fairy, as is the former Czech president Vaclav Havel. But even today, the story of absinthe remains one of polarised opinions: romanticised by many, and damned by a few. While an increasing number of people are rediscovering the delights of the Green Fairy, a small minority still wag their fingers and talk of the green devil.

The history of absinthe

Absinthe's history seems to be firmly routed in the end of centuries.

At the end of the eighteenth century, the drink was invented by one Pierre Ordinaire, a French doctor who distilled wormwood and other herbs in an alcoholic base as a remedy for his patients. At the end of the nineteenth century, absinthe was embraced by the literary bohemian crowd who gathered in European cafes and claimed the Green Fairy (La Fee Verte) as their muse and inspiration. The end of the twentieth century brought to an end nearly 100 years of nonsensical prohibition in parts of Europe. As a result, a new fin de siecle in crowd began discovering the delights of the absinthe drink once again.

Early history of the absinthe drink

Absinthe was first created in 1792 by Pierre Ordinaire, a French doctor living in Switzerland. His intention was to deliver the extract of the wormwood plant -- which had long been known to have powerful healing effects -- in a handy form. Commercial absinthe production began in 1797 when a man named Major Dubied bought the recipe from Dr. Ordinaire and proceeded to manufacture the spirit with his son-in-law, HenriLouis Pernod, in Val-de-Travers, Switzerland. The business proved a success and in 1805, Pernod moved production to a larger facility across the border in Pontarlier, France. Although Pernod Fils only distilled some 16 litres of absinthe when it first started, it only took a few short years for production to increase to over 400 litres per day. But it was still nothing compared to what was yet to come.

The first absinthe fever

From its humble beginnings as a medicinal elixir, absinthe steadily grew into a global phenomenon. In France, absinthe quickly caught on as the favourite drink of the aristocracy. In the 1850's, the popularity of absinthe skyrocketed as the bohemian crowd embraced the "Green Fairy". Many famous poets, writers and artists of the day routinely reached for a glass in search of inspiration. By the 1870's, the absinthe craze was felt at all levels of the French society; just about everyone was drinking it. Days started with a glass of absinthe and ended with l'heure verte (the lateafternoon "green hour" ) when one or more glasses were drunk as an aperitif before supper. Interestingly, it is believed that it was the 1870's blight in the French vineyards that ignited the spread of absinthe -- once the exclusive drink of the aristocracy -- across the social spectrum. At the time, wine was often drank with water, because water of that day had a high bacterial content and wine was believed to help. When the phylloxera blight caused a hike in the price of wine, working classes turned to cheaper absinthe to "purify" their water. By the end of the nineteenth century, France alone was gulping down over 2 million litres of the liquid per year. In 1910, according to some reports, this had reached a whopping 36 million litres annually. By then, the absinthe fever had crossed the borders of France, and the demand for the drink spawned a successful Europe-wide industry of absinthe distilleries nestled in Swiss valleys and Bohemian forests. Absinthe proved a great leveler in class-conscious Europe. Once beloved by the aristocracy, it moved through society with a freedom that was its own. At cafes from Paris to Prague, absinthe was drunk by artists and labourers, butchers and bankers. Astonishingly for the time, even genteel womenfolk freely enjoyed the elaborate absinthe ritual in public.

Absinthe in America
But absinthe wasn't just a European phenomenon. In 1878, over 7 million litres of the spirit were imported into the United States from Europe. New Orleans, the undisputed absinthe capital of America, even had its local brands such as Green Opal, Milky Way and Legendre. Glorious New Orleans indeed embraced the Green Fairy with a particular affection. Here, absinthe took off in 1869, when the Aleix brothers opened a bar named the "Old Absinthe House" (pictured) at the corner of Bourbon and Bienville streets in the French district. The brothers hired Cayetano Ferrer, a bartender from the French Opera House, to run the bar. In 1874, Ferrer took over the lease and renamed the bar the "Absinthe Room". Ferrer was acclaimed for serving absinthe in the French style: marble fountains dripped cold water onto lumps of sugar suspended on perforated spoons over glasses of absinthe until the concoction achieved the desired level of sweetness and dilution. Ferrer's establishment soon became perhaps the most famous bar in a city famous for bars; its signature drink, the absinthe frappe, became the cocktail of the day. The Absinthe Room attracted an impressive list of visitors, including presidents William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Aaron Burr, William Thackeray, Jenny Lind and Oscar Wilde. In 1918, Aleister Crowley, the British magician, proclaimed: "Art is the soul of life and the Old Absinthe House is the heart and soul of the old quarter of New Orleans." To be continued... Please check again in a day or two.

Green Fairy: The symbol of libert

The Green Fairy is the English translation of La Fee Verte, the affectionate French nickname given to the celebrated absinthe drink in the nineteenth century. The nickname stuck, and over a century later, "absinthe" and "Green Fairy" continue to be used interchangeably by devotees of the potent green alcohol. Mind you, absinthe earned other nicknames, too: poets and artists were inspired by the "Green Muse"; Aleister Crowley, the British occultist, worshipped the "Green Goddess". But no other nickname stuck as well as the original, and many drinkers of absinthe refer to the green liquor simply as La Fee - the Fairy.

The symbol of transformation

But Green Fairy isn't just another name for absinthe: she is a metaphorical concept of artistic enlightenment and exploration, of poetic inspiration, of a freer state of mind, of new ideas, of a changing social order. To the ignorant drunk, absinthe will forever remain but potent alcohol, perhaps with a bit of thujone "high" thrown in. To the original bohemians of 1890s Paris, the Fairy was a welcomed symbol of transformation. She was the trusted guide en-route to artistic innovativation; she was the symbol of thirst (for life) to Arthur Rimbaud, the first "punk poet": it was the Fairy who guided him -- and his fellow poet and partner Paul Verlaine -- on their quest to escape the conventional reality of their time into the sanctuary of the surreal.
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Transformation has always been the fundamental essence of the Green Fairy, for transformation is what she provides on several parallels. During the magical ritual of la louche, the drink itself first transforms from the concentrated, alcohol-rich, deep emerald green liquor into an alluring opalescent, cloudy greenish-white mixture. This, of course, is symbolic of the subsequent transformation that shall take place in the drinker's mind. As the cool water liberates the power of wormwood oil and the other herbal ingredients from the green concentrate, so will new ideas, concepts and notions be set free in the mind of the drinker -- be he a poet, an artist, a scientist, or the common man on the street. Apparently so, anyway.

The goddess of artistic rebellion

Is the above a fanciful, perhaps absinthe-induced description of the powers of the Fairy? Let the reader -- or perhaps the drinker -- decide for himself. Let there be no doubt, however, that the turn of the last two centuries produced art, poetry and ideas that were, for their time, shockingly original, rebellious and challenging to the extreme. This was the time of Rimbaud and Verlaine, who pursued their quest of challenging convention whenever they came across it. Their antics caused outrage across Europe at the time, but their ingenious poetry -- a reflection of their search for the true meaning of life -- remains with us to this day. Inspiring and liberating, the Green Fairy was a powerful symbol of the avant-garde elite that gathered in Parisian cafes at the turn of the last two centuries. In this sense, the Fairy was what pot later became to the hippie subculture of the 1960s. In her company -- or under her influence -- Belle Epoque writers and artists became lucid commentators on an emerging new world. With the stroke of a brush or a pen, they experimented, they rebelled, they provoked, and so they successfully subverted the stuffy conventions of the time.

L'Absinthe: One case in point

"What a slut," declared George Moore, a British art critic, when, in 1893, he first set his eyes on Edgar Degas's painting L'Absinthe. The "slut" in the picture was not the Green Fairy, but a French actress portrayed drinking absinthe in a Parisian cafe. She was one Ellen Andree, the painter's friend, shown in a reflective moment in a cafe called La Nouvelle-Athenes. Perhaps not surprisingly, this piece of art proved a little too nouvelle for the straight-laced Victorian taste across the Channel. What was surprising though was the intense Francophobia that the painting ignited within the London art world. First, the picture was hissed at and booed out of a Christie's auction room. Soon, the English were raging against anything French: the French culture (or the lack of it, as some would put it), the "French poison" (absinthe) and even the "French disease" (syphilis).

The modern menace

The trouble with L'Absinthe was, of course, it was too modern for its time. Absinthe was the usual scapegoat, but it wasn't absinthe itself that caused the hysteria: it was the idea of a woman drinking it. The picture challenged the established "natural" order. It challenged the conventional understanding of the place of a woman in the society. It defied the traditional
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notions of decency, morality, and propriety: the enjoyment of a drink in a public cafe apparently wasn't a pleasure available to a polite lady of the day. It wasn't until many years later that Degas's painting became widely appreciated as a true masterpiece. The rage that Degas's L'Absinthe caused in England was an expression of a pre-existing nervous fear that the decadent ways of the Continent might reach the shores of the British Isles, too. Two years previously, Marie Corelli, the English author of "Wormwood: A Drama of Paris", wrote: "The morbidness of the modern French mind is well-known and universally admitted ... the open atheism, heartlessness, flippancy, and flagrant immorality of the whole modern French school of thought is unquestioned." Corelli also warned: "It must also be remembered that in the many French cafes and restaurants which have recently sprung up in London, Absinthe is always to be obtained at its customary low price -French habits, French fashions, French books, French pictures, are particularly favoured by the English, and who can predict that French drug-taking shall not also become a la mode in Britain?" Meanwhile in Paris, the Green Fairy had long been a welcomed guest in the Nouvelle-Athenes cafe, the place Degas depicted in L'Absinthe. Sarah Bernhard drunk there, as did Van Gogh, Lautrec, Gauguin, Manet, Monet and other famous and not-so-famous bohemians. Over a glass of absinthe, they painted and wrote, discussed and shared ideas, or just gossipped, sang or read poetry. As a metaphorical creature locked within a bottle of absinthe, the Green Fairy continued to earn her reputation as the artist's muse all over the Continent. The abrupt end came in the second decade of the twentieth century when the Belgians, then the Swiss and the French banned absinthe. By that time, the Green Fairy had prompted a generation of artists to produce countless works dedicated to, or inspired by, the curious creature with green wings.

The effects of absinthe

The effects of absinthe? Many, and some quite inexplicable. As all fans of the special green liquor know, this truly is a drink in its own class -- and we are not talking about absinthe's fascinating history, or its romantic connections to the art world. This time, we are talking about the phenomenal effects of absinthe on a drinker's mental faculties and sense of reality. This time, we are talking about absinthe effects on the mind. The clear-headed form of inebriation -- so odd for a drink that typically contains between 50 and 70 per cent of alcohol -- never fails to surprise those who reach for a glass for the first time: "People always remark how odd it is," says Dan, a Manchester party host. "They expect to feel drunk as they would on any other spirit, but it doesn't quite work in the usual way with
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absinthe. Somehow, absinthe just has a different effect on people. Maybe it is a kind of drunkenness, but it's a weird kind of drunkenness, with this bizarre clarity of thought that comes with it." But absinthe's surprising effects don't end here.

Liquid alchemy?
Arthur Rimbaud, the famous French poet, sipped the green drink to liberate the "sacred thing" (his mind) as he daydreamed "voyages of discovery that nobody had heard of" and "every kind of magic". Ernest Hemmingway called absinthe "brain-warming, idea-changing liquid alchemy". Many other artists and writers regularly enjoyed the company of the Green Fairy (the drink's affectionate nickname) in search of inspiration. But you don't have to be a great poet to experience absinthe's inexplicable, consciousnessshifting effects. Gary Fuller, a successful London lawyer and a avid absinthe fan, described what the Green Fairy does for him: "It is as if you are here, but, at the same time, your mind also enters some other, higher level of awareness. Suddenly, you gain the capacity to observe and understand reality from another perspective. It is as if you have tapped into some strange but wonderful source of information, understanding and creativity. Your mind is crystal clear, your perception is enhanced, rich creative powers unlocked. Ideas, answers, solutions and inspiration rush towards you from all directions." Drinking absinthe, it seems, does have the perplexing effect of "illuminating the mind", as one French doctor put when writing, in 1872, of the transformations the mind undergoes under the Green Fairy's influence. The doctor was especially intrigued by the odd absinthe phenomenon of enhancement in sensory perception. Rather than dulling one's senses, as would be expected from a drink so high in alcohol, absinthe has the opposite effect. The doctor wrote: "The most curious thing about the transformation of the sensorial apparatus -- the phenomenon, at least, that struck me most forcibly in the experiments I conducted on myself -is that all sensations are perceived by all senses at once. My own impression is that I am breathing sounds and hearing colours, that scents produce a sensation of lightness or of weight, roughness or smoothness, as if I were touching them with my fingers."

Explaining the effects

It is generally believed that thujone -- the substance naturally present in the wormwood plant from which absinthe is made -- is largely responsible for the remarkable effects of the drink. Precisely how thujone produces such effects, however, remains a mystery. Some claim that thujone compels the mind to enter a different level of awareness. In this state, apparently, the mind is able to connect with some sort of universal consciousness or intelligence from which it then draws its enhanced abilities. Others stop short of making a connection with the supernatural. In their view, we don't tap into any mystical source, we just tap into a rich subconscious source that is hidden deep within each of us, a source that our usual conscious self cannot easily access otherwise.
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The thujone in absinthe, it is thought, removes the blocks that normally prevent the mind -and the senses -- from working at full capacity. Essentially, absinthe gives the mind the green light to be completely free, at least for a time. In this state, the usually docile subconscious mind is awaken and begins to work in tandem with our conscious awareness -- hence the perception of reality on two different levels. Our creative, cognitive and perceptive abilities reach new heights as a result. Modern science has also tried to explain the unusual effects of the absinthe drink. Under the title "Absinthe Makes Neurons Run Wild", Corinna Wu, writing for the Science News magazine, described research in 2000 into the effects of the wormwood herb on the human brain. Conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, the study has found that wormwood -- as well as other ingredients in absinthe -- cause "CNS cholinergic receptor binding activity". This, according to scientists, has the effect of improving cognitive functions of the brain. Green Fairy (my experience) by Thom on Sat, Century Absinthe Review by Matt Summers on Mon, 7 May 2012. 12 May 2007.

Absinthe an aphrodisiac?
There are people who swear by absinthe's potent aphrodisiac powers. Then there are those who claim there is no such thing in the world as a true aphrodisiac. Finding a conclusive answer to the question may therefore prove a difficult task indeed. Absinthe's alleged aphrodisiac properties aside for a while, we should first note that very little is actually known about the effects of absinthe in general. Or, to be more precise, very little is known about why or what in absinthe produces the unusual effects the drink is renowned for. To be sure, the effects have been documented -- and experienced -- by drinkers, doctors and scientists alike since the day absinthe was first distilled by Dr. Ordinaire in 1792. To this day, however, the actual cause of the effects has defied scientific explanation. Alpha-thujone, the natural compound derived from the wormwood herb from which absinthe is made, gets some credit for absinthe's odd mind-shifting abilities. To some small extent, scientists have recently explained the biochemical reactions that cause thujone to improve brain's cognitive functions. But there is much more that remains unexplained -- and perhaps never will be explained by science alone. In these circumstances, it is extremely unlikely that researchers will suddenly pin down some compound X and confirm "this is the stuff in absinthe that acts as an aphrodisiac". But does anyone care for scientific explanations? Certainly not the fans of the Green Fairy, as they affectionately call the drink:
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"Is absinthe an aphrodisiac? Oh, sure, definitely. Definitely works for me," said Lee Davis, a psychology student from Australia, in an email to Absinthe Fever. "My girlfriend and I always have a wild time under the influence of the Fairy! Mind you, we don't drink often, and not too much. But when we do, it lifts the whole experience to stratospheric levels. Absinthe challenges whatever expectations you have about how stuff should feel, on an physical and emotinal level as well. Everything is so much intensified. Sometimes you even experience sensations you never knew existed!" Lee clearly is a very keen proponent of absinthe's aphrodisiac powers -- but his comments perhaps do point us towards the crux of the issue. Perhaps the question to ask is not "Is absinthe an aphrodisiac?", but rather "Can absinthe enhance sexual experience?" It seems most fans of absinthe answer a firm "yes" to the latter. This should come as no surprise. Absinthe, after all, is known to have a dramatic effect on the person's sensory perception. On one level, absinthe seems to improve the usual functioning of all senses. Yet on another level, it also alters the way the mind perceives or interprets sensory input. "[After drinking absinthe,] all sensations are perceived by all senses at once," wrote a French doctor in the late nineteenth century. More recently, Paula Manners, an English holistic practitioner, caused controversy when she proclaimed at a Los Angeles workshop: "Imagine living your life in black and white, in a world where you don't even have any concept of colour. You just don't know what colour is, all you know is shades of grey. Then, imagine your whole world suddently brighthened up with greens and reds and yellows and blues -- how would that feel? This is what absinthe does to your senses, all five of them. Now imagine how this translates into the bedroom." But improving any love-making experience -- in however profound or dramatic a way -- does not strictly make absinthe an aphrodisiac. An aphrodisiac is usually understood to be a substance capable to stimulate desire in those who lack it to begin with. To be sure, many have claimed absinthe does just that. Maybe so, but we like to think it is the charm of the Green Fairy, the magic of the ritual and the beauty of the opal green that in the end seduces the subject, and not any chemical compound. Absinthe is magic, not chemistry. Let us keep it that way.

How to drink absinthe

Absinthe is a drink that can be enjoyed in a surprising number of ways. Most absintheurs drink absinthe the traditional way: louched with water poured over a cube of white sugar. Some drink absinthe that was poured over sugar that is subsequently set alight (though absinthe purists decry this practice), and a few even like drinking absinthe neat (brave souls!).
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Absinthe cocktails, too, have long been a favourite way to enjoy this special drink. More recently, absinthe even found its way into ice cream sundaes and Swiss chocolates. How you enjoy your absinthe is a matter of preference, therefore, as is the time, the occasion or indeed the frequency. Absinthe is currently becoming the drink of choice at grand dinner parties, where it provides refreshment before, during and after the meal: as a pre-dinner drink, in mid-course sorbet, and as a digestive. That is a whole lot of absinthe -- and we'll drink to that!

Original vs. modern-day drinking rituals

Originally, the absinthe drink was intended as an aperitif. The bars and cafes of fin de siecle Paris celebrated the "Green Hour", a late-afternoon period when Parisians downed their predinner glass (or three) of the green liquor.

With water
In the age of the original absinthe fever, the drink was always diluted with water and sweetened with sugar before consumption. First, a cube of sugar was placed on a perforated spoon resting on the top of a glass of neat absinthe. Then, chilled water was slowly poured over the sugar until it dissolved and the required level of dilution was achieved. Special absinthe fountains -- decorated containers that dispensed iced water -- had their firm place in most drinking establishments of that time. (*Note: We have more information on the original absinthe ritual, with a how-to guide and tips.)

With fire
A few variations on the traditional drinking ritual have popped up since. One recent method involves pouring absinthe itself -- rather than water -- over the cube of sugar, then setting fire to the absinthe-soaked cube. Purists and absinthe snobs condemn this method and resolutely declare that one should never drink absinthe like that. But that hasn't stopped some drinkers taking the "fire ritual" further still: the sugar cube goes out of the metaphorical window, and the emerald liquor itself is set on fire (just like sambucca). Although involving absinthe with fire may have the desired visual effect in a hip cocktail lounge or on the movie screen, it does deny the drinker the full experience of the more noteworthy mind-opening, perception-enhancing absinthe effects. The traditional ritual of 1890's Paris had a purpose: as cool water drips into a glass of the chartreuse green liquor, it liberates the all-important essential herbal oils that make absinthe the special drink it is.

Straight up
For the same reason, absinthe is seldom drunk straight-up like scotch or brandy. Newcomers to absinthe often drink absinthe neat, but this is rarely for the taste, but simply because they do not know there is another way. Even modern-day bartenders sometimes produce a whisky glass with a shot of the green liquid when asked for "absinthe". If this happens to you, at least request a wine glass and a bottle of chilled water -- then pour the shot of absinthe into the wine glass and slowly dilute with water.

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If you are one of those people who actually like to drink absinthe neat, by all means continue doing so, and do not let anyone tell you of the "right ways" or the "wrong ways". Freedom, after all, is the very essence of the Green Fairy, so be free to enjoy her company as you wish. If you are new to absinthe and want to try the drink straight-up (who knows, you might develop the taste for it?), note that meeting the Green Fairy can prove an intoxicating experience in more than the metaphorical sense: absinthe does contain a lot of alcohol, 50 to 70 per cent being the norm (in contrast, a decent scotch is "mere" 40%).

La Louche: The original absinthe ritual

The absinthe ritual of La Louche is a process of adding iced water to absinthe, which dilutes the drink and slowly transforms its colour from the original emerald green to a lighter, opalescent shade of milky green. More often than not, the water is poured over a lump of sugar placed on a perforated spoon that rests on the top of the glass. Despite popular belief, the original absinthe ritual did not involve pouring absinthe itself over sugar and then setting the sugar on fire. Of the different ways to drink absinthe, the "fire ritual" is a fairly recent phenomenon. Although the traditional ritual does not involve fire, it certainly has its sparkle. La Louche truly is a ritual -- a fairly elaborate one -- and an essential absinthe experience: practical, symbolic, aesthetic. To louche your absinthe means so much more than to water it down. The Louche ritual, we might say, expresses the very essence of the phenomenon that is absinthe.

Practical louche
On a practical level, La Louche does dilute absinthe, which is very alcohol-rich in its pure form (absinthe contains up to 70 per cent of alcohol). But the ritual also serves another practical -- and yet more important -- function: it unlocks the true power of the Green Fairy. As cool water drizzles into the glass, it gently liberates the essential oils of the herbs from which absinthe is made. And these essences, it is thought, are the secret behind the perplexing absinthe effects experienced by the drinker. (Consequently, absinthe connoisseurs think it pointless to drink absinthe neat, unless one does so purely for the alcohol effect.)

Symbolic ritual
The absinthe ritual of Louche also has a significant figurative connotation: the transformation that can be observed in the glass is considered symbolic of the transformation that is about to be experienced by the drinker. Just as water liberates the essences of absinthe, so will absinthe liberate the mind.

Aesthetic experience
Practicalities and symbolism aside, the louche process is also a delightful eye-pleasing spectacle. As water drips into neat absinthe and essential oils are released, the glass becomes a stage where a restful yet exciting performance of colour begins: we witness the milky clouding, then the gradual change from deep emerald to a delicate, opalescent shade of light
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green. And when the performance -- and the drink's transformation -- comes to an end, another transformation begins: a transformation of our senses, of our mind, of our world. The American poet Peggy Amond celebrated the delights of the absinthe ritual in her beautiful poem "Rimbaud's Poison" (Copyright 1998): The emerald hour-when the poet's pain is soothed by a liquid jewel held in the sacred chalice, upon which rests the pierced spoon, the crystal sweetness-Icy streams trickle down. The darkest forest melts into an open meadow as waves of green seduce. Sanity surrendered, the soul spirals toward the murky depths, wherein lies the beautiful madness-absinthe.

The tradition that lives on

La Louche, indeed, was the way absinthe was once drunk by Rimbaud, Verlaine and countless other poets crouching over a pontarlier glass in smoke-filled Parisian cafes. Today, absinthe is back again, and the louche ritual remains the preferred way the drink is enjoyed in the dining rooms of smart mansions, trendy urban lofts and quiet cafes alike. Ever-increasing numbers of modern-day party hosts appreciate the entertainment aspect of the ritual, too, especially when entertaining guests who have not tried absinthe before. For the majority of newcomers, the traditional absinthe ritual adds a intriguing dynamic to the enjoyment of the special green liquor.

La Louche Ritual How-To

To invoke the magic of the Green Fairy in the traditional way, you will need:

A bottle of absinthe A jug of iced, still water Sugar cube Glass Absinthe spoon

(1) To begin with, pour a shot of genuine absinthe (4cl) into a glass. A traditional-style absinthe glass (or even an antique one) will add to the magic of the ritual, but do not worry too much if you haven't got one -- just use a standard wine glass instead.

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(2) Next, rest a perforated absinthe spoon over the glass, and place a cube of white sugar onto the spoon. (3) Finally, slowly pour iced water over until the sugar dissolves, while observing the beautiful play of colour that takes place as a result of the louche process. The amount of water to add depends on your own preference. Depending on the strength desired, you should end up with a mixture of one part absinthe and two to four parts water. Absinthe connoisseurs always pay attention to the quality of the ingredients used, since they will all affect the subtle louche process. It is thought the quality of the louche is related to the quality of the mental transformation they will later experience. Do make sure, therefore, the absinthe you use is a genuine, quality one. Certain inferior brands that bear the name absinthe will not louche properly (or not at all). Genuine absinthe will transform its deep colour into a shade of cloudy, milky greenish-white when you add water; if it does not, your bottle of "absinthe" is just high-proof alcohol with artificial colourings added. The quality of the water used is also all-important to the absinthe purist. In keeping with absinthe's reputation as a clean, natural liquid, common tap water is frowned upon. Use quality still spring water such as Evian, or another natural water with a neutral taste.

Thujone
Thujone is a fragrant, oily substance, naturally found in a variety of common plants and flowers. Thujone is perhaps best known in connection with absinthe, the drink that inspired a generation of nineteenth-century artists, writers and thinkers. In absinthe, thujone is thought to be the secret behind the unusual "mind-illuminating" effects (as one French doctor put it) of the special green liquor. Thujone, however, turns up in all kinds of unexpected places. Thujone takes its name from the thuja tree, whose bark contains the substance. Coriander, tansy and tarragon all contain moderate amounts of thujone, as do many other herbs and spices. Thujone is also found -- in fairly high concentrations -- in cedar leaf oil and Dalmatian sage oil. As a result, many everyday products contain some concentration of thujone, including Ralph Lauren's "Safari" fragrance and Vick's "Vaporub".

Thujone in absinthe
The alpha-thujone contained in absinthe comes from Artemisia absinthium, a wild plant commonly known as wormwood. An essential ingredient of the celebrated drink, wormwood perhaps is nature's richest source of thujone: by weight, wormwood oil typically contains over 40% of the substance.
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Mind-bending substance?
Thujone is believed to trigger inexplicable transformations in the mind. For over two centuries, absinthe drinkers have reported perplexing shifts in sensory perception, as well as extreme clarity of thought and vast improvement in cognitive and creative abilities. It is unclear, however, why thujone affects the mind in this way, or even if thujone alone is responsible for these remarkable absinthe effects. To this day, modern science has failed to provide any comprehensive answers, even though scientists had documented the effects of thujone by 1916. Recent research did confirm one thing: the alpha-thujone found in absinthe causes "CNS cholinergic receptor binding activity" in the brain, which, scientists claim, improves the brain's cognitive functions. This will come as no surprise to practitioners of natural medicine, who have long prescribed thujone-rich wormwood for the improvement of thinking and memory.

Safety
In extreme quantities, thujone is toxic and may cause hyperactivity, excitability, delirium, seizures or worse. Absinthe drinkers needn't fear, however, as only a small amount of thujone actually survives the absinthe distillation process. No matter how much absinthe you might drink, the chances of a thujone-induced delirium remain nil -- you would suffer fatal alcohol poisoning long before that. "In absinthe, the most toxic compound is the alcohol," confirmed biochemist Wilfred Arnold of the University of Kansas. "Absinthe generally contains less than ten parts [of thujone] per million," he continued. Thujone poisoning is a possibility with home-made, undistilled "absinthes" though -- so beware those do-it-yourself absinthe recipes that suggest mixing wormwood oil with alcohol. At best, you will end up with a foul-tasting liquor that bears no resemblance to real absinthe. At worst, you will end up in a hospital. Wormwood oil, in its raw form, is a poison. A different kind of Thujone... by Jamie on Mon, 8 Jan 2007.

What is wormwood?
Wormwood is the common name for Artemisia absinthium, the plant whose aromatic oil is used to make absinthe. Although absinthe contains extracts from a whole variety of different plants, wormwood oil is the key ingredient of the famed green drink, and perhaps the reason why absinthe is quite unlike any other liquor ever produced. Wormwood is a wild plant of the daisy family. Native to Europe, it can now be found in many other parts of the world, especially North America. Wormwood is a perennial plant that flowers year after year. It grows between 30 to 90 cm (12 to 36 in) tall and has small, yellowish flower heads.

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Wormwood's secret
But the otherwise ordinarily-looking wormwood plant holds a secret: its aromatic leaves and flowers are naturally rich in the terpene thujone, an aromatic, bitter substance believed to induce an inexplicable clarity of thought, increased sense of perception, enhanced creativity, inspiration and the ability to "see beyond" -- as all the famous absinthe drinkers amongst nineteenth century poets, writers, painters and other artists discovered. But wormwood's unique properties fascinated humanity long before the plant was first used to make absinthe in 1792. Because of its powerful effects on both mind and body, wormwood has been valued as a versatile medicinal plant since at least 1600 B.C.

Ancient medicinal plant

The Egyptians used the plant as an antiseptic, a stimulant and tonic, and as a remedy for fevers and menstrual pains. In ancient Greece, apsinthos (the Greek name for wormwood) was prescribed for such ailments as rheumatism, anemia and menstrual pains, and sometimes as a means of aiding child birth. The philosopher Hippocrates even recommended wormwood as a cure for jaundice. In the Middle Ages, the plant was used to exterminate tapeworm infestations while leaving the human host uninjured, even rejuvenated, by the experience. Since the time of the Romans, wormwood has also been known to aid digestion, and as an effective treatment for upset stomach. In the eighteenth century, a certain Dr. John Hill, describing a German feast of that day, noted: "The wormwood wine, so famous with the Germans, is made with Roman Wormwood, put into the juice and work'd with it; it is a strong and an excellent wine, not unpleasant, yet of such efficacy to give an appetite that the Germans drink a glass with every other mouthful, and that way eat for hours together, without sickness or indigestion." To this day, Bedouin Africans sell wormwood in a Cairo market as a remedy for ill health. The Bedouin also burn wormwood leaves as incense around their newborn children to give the child a life of good health. In 1990, it was claimed that the scientific community finally recognized that wormwood extract is as good as chloroqine for the treatment of malaria. Absinthe wormwood should not be confused with so-called "common wormwood", which is just another name for mugwort. The wormwood plant from which absinthe is made is artemisia absinthium.

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