ABSINTHE! Part I - the Bottles As Medicinal Significance
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44 July-August 2008 Bottles and Extras Egyptians, wormwood had religious as well ABSINTHE! Part I - The Bottles as medicinal significance. Wormwood is The return of la Fee Verte - “The Green Faerie” mentioned seven times in the King James’ version of the bible. Pliny’s Hisotria By Cecil Munsey Naturalis, written in the first century A.D., Copyright © 2008 describes extracts of wormwood as being of great antiquity (even then) and having By late morning the professors of absinthe were already at their station, yes, the longstanding utility against gastrointestinal teachers of absinthe, for it is a science, or rather an art to drink absinthe properly, worms (hence the name). Thujone does and certainly to drink it in quantity. They put themselves on the trail of the novice indeed stun roundworms, which are then drinkers, teaching them to raise their elbow high and frequently, water their absinthe expelled by normal peristaltic action of the artistically, and then, after the tenth little glass, with the pupil rolled under the intestine. table, the master went on to another, always drinking, always holding forth, always A more recent version of the story of steady and unshakeable at his post.” absinthe involves some controversy as to its lineage. Most historians agree the Absinthe et Absintheurs by Henri Balesta modern version of absinthe can be traced back to the modest Swiss laboratory of Introduction: nicknamed “the green fairy.” Pierre Ordinaire, a resourceful French Absinthe, in its heyday during the But a night with Lucid, Kubler or St. doctor who’d fled to Switzerland in the 1880-1915 (“Belle Époque” or George – the three absinthe brands so far wake of the French Revolution. “beautiful era”), was an immensely allowed to be sold in the U.S. – is merely a In 1792, he combined local herbs, popular beverage enjoyed by artists and date with a spirit whose alcohol content wormwood, anise, fennel, angelica, hyssop writers. The anise-flavored liquor was (sometimes as high as 70% – 140 proof) and possibly mint and spinach, in an eventually portrayed, perhaps unfairly, beats vodka. What is now sold in the U.S. alcohol base. He prescribed and sold the as dangerously addictive and simply isn‘t the real stuff that is legend in 136-proof concoction as a cure-all known psychoactive. It is worth mentioning history. Absinthe sold here must contain for its digestive-aiding and parasite- that wine and absinthe were not always less that 10 ppm (parts per million) of dispelling qualities – as a proprietary thought to be inimical (hostile). In thujone, a chemical found in the herb medicine, in other words. It soon garnered those earlier times, just the opposite was wormwood, a traditional ingredient of the nickname the la Fee Verte (the Green true. Absinthe was said by some to absinthe. Thujone in high concentrations Faerie) due to its translucent hue and the intensify the power of wine, “absinthe is extremely toxic. The supposed strange effect it had on its imbibers. The is the spark that explodes the psychotropic effect of pre-ban absinthe is doctor’s only proof that it worked as a gunpowder of wine.” Anti-absinthe attributed to thujone levels of 60 ppm or health tonic was his patients kept coming agitation finally won out and more, far past current legal limits 10 ppm back for it, and the way Pierre figured it, Switzerland banned absinthe in 1905, in the U.S. and the European Union. the customer was always right. followed by the United States in 1912 However, some recent tests of pre-ban and France in 1915. Countries in which absinthes by a food chemist and a distiller absinthe remained legal, such as Spain, revealed results that fell below 35 ppm. It Portugal and Czechoslovakia, reported wasn’t a cheap series of tests to make since no epidemic of madness and violence the 100-year old pre-ban full bottles attributable to its use – it can still be currently sell online, starting at $1,000 and purchased today in grocery chains in the go up to $6,000 or more. in the Czech Republic and in liquor stores in Denmark, Sweden, New History of absinthe Zealand, Japan and Britain. Wormwood, a woody shrub with a bitter In the early 1900s, English aromatic taste, has long been used as an medical journals reported that they ingredient of couldn’t tell any difference between vermouth and alcoholism and absinthism. Soon absinthe and in absinthe was hardly drunk in Britain, medicine. The and it was not thought necessary to ban earliest recorded it. Bars and restaurants in Britain began use of wormwood serving it recently when they discovered (Figure 1) comes it had never been formally banned in from the Ebers the country. Papyrus, copies of which date from In December of 2007, after years of 1550 B.C., but badgering by beverage companies’ legal which include teams, the U.S. lifted its ban. All writings from Americans now can indulge in the spirit 3550 B.C. To the Figure 1 Figure 6 Bottles and Extras July-August 2008 45 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 7 It remained a local remedy for small- for warding off sobriety and the town ailments until Henri-Louis Pernod, dissatisfaction of civilian life. Secrets of the Faerie founder of the famed Pernod Fils distillery, The intellectual elite of Paris soon “The first stage is like ordinary acquired the recipe by a fortuitous marriage became enchanted – some say enslaved – drinking, the second when you begin and began producing large quantities of by the Faerie’s strange charms. The potent to see monstrous and cruel things, but absinthe in 1797 in Couvet, Switzerland, liquor’s reputation and use spread rapidly if you can persevere you will enter in before moving to a larger Pontarlier, France among artists, writers and professional café upon the third stage where you see facility in 1805. (For a capsule-history of habitués, who claimed it raised their things that you want to see, wonderful Pernod, see “The Fire” later in this article.) perceptions and consciousness, allowing curious things.” It didn’t catch on as something you’d them to turn out more inspired work. —Oscar Wilde confidently order in a café until it was [Figures 2-4] issued to French soldiers fighting Muslim Figure 8 insurgents in Algeria in the 1840s. They used it to spike their canteen water and claimed it was grand for warding off tropical fever, dysentery and harmful bacteria and “to recruit exhausted strength.” When the boys came victoriously marching home, they apparently brought their fear of fever and germs back to France, where they found it was also good 46 July-August 2008 Bottles and Extras were all enthusiastic disciples of the la Fee Verte. Hemingway wrote a large body of his work under the faerie’s influence, and it’s no wonder his short stories and novels are steeped in the stuff. His characters ordered it by the bottle and drank it for entertainment, enlightenment, Figure 9 and sometimes as The power and attraction of absinthe lies in its inherent a makeshift barrier contradictions. Though fortified with a formidable measure of between the alcohol, a depressant, it is also infused with powerful herbal presence and stimulants, creating a psychic tug of war in the mind of the imbiber. memories of war Alcohol relaxes inhibitions and invites in new ideas, and the and women they stimulants allow you to logically process the new data. wished to forget. Foremost of the stimulants is thujone, the psychoactive [Figures 10-11] chemical at the heart of the herb wormwood, which, along with Hemingway anisette, gives absinthe its bitter, black liquorish taste. Figure 10 Figure 12 took his first taste Subsequently, absinthe provides a level of clarity not usually while visiting Spain associated with alcoholic drinks, and what artist could pass that in 1920. He fell head-over-heels in love up? [Figures 5-8] with the Faerie, continued the habit in With the promise of inspiration, clarity and getting drunk, it Paris (though it was illegal at the time), was no wonder it became a favorite. To say absinthe was a major and then carried the practice home to the influence and inspiration of the artists of the Impressionist U.S. He smuggled bottles from Spain and Movement is not such an outrageous claim when one considers Cuba and kept it by his typewriter as a most of the movement’s pioneers and stars swore loyalty to the means of instant inspiration (Figure 12). Figure 11 liquor. Edourd Manet, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, In his own words: Alfred Jarry, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Edgar Degas, Henri “The absinthe made everything seem better. I drank it without de Toulouse-Lautrec, Viktor Oliva and Pablo Picasso were all heavy sugar in the dripping glass, and it was pleasantly bitter. I users, and if asked, they would tell you they needed the narcotic poured the water directly into it and stirred it instead of letting properties of absinthe to get out of their head enough to render art it drip. I stirred the ice around with a spoon in the brownish, that had never even been thought of by more conventional artists. cloudy mixture. I was very drunk. I was drunker than I ever Oliva, the Czech painter and illustrator, (1861-1928) painted the remembered having been.” “Absinthe Drinker” (Czech: Piják absintu), his most famous painting (Figure 9) that became for some the visual anthem for —Ernest Hemingway the absinthe era. Lautrec carried his supply of absinthe in a hollowed-out walking stick with a reservoir of absinthe so that he Ernest Dowson, an English poet of the group called the would never be without the green faerie.