Liquorists

A 55% (110 proof) absinthe from France. And that is where my struggle starts.
There seem to be two versions that look very very similar, and i have a little sample bottle, written in French. And i don't speak a word French.

But, seeing as the two versions are a American version, and a European version. Seeing as this thing is written in French and i clearly bought it in Europe, i am going to assume i have that version...

A brand without allot of info, my favorite.
This is one of the 2 absinthe products this brand has. One beeing the 55.5, and the other, the one i am dealing with today, 77.7.

Like the name maybe already suggested, this version is rocking a 77.7% alcohol ( 155.4 proof). And while the bottle has a serving tip of drinking it pure on the rocks, that might be a little potent for some of us.
Because this is a rather low end absinthe, it isn't as *real* as the more expensive brands, and therefor made with artificial flavors, and colors.

The fluid itself isn't as bright green as the picture might suggest, more a mix between green yellow and gold. The odor if this absinthe is a really strong one. Black liquorice and a little bit of anise almost punch you in the face. A really strong smell that leaves no room for anything else, including alcohol. Diving in the glass nosedeep will reveal some ethanol, but not much.

This absinthe does in fact louche when mixed with water (see this article, and this follow up for more info) and becomes cloudy white.
When drinking pure, the massive amount of alcohol will immediately attack your tongue, and it will begin to tickle and numb right away. At first you will get the minty anis on the tip of your tongue, and that will go into a heavy black liquorice aftertase on the back end of the tongue. And a rather bitter aftertase.

The main *buzz* around absinthe has always been the rumours about the psychedelic effects it supposed to have.
Well that's simply not true.
It does seem to have an additional effect besides the alcohol, that's supposed to be caused by thujone, that comes from the wormwood used to make absinthe.
Thujone on itself is toxic in higher doses ( allot of substances are), but in the minor amounts that are in absinthe it does no harm.
In fact, if one would drink absinthe for that reason, the alcohol would kill allot earlier then the thujone.
People did suggest the pre banned absinthe contained allot of thujona, making the *effects* stronger then today's, so that would be the reason of the ban.
After some testing from the still existing bottles that proved not true.

Allot of artists used to drink absinthe, and claimed it did help them artisticly.
While the high alcohol in absinthe might made them think a little different then normal, the thujone made them a bit sharper so they could actually use all impressions they where getting to write/paint them down. But what the thujone actually does isn't that well known, besides convulsions and death resulting from a lethal amount of it.

The reason allot of people earlier got so sick of it, was propably due that allot of homebrews had other very toxic ingredients in them (making the drink green).

Other then that, allot of herbs supposed to have additional effects then just to add flavour, so the absinthe effect could aswel be a mix between other herbs inside the drink.

Personally i'll do my best to get my hands on some absinthes, since it wasn't just popular in the old days because of the so called psychedelic effects. People used tons of now illegal drugs in all kinds of mixes to fix diseases. But the most obvious reason why it was popular was probably just because...it was tasty. And im very eager to find out if thats really the case. The rumours and the way to prepare the drink are at least intriging.

Below a modern marvels segment from youtube about absinthe:



Have anything to add or ask? Feel free to add a comment.

This time i will go a bit into abinthe.
What it is, why it got banned, the drinking method's, etc. Probably not going to fit into one article all at once, so bear with me.

To start off, abinthe is a very old liquor dating from the 17th century, and used to be very popular among all ranks of society around the 19th century. While absinthe was very popular around then, the wine industry had a all time low.
That's what also coased it's main downfall. The rumours about the wormwood's thujone making you go crazy was hyped allot by the recovering wine industry.
One additional problem was that allot of people drank bad quality absinthe, that contained poisonous substances. And due lack of research most countries simply banned the drink almost 100 years ago.

The main ingredients for the flavours are wormwood (where the thujone comes from), anise and sweet fennel.
Allot of the *better* absinthes are distilled, and the main reason people often use some sugar when preparing absinthe, is to mark the really bitter taste from the brands that don't distill their spirit. Since undistilled, it will remain a very bitter substance.
After the distillation other herbs are added to give it the green yellow colour. Altho there are brands that use artificial coloring to get a really bright green.

That brings us to the way absinthe is prepared.
The standard procedure is to add a bottom of absinthe to a glass, then drip (slowly) icecold water into the glass.
What will happen is, some of the herbal extracts that are *hidden* in the alcohol separate when you add the ice cold water. Thats why the drink becomes less transparent and more white.
Often it tends to be a 1/4 part of absinthe and 3/4 parts of water, but basicly when the whole drink is evenly cloudy, it's done.
That may sound watery, but since the spirit contains around 60% or 70% (120/140 proof) alcohol, and the water breaks allot of the aroma's loose, thats not the case.

As said before, due to horrible quaility absinthes people where adding sugar into the mix, dripping the ice cold water on top of a sugarcube, on a special absinthe spoon.
This would hide the very bitter taste of non distillated absinthe.
Then there are also people who light the icecube on fire, but just like 101 proof rumcocktails, thats usually just for the showfactor.

I will get into a more detailled article about thujone, and the myths it has created around absinthe later on.

And as usual, feel free to comment or correct me.