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.
While wanting to write out a few things about vodka first, i came across a serie of youtube videos about the history of whiskey, interesting enough to link here.
To save room on the page i only embedded the first of 6. Just click the links below to watch the rest of the videos on youtube.
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