Absinthe – The Green Fairy’s Watercolor Elixirs

Absinthe (pronounced ab-shinth) is a high-alcohol spirit with its signature bitter anise flavor and mix of medicinal and culinary herbs, most notably Artemisia absinthium or Wormwood which boasts both medicinal and hallucinogenic properties. Though absinthe is extremely potency liquor with 45-74% ABV or 148-159 proof, most individuals who drink it do not experience any psychotropic effects from Thujone present in it.

Expert Ted Breaux credits absinthe’s reputation as an altered state drink to its poor production methods in the 18th and 19th centuries and its high concentration of thujone content among some batches.2

Absinthe can now be found in many bars and specialty liquor stores, yet to fully appreciate its complex herbal flavors, it’s crucial that its preparation and chemistry be fully understood.

To achieve a classic absinthe louche, cold water must be gradually trickled over a sugar cube placed on a spoon, with each drop releasing terpenoids that turn the spirit milky and opaque–known as louche. In France during its 1860s absinthe boom caused by phylloxera louse infestation, absinthe was widely consumed; writers like Baudelaire, Verlaine and Edgar Allan Poe used absinthe as stimulant medication while artists like Toulouse-Lautrec Degas Gauguin Van Gogh Picasso included it in their works as stimulants or used it as stimulants; its popularity also gave rise to L’heure verte where drinkers of all sorts would gather to share their absinthe and share stories over beverages of absinthe.