Absinthe is a distilled, highly alcoholic, anise-flavored spirit derived from herbs including the flowers and leaves of the medicinal plant Artemisia absinthium, also called grand wormwood or Absinth wormwood. Absinthe has a licorcie flavor to it and is typically green either naturally or with added color or clear and is often referred to as la Fée Verte (The Green Fairy). The ingredient that caused all the fuss was wormwood (actually deleterious only when taken in immense doses). Pernod, Abisante, Abson, Anisette, Ojen, and Oxygene are its modern, safe, respectable substitutes.

Although it is sometimes mistakenly called a liqueur, absinthe is not bottled with added sugar and is therefore classified as a liquor or spirit. Absinthe is uncommon among spirits in that it is bottled at a high proof but consumed diluted with water to the strength of wine. Because it`s considered habit forming and hazardous to health, absinthe is prohibited in many countries and was banned in the United States in the early 1900s.

Historically, there were five grades of absinthe: ordinaire, demi-fine, fine, supérieure and Suisse, in order of increasing alcoholic strength and production quality. While a supérieure and Suisse would always be naturally colored and distilled; ordinaire and demi-fine could be artificially colored and made from oil extracts. These terms are no longer used as an industry standard. However some brands in production today still use the Suisse designation on their labels. Many contemporary absinthe critics use two classifications to denote quality; Distilled and Mix Absinthe. Within these two process based classifications exist substantial variations in production quality due to variations in the raw materials used. They should not be viewed as complete measures of quality.

Although wormwood is the second bitterest herb existing to man, it is regularly used to flavor many beverages. Wormwood is frequently used by brewers in place of hops because wormwood leaves resist putrefaction. Wormwood is also used to flavor various specialty liqueurs, such as Vermouth, Campari and Absinthe.

Wormwood is a bitter herb that is toxic if ingested in large quantities. Despite this, wormwood has been utilized for numerous purposes throughout history. Because of wormwood’s unique properties, its scope ranges from medicinal to agricultural domains. As the name implies, it was previously used as a dewormer for people and animals but was also used to treat other ailments, such as fevers and infections. Wormwood was also useful for counteracting the poisons of hemlock, toadstools and sea dragons. Wormwood was also applied externally to soothe bruises, bites and sprains. More recently, wormwood has been used to treat anorexia nervosa patients because chewing on wormwood stimulates the appetite. Wormwood has also been used in agriculture because its insecticidal properties repel pests, such as moths, fleas, slugs and snails.

There are a few reasons wormwood is considered toxic at high levels. Wormwood leaves contain a substance called santonin which causes vertigo and delusion at high doses. Wormwood also contains a compound called thujone which has a unique effect on the human body. Thujone serves as a depressant and stimulant simultaneously. Thujone depresses the central medullar part of the brain and relieves pain and anxiety but it also stimulates the cardiac system. At high doses thujone is toxic to the brain and liver. However, the amounts present in absinthe are not enough to cause any concern.

(What follows is an attempt to describe absinthe's legal status. The wise reader will remember that I am not a lawyer. There may be relevant laws or legal rulings with which I am unfamiliar.)

Although it is banned in some Western countries, absinthe isn't controlled as a drug but as a food. As with many other things considered poisonous, you aren't allowed to commercially make food or drink containing more than trace amounts of thujone. However, simple possession of thujone-containing ethanol solutions will probably not get you into legal problems. Presumably you would be legally liable for any possible damages if you gave absinthe to others to drink. Artemisia species are completely legal and are attractive perennial ornamental plants.

In the United States of America, absinthe was originally banned by Food Inspection Decision 147 in 1912. Now, thujone is banned as a food additive according to Section 801A of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of August, 1972. Wormwood was included on a list of unsafe herbs which the FDA released in 1975.

The European Community Codex Committee on Food Additives has restricted the levels of thujone to 0.5 ppm (mg/kg) in food and beverages, 10 ppm (mg/kg) in alcoholic beverages containing more than 25% alcohol, 5 ppm (mg/kg) in weaker alcoholic beverages, and 35 ppm in bitters. Absinthe was banned in Belgium in 1905, in Switzerland in 1907, in Italy in 1913, and in France in 1915.

Absinthe (made with wormwood) is still available in Spain (contrary to Pendell (1995)) and reportedly in Denmark, Andorra, and Portugal as well. It has also recently become popular in the Czech Republic under the brand name "Hill's Absinth."

People usually report a sense of drunken clarity when drinking absinthe. The experience after you swallow a glass of the green substance is surreal. It comes in a pretty glass bottle, has a good green color, tastes hardly of aniseed but pleasant and smooth with high alcohol content. It smells good, giving an aphrodisiac turn to your sense of smell. It is a ritual to prepare the beverage with sugar cubes; the sugar cubes are added over a spoon, at the moment the beverage falls down the sugar mix to cut bitterness of absinth.

However, don’t get too excited because most brands of absinthe on the market only have 10 mg of thujone due to regulations on thujone levels in the EU. The only two brands having the original level of thujone are the “Zele Premium Absinthe” at 111 mg and King of Spirits Gold at 100 mg because they both are produced in the Czech Republic where there are no restrictions.

Absinthe containing thujone is still banned for sale in the USA but owning a bottle for personal enjoyment is not an issue. You won’t find real absinthe in any stores but there are websites that you can purchase from. If you are going to take the plunge, I would highly recommend getting the "Zele Premium Absinthe" at 111 mg or “King of Spirits Gold” at 100 mg or you will not experience absinthe in its full glory.

Enjoy the drink with your friends and have a nice time, you will not regret, these highly recommended beverages.

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• Absinthe may eat through some types of plastic. Store Absinthe in an air-tight glass container.
• Absinthe is usually over 150 proof. Always dilute it with a non-alcoholic mixer
• Absinthe is flammable. Use with care.
• Homemade Absinthe can be extremely nasty. Always dilute it with a non-alcoholic mixer
• Absinthe may be nasty, but you'll find that the more you drink the less you'll care!
• The effects of Absinthe's "other" ingredients do not last as long as the effects of alcohol. So if you drink your absinthe too slowly, you're not going to feel anything but the Alcohol.
• Try to get through your first glass within 10 minutes. The longer you let it sit, the warmer (and nastier) it gets. Plus, as I stated above - You'll get a better buzz if you drink it quickly.
• Homemade Absinthe can be pretty bitter, so ignore your taste buds. They are your worst enemy.

Absinthe was considered a vivifying elixir long before it could be ordered in a cafe. When Madame de Coulanges, one of the leading ladies of the seventeenth-century French court, became ill, she was prescribed a preparation containing wormwood. When it calmed her stomach, she wrote to Madame de Sevigne, " My little absinthe is the remedy for all diseases."

Hippocrates recommended absinthe for juandice and rheumatism. Ancient absinthe was different from the liquor that Verlaine and Picasso imbibed, generally being wormwood leaves soaked in wine or spirits. Most likely the word absinthe derives from the Greek word apsinthion, which means " undrinkable " presumably because of its bitter taste. Pythagoras recommended wormwood soaked in wine to aid labor in childbirth. Hippocrates prescribed it for jaundice, rheumatism, anemia, and menstrual pains. The Roman scholar Pliny the Elder called it apsinthium in the first century A.D. and noted that it was customary for the champion in chariot races to drink a cup of absinthe leaves soaked in wine to remind him that even glory has its bitter side. He also recommended it as an elixir of youth and as a cure for bad breath... Over the centuries, however, wormwood drinks moved away from being just bitter medicine. Independent distilleries were producing absinthe made from the dried leaves of wormwood steeped in equal parts of malmsey wine and " burning water thrice distilled." The " Purl " of Tudor England was compounded of ale or hot beer and wormwood, and although it was mainly popular with the working classes, Samuel Pepys reported in his famous diary that he had enjoyed several glasses of wormwood ale one night " in a little house...which doubtless was a bawdy house." These dusty tales convey something of the mystique surrounding absinthe; one imagines a flask of it sitting beside the alchemist's crocodile and the mandrake root. Absinthe incorporated Olympian legends of debauch and rather downhome peasant notions. Modern absinthe allegedly was invented in 1792 by an extraordinary French doctor called Pierre Ordinaire, who fled France's revolution to settle in Couvet, a small village in western Switzerland. On his periodic journeys by horseback, Dr. Ordinaire is said to have discovered the plant Artemisia absinthium growing wild in the hills of the Val-de-Travers region. Like most country doctors, he prepared his own remedies, and being acquainted with absinthe's use in ancient times, he began experimenting with it.

Dr. Ordinaire's recipe probably included the following herbs: wormwood, anise (Pimpinella anisum), hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis), dittany (Dictamnus albus), sweet flag (Acorus calamus), Melissa (a type of mint), and varying amounts of coriander, veronica, chamomile, parsley, and even spinach. The 136 proof elixir produced in his sixteen liter still became popular as a cure-all in town and early on was nicknamed La F&eacutee Verte. On his death, he supposedly left his secret recipe to two Henriod sisters from Couvet, who then left it to a visiting Frenchman, Major Dubied, whose son-in-law was named Pernod, and the rest is history.

Absinthe comes to America.

Absinthe soon found its way to the Little Paris of North America, New Orleans. The drink, which was spelled absynthe in an 1837 New Orleans liquor advertisement, enjoyed a vogue under such brand names as Green Opal, Herbsaint, and Milky Way. (Today, one can still find a version of this made without wormwood and marketed under the name Herb Sainte.) Of all the ancient buildings in New Orleans's famed French Quarter, none has been more glorified by drunks and postcard photographers alike than a square, plaster and brick structure at the corner of Bourbon and Bienville streets. " The Old Absinthe House " with its scarred cypress bar was visited by many famous people: Oscar Wilde, Lafcadio Hearn, William Thackeray, Walt Whitman, Aaron Burr, and General P.G.T. Beauregard are just a few of the many who relaxed over a green absinthe in this shady retreat. Alexis, Grand Duke of all Russians, drank here, and the chairs once creaked under William Howard Taft's presidential bulk. The great O. Henry was just a struggling newspaperman named William Sidney Porter when he came to dream over an absinthe frapp&eacute.

The building was constructed in 1806 for the importing and commission firm of Juncadella & Font, two Catalans from Barcelona. In 1820, after Francisco Juncadella died and Pedro Font returned to his native Spain, the place continued as a commission house for the barter of foodstuffs, tobacco, clothing, and Spanish liquor. Relatives of the original owners turned it into an &eacutepicerie, then a bootshop. Finally, in 1846, the ground floor corner room became a saloon known as " Aleix's Coffee House," run by Jacinto Aleix and his brother, nephews of old Senora Juncadella. In 1899, the Aleix brothers hired Cayetano Ferr&eacuter, another Catalan, who had been a barkeeper at the French Opera House. In 1874, Cayetano himself leased the place and renamed it the " Absinthe Room " because of the numerous requests he had for the drink which he served in the French manner.Stationed along the long cypress bar were marble fountains with brass faucets which slowly dripped cool water, drop by drop, over the sugar cubes perched above the glasses. Over the years, the place became known as " The Old Absinthe House." Absinthe was also drunk in San Francisco, Chicago and New York, which had a popular restaurant called the Absinthe House. Up until 1912, many of the more exotic bars in New York would serve an absinthe cocktail. One can imagine a piano player at one of these watering holes singing this Victor Herbert melody with lyrics by Glenn MacDonough:

I will free you first from burning thirst
That is born of a night of the bowl,
Like a sun 'twill rise through the inky skies
That so heavily hang o'er your souls.
At the first cool sip on your fevered lip
You determine to live through the day,
Life's again worth while as with a dawining smile
You imbibe your absinthe frapp&eacute.

But on July 13, 1907, Harper´ s Weekly noted, " The growing consumption in America of absinthe, 'the green curse of France,' has attracted the attention of the Department of Agriculture, and an investigation has been ordered to determine to what extent it is being manufactuired in this country." Just five years later, on July 25, 1912, the Department of Agriculture issued Food Inspection Decision 147, which banned absinthe in America.

Credits to absinth.com for this absinthe history article !

Absinthe art was very popular during the "Belle Époque", picasso, arthur Rimbaud, Ernest Hemingway, Paul voltaire, Jean Cocteau are just a few of the many famous artists that were inspired by Absinthe, some of them created classic absinthe art that are considered masterpieces today ( and back then ) which define the overall absinthe "feel" and art style.

It would be impossible to cram in such a small page all the artists: painters, poets, writers, and other who have done works which, at some point , featured Absinthe as the primary source of inspiration for their creation... But, as you will see here, Absinthe was used as an inspiration during the life of alot of famous artists throughout History.

I have looked around for some of the most stunning absinthe art and have come up with this list, I will put some details if I can but feel free to contact me and give me additional information on some of the piece of art shown below...
Enjoy :)
Absinthe Art : Prohibition PostersAbsinthe Art : Paintings

Picasso - Femme ivre se fatigue.

Van Gogh - Still Life With AbsinthePablo Picasso The Absinth Drinker Painting

Absinthe Art : Advertising Artwork