Absinthe is back

skygod · Post by **skygod** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 6:29 pm

St. George Distillery in Alameda, CA got a license to make it. I understand they haven't made it in the U.S. in like 100 years. They are selling it beginning 12/21/07.
I also understand Edgar Allan Poe was found dead in a Baltimore gutter reeking of this stuff, but some BM folks seem to like it.
75 bucks a bottle.
One of the ingredients. Wormwood (and the active ingredient thujone) are suspect at best.

Post by **AntiM** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 7:40 pm

Poe died in a hospital, causes unknown. Granted, he might have been found in the gutter, but he didn't die there. His drug of choice was opium, not absinthe.

Nit-picky some days, ain't I?

The base package store is carrying Absenthe, although I don't think it has actual wormwood in it. Right around $40 a bottle and just as awful tasting as the real deal. Our local health food shop (we have ONE in Ogden) carries wormwood extract, I imagine the two could be blended. Bitter stuff.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 9:41 pm

There's this whole thing, and I'm not up on the details, involving Poe and a doctor, possibly the attending physician, where after Poe's death the doctor made him out to be an alchoholic, when Poe wasn't.

Post by **mdmf007** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 9:43 pm

wasnt just about everyone an alcoholic then by todays standards?

BitterDan · Post by **BitterDan** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:06 pm

mdmf007 wrote:wasnt just about everyone an alcoholic then by todays standards?

Ah the good ole days.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 5:34 am

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, in the absinthe of hard data.

Post by **AntiM** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 6:36 am

mdmf007 wrote:wasnt just about everyone an alcoholic then by todays standards?

There was little which was safe to drink, including water, anything boiled such as tea or coffee was too expensive. Booze was health food!

Simon of the Playa · Post by **Simon of the Playa** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 7:28 am

ah, the green fairy....evidently she convinced some poor swiss farmer in the 1890's to kill his family, which led to hysteria and subsequent banning of the libation to seedier nations on the continent, like Spain...

it is a peragoric as well as a great anti-parasitic...in fact, if you have any worms before, you wont after...

i have made my own from Bacardi 151, and Artemisia Nicotania (sp?) also known as wormwood, available from your local hippy spice vendor.

i let it sit for about a year.

I met my best Friend and sometimes/former/future? lover over a bitter bitter glass of the stuff....she came and found me because she had heard i had some and wanted to try it...

the moon was full....ok, i'll stop here before this gets into a strange penthouse forum vibe...

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 8:24 am

Unknown if it was the absynthe per se, or just bad distillation. (i.e. moonshine making you blind, as it were.)

And what AntiM said. Often it was wine and water mixed or "small beer" what we would call "lite" beer.

Post by **AntiM** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 8:31 am

Oh, my Poe obsession is partially because I share a birthday, I know, not that unusual, but I share with Poe, Janis Joplin and Dolly Parton. When I was younger I figured I'd die of an early drug overdose because i surely could not sing.

I was an odd kid. A proto-Goth.

skygod · Post by **skygod** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 11:27 am

"All that we see or seem
Is just a dream within a dream'
-Poe
I think that's the Wormwood talking!

Dr. Pyro · Post by **Dr. Pyro** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 11:52 am

It was Van Gogh who chopped off his ear while flying high on absinthe. And yes, they are not allowing wormwood to be in the "new and improved" version. This actually made national news (I heard it yesterday). Personally, I love the stuff.

BitterDan · Post by **BitterDan** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 2:53 pm

What good is absinthe without the wormwood? I mean, that's why we drink it isn't it? I don't particularly like the taste of absinthe, too bitter for me.

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 4:04 pm

Now we gotta find another edgy drink. Damn.

BitterDan · Post by **BitterDan** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 5:40 pm

I hear that bleech gives you a nice buzz...

(that was a joke, don't try it at home kiddies)

Post by **mdmf007** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 7:46 pm

[quote="BitterDan"]I hear that bleech gives you a nice buzz...
quote]

right before it kills you!!!!

I prefer Sterno (tm)

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:05 pm

If this degenerates into pruno recipies...

Post by **mdmf007** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:27 pm

what? there are pruno recipes? ive juts been chewing it up out of the can, and slurping it up like jello!!.

DJ Dominus · Post by **DJ Dominus** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:51 pm

Pretty much don't bother with any of the stuff they are making here in the states. Imported or forget it.

Oldguy · Post by **Oldguy** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:56 pm

I was offered absinthe this year in a playa bar but declined because I feared a reaction of the alcohol base with my bloodpressure medication. I requested instead a diet soda, I sometimes wish I had seccumbed to temptation and had tried it. Perhaps it wasn't the real mccoy ,but I'll never know the real effects. my bad.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:38 am

I'm not sure any absinthe is "real." The tradition was broken and the modern absinthes are approximations based on the information that we have. Same with Morris Dancing.

skygod · Post by **skygod** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:59 am

Well, they say: "It's in there!"
Today we announce the sale of the first domestically produced absinthe since the ban in 1912, St. George Spirits Absinthe Verte!

St. George Spirits Absinthe Verte is made with fine brandy, star anise, mint, wormwood, lemon balm, hyssop, meadowsweet, basil, fennel, tarragon and stinging nettles. This infamous liquor reveals seductive flavors of anise complimented with sweet grassy tones, light citrus, white pepper, and light menthol notes.

But I agree with you Fishperson that the best days of the Morris Dancers are behind us.

Ugly Dougly · Post by **Ugly Dougly** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 10:32 am

I'll stiick to my jenkem, thanks.

The CO · Post by **The CO** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 10:46 am

Why is Morris dancing? What's he so happy about?

Simon of the Playa · Post by **Simon of the Playa** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 12:02 pm

well, morris is getting a little long in the fang, and now he can see his girlfriend, the genetically modified Pussy Galow, at night....

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 8:20 am

Well, this is authentic and transgressive; go Moonshine Camp one better.

Valkyrie · Post by **Valkyrie** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 1:54 am

I'm confused. See, to the best of my knowledge, absinthe per se was never illegal in this country. The substance thujone, which is the "active" ingredient in wormwood was declared a hazardous food substance by the FDA (NOT ATF which regulates liquor) and therefore it still is regulated in anything offered for sale for human consumption.

It's my understanding that the latest "breakthrough" has been a process to remove the thujone from the finished product, not any legal changes. There's been a lot of hype lately as to "thujone doesn't do anything". And while people are just "discovering" it's not a hallucinogenic drug like LSD, although it was described as sensory-altering, the reported effects never involved seeing things that weren't there.

Some of the hype behind the chemical thujone has to do with belief that it functioned on the brain in a similar manner to THC... simply because it's chemical structure looked similar. Recent research has revealed that it doesn't work that way. (Which is pretty unsurprising, since none of the descriptions of its effects were anywhere close.) Thujone is now known as a GABAA receptor antagonist - something that causes your nerves to fire more readily (and frequently. Some of the known side effects of extremely high doses involve seizures. Ironically, alcohol is indicated as a suppressor of this effect. Of course, none of the symptoms match what was described as the reasons for making this illegal. Historians believe that in the cheaper stuff, toxic substances were added to the really cheap stuff to make it artificially green.

As an aside, it's my understanding that those kits where you add the wormwood after the fact make a really awful drink. This is mostly because there's some vile tasting substances in greater wormwood that are filtered out in the distillation process that you get to drink if the wormwood is added after the fact.

I'm having a friend pick me up a bottle in Montreal, where they allow the highest thujone content I've seen. I'm hoping to see what it's like. I might compare some to the thujone-less variety just to see if there's any difference.

timp · Post by **timp** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 11:14 am

I did a report on Absinthe for school not very long ago...

along with what valkyrie said:

A similar product to absinthe (absente) has been in the states for years, but it uses a different kind of wormwood.

The rumor is that wormwood is a hallucinagen, which really isn't true at all, it's no more intoxicating than any other high-proof alcohol, but some time ago, some guy in Sweden drank a bunch of it and killed his entire family (the reports neglected to mention that he'd been drinking other stuff all day). after that came bunches of articles and protest groups which stated (falsely) how terrible the stuff was, hence it was outlawed by countries all over the world. At this point it's legal pretty much everywhere except the states (however that seems to be changing now)...

glad to see it's finally making a comeback.

skygod · Post by **skygod** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 1:50 pm

The distillery sold all of the bottles they had on the date of releae 12/21. Long line around the building. I wish I didn't have to work that day, I would've stood in line. It's just a curiousity for me, I have never tried the stuff myself. I'll be surprised if Docpyro doesn't have a bottle of it this year on the playa.

BitterDan · Post by **BitterDan** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:38 pm

Skygod, you can order all the absinthe you want over the intraweb. I am certain that the European flavors will be just as good if not better (considering that they have had hundreds of years of practice at making it). Frankly, I don't think it tastes very good and leaves a funky aftertaste. If you love anise/liquorish then you'll enjoy it.