11.19.2005
Absinthe - The Green Goddess
"Absinthe was invented in 1797 by Dr. Pierre Ordinaire. Henri-Louis Pernod opened the first Absinthe distillery in Switzerland and then moved to a larger one in Pontarlier, France in 1805. By the 1850's it had become the favorite drink of the upper class. Originally wine based, a blight in 1870's on the vineyards forced manufacturers to base it with grain alcohol. Everyone could now afford it. The bohemian lifestyle embraced it. La fée verte (the green fairy) as it became commonly known, was most popular in France. Most days started with a drink and ended with l'heure verte (the green hour) as one or two or more were taken for it's apéritif properties. It is interesting to note that it also has aphrodisiac and narcotic properties.
From about 1850 on, Absinthe was quite popular among artists and writers and was used to stimulate creativity. Van Gogh, who cut off his ear and presented it to a prostitute, is probably the most notorious of Absinthe loving artists. It has been proposed that an addiction to Absinthe, along with a constant exposure to turpentine, and the habitual use of camphor to treat insomnia, caused the artist to experience hallucinations, delusions, convulsions, and his suicide.
Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, Alfred Jarry, Edgar Allen Poe, Aleister Crowley, Oscar Wilde, Jack London, and Ernest Hemmingway are a few of the reported famous authors who were also Absinthe drinkers. Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud are the focus of Total Eclipse, the true, fact-based story of two great 19th century French poets and lovers.
Oscar Wilde, on Absinthe;"After the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world."
It's popularity soared from 1880 on. Advertisements touted it as being healthful. It was exported to New Orleans and reached the same acclaim in the United States. It was one of the few drinks considered lady-like and women freely enjoyed it in the coffee houses where it was most commonly served. Victorian era men however, found women freely enjoying Absinthe distasteful. In 1905, Jean Lanfray who was very intoxicated, murdered his wife. He supposedly only had two glasses of Absinthe but none the less, his trial became known as the "Absinthe Murder". Prohibition movements were underway. Absinthe was singled out as the maddening culprit and became synonymous with alcohol. Experiments started to be conducted often by injecting large doses of the oil of wormwood into animals. Absinthism was named as a disease. On July 25th, 1912, the Department of Agriculture issued Food Inspection 147, which banned Absinthe in America, and finally France followed in 1915.." [Via about.com]
The PimpWiz.com Bottom Line: That's some seriously potent sh*t. Absinthe is legal in many countries. Absinthe is a "prohibited" item and is subject to being seized by the United States Customs. Even though absinthe is prohibited in the United States, it is not a controlled substance.
