Absinthe: The Green Fairy Flies Again

By Laurie Gilchrist

What do you get when you combine faulty, misleading scientific studies, greed, brainwashing, cultural bias, and a scare campaign by the government and media? No, I'm not talking about global warming (although the rhetoric does sound eerily familiar); I'm talking about the banning of absinthe, or “The Green Fairy” in the early 1900s. Though alcohol in general has garnered its share of bad press and ban attempts over the years, no other single spirit has suffered like absinthe has. And it took nearly a century for bad press, bad science, and bad laws to be finally by exposed and reversed.

Absinthe is a highly alcoholic (45%-93% ABV), anise flavored beverage derived from herbs, specifically and most usually the "holy trinity" of herbs: grande wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), green anise, and Florence fennel. Other herbs can also be utilized in the making of absinthe, including petite wormwood, melissa, angelica, dittany, veronica, nutmeg, juniper, sweet flag, coriander, hyssop, and star anise. Absinthe's distinctive, traditional green coloring is chlorophyll from these herbs and is achieved through maceration. Absinthe is not bottled with added sugar and is therefore not a liqueur, as is often mistakenly thought, it is a liquor.

Traditionally, absinthe was served by placing a sugar cube in a special slotted spoon suspended on top of an absinthe glass, which had a bubble or bulge on the bottom. Absinthe was poured into the glass to fill the "bubble" and cold water was then dripped over the sugar cube to a 3 to 1 or 5 to 1 ratio. As the components combined, the drink turned opalescent, or "louche." Absinthe was also commonly used as an ingredient in cocktails. Ernest Hemmingway's "Death in the Afternoon" directed the drinker to "pour one jigger of absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly."

Fine absinthe ages just as fine wine does and eventually its green hue changes to an amber brown color in a process called "feuille mort." Absinthe's origins can be traced to 1550 BC, when the Egyptians recorded the religious and medical use of wormwood. Likewise, the ancient Greeks utilized wine-soaked wormwood leaves and extracts for medicinal purposes. Wormwood is also mentioned seven times in the New Testament of the Bible and Pliny the Elder's (23-79 AD) Historia Naturalis records the effectiveness of wormwood against gastrointestinal worms (hence the name wormwood) and the existence of absinthites, a wine which included extract of wormwood as one of its ingredients.

Absinthe in its modern form was purportedly first produced as a medical elixir in the late 1700s in Switzerland. The first absinthe distillery Dubied Pére et Fils was founded by Major Dubied, his son Marcellin and son-in-law Henry-Louis Pernod in 1797, in Couvet, Switzerland.

Absinthe was given to French soldiers in the 1840s as a remedy for malaria. Consequently, by the mid 1800s, absinthe was enjoying enormous popularity throughout France and five o'clock was designated l'heure verte, or “the green hour.” The phylloxera epidemic in European wine vineyards late that century, along with reduced prices of absinthe due to mass production spurred the spirit to become France's number one drink, favored by all social classes, from peasants to the elite. Its consumption directly corresponded with the Belle Époque ("Beautiful Era"), which was a time of political stability, technological, scientific, and literary advances, and marked the emergence of new artistic forms such as Impressionism and Expressionism. "The Green Fairy" became "The Green Muse" and was immortalized by such greats as Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Viktor Oliva, and Albert Maignan. Vincent van Gogh, Aleister Crowley, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Oscar Wilde, and Charles Baudelaire were also said to be devoted absinthe drinkers. Outside of France, absinthe also enjoyed popularity in the Czech Republic, New Orleans, and Spain.

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But what helped to create the allure of absinthe ultimately led to its demise. Fans of the drink claimed that it was a hallucinogenic and had psychoactive properties. They described its effects as "mind opening" and giving the drinker a feeling of "lucid drunkenness." Soon doctors were diagnosing the disease "absinthism" and warning the public of the dangers of this "addictive, psychoactive drug." Thujone, a fragrant, oily ketone found in a variety of plants, such as arborvitae, common sage, and wormwood, was isolated and blamed for absinthe's "dangerous" side effects. Dr. Valentin Magnan, an alcoholism and insanity specialist of the time, conducted experiments with pure wormwood oil (not absinthe) and observed that it caused epileptic reactions in animals. He then studied 250 alcoholics and concluded that those who drank absinthe suffered from hallucinations and epileptic attacks. Magnan's studies were scientifically flawed and his conclusions were biased by his core belief that alcohol, especially absinthe was "degenerating" the French people.

Nevertheless, absinthe became the "poster child for the evils of drink." Prohibitionist in the government, followers of Magnan, and the French wine industry, which had monetary motives, preached "absinthe rend fou!" (absinthe makes you mad) and spearheaded a campaign to have it banned. True to form, the media saw blood and joined the witch hunt. Publicly, absinthe was blamed for all manner of heinous crimes and social disorders, and the hysteria soon spread to the rest of Europe and beyond. Absinthe was banned in Switzerland in 1910, and a domino effect followed in most of Europe and the U.S.

The ban on absinthe remained in effect throughout much of the world until the early part of the current century. It took nearly 100 years for new research to conclude that absinthe is no more dangerous than any other type of alcohol. Even in vintage absinthe, thujone levels are far too low to give the drinker any significant side effects. Belle Époque artists and poets who claimed hallucinations and vivid dreams after consuming absinthe were most likely either exaggerating, simultaneously hitting the opium pipe, or consuming cheap absinthe, which was often colored green by toxic chemicals instead of through the maceration process.

And though today The Green Fairy flies again, my dear friends, do not forget the lesson hidden within its tragic story... About the insidious power of hysteria, that dangerous beast called politics, and the very nature of these beings we call human. Cheers!