Abinsthe is a 45-75% ABV spirit flavored with green anise, sweet fennel, and Grand Wormwood (Artemisia Absinthium). Available in both green and clear/yellow. The color generally comes from additional botanicals added after the distillation. The name is derived from the latin for wormwood.
Absinthe originated in Switzerland in the late 1700s. I was a patent medicine created by french doctor Dr. Pierre Ordinaire. The first distillery to produce it commercially was Pernod in 1805.
It became popular in France in the 1800s as a cheap intoxicant, and was prescribed as an antimalarial for French troops. Eventually it was so common that happy hour became know as "l'heure verte" - the green hour. By 1910 it outsold wine 5 billion liters to 36 million.
Absinthe was first available in the US in New Orleans and rose to popularity with the Sazarac around 1850.
Its association with bohemian counterculture made it unpopular with conservatives. Its popularity compared with wine made it unpopular with winemakers. Both parties started smear campaigns, and joined forces with temperance proponents.
In 1905, Jean Lanfray, a Swiss farmer, murdered his family and attempted suicide while drunk on absinthe (and wine and brandy). The anti-absinthe camp jumped on the tradgedy and the spirit was banned in Switzerland in 1908, the US in 1912, and France in 1914.
The ban lead to the popularization of anise-flavored substitutes that did not contain wormwood. These include pastis, ouzo, pernod, and herbsaint.
Production of absinthe never stopped in the Czech Republic. These were low quality, and did not match the original style.
Europe slowly rescinded the ban as it was challenged by importers and aficionados as having no scientific basis. France began distilling high-quality absinthes in the early 2000s for export. They did not repeal their ban on local consumption intil 2011.
The US ban was based on the concentration of thujone, a chemical in wormwood, which can produce seizures in high quantities but is not a hallucinogen as commonly assumed. I took a multi-year campaign by an organic chemist to convince the FDA that absinthe had never contained a substantial concentration of thujone.
St. George Spirits became the first US distiller to produce absinthe in 2007.
High-quality absinthe is made in a process nearly identical to gin. Botanicals are macerated in a neutral grain spirit prior to the final distillation. It may then be dyed with further botanicals.
Botanicals are varied but may include grande wormwood, green anise, florence fennel, petite wormwood, hyssop, star anise, angelica, peppermint, and coriander.
The classic French preparation places one part absinthe in an absinthe glass, puts an absinthe spoon with a sugar cube on it over the glass, and then drips 3-5 parts ice water over the cube. The oils in the spirit are imiscible in water, and so seperate into a cloudy layer called the louche.
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