OMG, just had a sip of Absinthe ( now is legal in the U.S.. This is 124 proof; Beware. Don't take more than one sip. One sip was enough to knock me out. Be careful out there.

All of the Absinthe kick in the US is entirely due to the alcohol content and the mystique. There is virtually no Thujone in them.

For an interesting experience you need to seek out boutique distillers. @:-)

St George Spirits (Hangar One) in Alameda is making it. I'm going to wait a bit before going over there because I'm sure the crowds are going to be big.

The FDA has banned thujone (a chemical component in wormwood, which is a main ingredient in most absinthes) as a food additive. This ban still stands. IIRC the new US absinthes had to prove they had a very low/no thujone content in order to be able to sell the products. Therefore it is not a case of them now being legal insomuch as they have circumvented the thujone ban.

That being said, La Fee Absinthe is a good one. Hill's is over rated (marketing). Stick to absinthes that aren't overly green (the color is synthetic and it just has more additives).

I would say don't bother unless you have knowledge they will ignore US law in their distillation process. it is hard to publicly escape the US nanny state.

The only Absinthe I ever had was in the UK, where it is legal. It didn't do too much for me.

I'm assuming that the UK allows for wormwood. I sampled it at the wine museum in London. No little green fairies for me...

Absinthe = Aniseed = Yugh!

You soon get used to the taste and grow to love it.

You see, absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.

I may have had many drinks today at various celebrations, but that's my FT quote of the week.


^

According to Wikipedia, "real" absinthe is legal throughout the European Union, as well as a number of other countries (Australia), though France prohibits the sale. The US is not one of those. That's quite different to the dozens of different variations of "it's illegal in every country except X and Y" I've heard from different people over the years. There seems to be a great deal of confusion between traditional absinthe, which contains thujone, and high-proof tourist booze, which does not. The Wikipedia article is muddy on this as well.

When it was first outlawed in France, Pernod moved their production to Barcelona. Though it closed down in the 60s, there are still several small producers in the area making "artisanal" absentas.

The best, and quite possibly only, authentic place to take absinthe with all the associated ritual and atmosphere is Bar Marsella, in the Raval area of Barcelona. It's an absinthe bar that opened in 1820, hasn't been decorated since then, and comes complete with all the spoons and assorted glasswear (and sugar, if you must, but a true afficionado would never do such a thing!). Wilde, Picasso and Rimbaud have all partaken here, it's said. It was better before it made the Lonely Planet guide and all the backpackers showed up, though the neighborhood is scary enough that I suspect many of them turn back before they find the place.

I can attest from personal experience that the real stuff does pack a whallop, though I don't know if I'd say it's particularly hallucinogenic. It's absolutely a different kind of drunk, though, than your more run-of-the-mill alcohol. Let's just say it involved several policemen and a lot of pepper spray.

"After the first glass you see things as you wish they were," Oscar Wilde once said of absinthe. "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."

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There was a long article in The New Yorker awhile back about the guy from the US who had revived an old absinthe distillery in Saumur, France. I believe he's the same guy who successfully lobbied for legal absinthe in the US. His work proved that properly-made absinthe never did have an appreciable amount of thujone in it.

The New Yorker article-March 13, 2006--here is the abstract.

OUR FAR-FLUNG CORRESPONDENTS about Ted Breaux and the return of absinthe. By Ted Breaux's estimate, there are only a few dozen people alive who've tasted authentic absinthe, the drink whose notoriety defined the Belle Epoque and which has been banned in many countries for nearly a century. Describes the Combier distillery, in Saumur, in France's Loire Valley. It is here that the 39-year-old environmental chemist turned absintheur from Louisiana is trying to reverse-engineer absinthe, precisely as it was made 100 years ago. Breaux was preparing to distill a batch of his Verte Suisse 65, one of 3 absinthes he makes based on vintage recipes. The distillery was built in 1834 and all its significant equipment predates the 20th century; it is, literally, a museum. Amiable and bespectacled, Breaux is a picture of wholesomeness-an unlikely man to revive a drink with such a fearsome reputation. He was born in New Orleans and his interest in absinthe began in 1993. Describes the distillation of absinthe. Wormwood is the proverbially bitter. As the temperature of the alembic rises, the alcohol and aromas evaporate into a rounded receptacle called a Moor's head. Then the mixture runs up through a slender copper tube, the �swan's neck,� where it condenses. There are no instruments to guide the process except several thermometers and a hydrometer. Breaux makes his absinthes from entirely natural ingredients, including herbs. By afternoon, a clear, colorless liquid-the distillation-emerged from the swan's neck, and the flavor gradually deepened from a hot, clean, light taste to something darker and more robust. The invention of absinthe is credited to Dr. Pierre Ordinaire, who fled France for the Val-de-Travers in Switzerland. In the following decades, several commercial producers sprang up, the most famous being Pernod Fils. The French Army brought a taste for the drink back from Algeria. Absinthe's popularity peaked in the final decades of the 19th century, when it came to be seen not merely as a drink but as a way of life, the elixir of bohemia. Mentions the highly toxic oil of wormwood. A combination of hysteria and quasi-scientific claims turned popular opinion against absinthe. In 1908, the Swiss voted to ban it; in 1912, it was banned in the U.S.; and in 1915, it was banned in France. Today, there is a tiny and expensive market in pre-ban absinthe. Mentions absinthe collector David Nathan-Maister. Breaux acquired a pre-ban absinthe in 1996 and performed a chemical analysis on it. The current revival of interest in absinthe dates back to 1994, with the introduction of Hill's Absinth Liquere. Writer visited Breaux's friend and distributor, Peter Schaf, in Paris, and tasted various absinthes. Schaf said that the idea that absinthe should taste bitter is a misconception of the modern absinthe revival. Since starting production nearly 2 years ago, Breaux's company, Jade Liqueurs, has brought out 3 varieties of absinthe: Verte Suisse 65; Absinthe Edouard 72; and Nouvelle Orleans. The bottles sell for nearly $100; Americans can order through the Internet. He makes only 5,000 bottles a year. Describes the history of wormwood and the toxin thujone. Thujone remains fundamental to the notoriety of absinthe and its precarious legal status. Mentions a research group which announced, in 2000, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that it had identified the neurological basis of thujone's mind-altering effect. That same year, Breaux tested pre-ban absinthe and discovered that it contained almost no thujone. Absinthe's distinctive green is caused by herbs�.

The New Yorker�s archives are not yet fully available online. The full text of all articles published before May, 2006, can be found in �The Complete New Yorker,� which is available for purchase on DVD and hard drive. Many New Yorker stories published since December, 2000, are available through Nexis. Individual back issues may be purchased from our customer-service department at 1-800-825-2510.

At our local liquor warehouse there are a few brands, memorably a Czech one with (IIRC) a minuscule trace of thujone, an African one (I think from SA). The 'Moulin Rouge association is an interesting one, for those who enjoyed that film some years ago.

I found a few bits of info with google - most notably its association with gothic kids here. No mention of brands but this 2002 article is good for context.

This article must have had a nice dampening effect on non-goths's interest in the drink in Melbourne.

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I agree with the different kind of drunk, no police were involved thankfully.

For hype we bought a bottle of the US stuff, from what I've read I'd die of alcohol poisoning before seeing any "green fairies"