![]() At its height from the 1870s-1910s, cheap, often undistilled knockoff versions appeared on the market, many incorporating non-potable industrial alcohol and toxic additives like copper sulfate (turning it artificially green), substances which can cause blindness and organ and nervous system failure. 19th century stories of madness and visions were likely due to abusive consumption of the high-proof spirit and poisonous imitations. Thujone is also present in herbs like oregano and mint, and - at possibly even higher concentrations than wormwood - in sage. Nevertheless, thujone became vilified in the same way sulfites have stigmatized wine (no, they are not responsible for your headaches, and levels are much greater in dried fruit). By the time distillation is complete, the amount of thujone remaining in absinthe is both minimal and, nowadays, highly regulated (less than 35 milligrams per liter in the EU and 10 milligrams per liter in the U.S.). While thujone, a psychoactive substance that earned absinthe its reputation as a hallucinogen, is indeed present in grand wormwood, the levels are harmless. At the turn of the 20th century, countries across Europe began to prohibit absinthe and by 1915 the ban had hit the US and other parts of the world, lasting until the turn of the 21st century.Ībsinthe's prohibition was, however, based more on hearsay and misguided science than fact. In the late 1800s, the wine industry, along with the temperance movement, was partly behind the demonization of absinthe, as wine producers wanted their market share back while teetotalers used it as a convenient scapegoat for the ills of society. Its rise in popularity is attributed in large part to skyrocketing prices of wine during the Phylloxera epidemic of the mid-1800s, which decimated vineyards across Europe. Kübler is a product of Switzerland’s numerous cultures and languages as well as its diverse terroir.ĭecades later, absinthe would begin its rising crescendo into the "it" beverage across Europe and the New World, especially among artists, writers and bohemians. ![]() Eventually, it’s said the recipe was obtained (Kübler says “ wormed” - I’m sensing some resentment) from a Henriod sister by Daniel Henri Dubied and his son-in-law Henri-Louis Pernod, who then founded an absinthe distillery in 1797 in Val-de-Travers before moving it to France to become the absinthe brand, Pernod. Locals in the region think he received the recipe, perhaps even stole it, from the Henriod family. If there is any truth to it, Ordinaire likely took a product that was already being produced in the region decades prior and ran with it. However, others including the Wormwood Society itself and absinthe historian David Nathon-Maister, believe the story of Ordinaire is exaggerated. Pierre Ordinaire, living in exile in the area in the 1790s, with creating absinthe as a remedy for various ailments. Some accounts, such as an 1896 catalog by French absinthe producer Pernod-Fils referenced by the US-based Wormwood Society, credit Frenchman Dr. ![]() Artemisia absinthium) has for thousands of years been believed to have medicinal properties and been used for indigestion, reducing fevers, fighting malaria and even eradicating intestinal worms (hence its name). Native to Europe, Northern Africa and parts of Asia, wormwood (a.k.a. According to Swiss absinthe producer Kübler, that same year Madame Henriette Henriod brewed a special liquor in Val de Travers, mixing together botanicals including wormwood as a type of medicine. In 1769, a newspaper from the western, French-speaking Swiss Canton of Neuchâtel published the first known advertisement for absinthe, listing it as an extract. Yet its quite conventional beginnings can be clearly traced back to the mild-mannered region of Val-de-Travers, Switzerland, below the limestone-cliffed Jura mountains, where a greenish-gray perennial that gave the herbal elixir its name thrives on the lush borders of the region’s forests and roadsides.Īnd so it is that neither the what nor the where, but rather the who of absinthe’s beginnings that has been called into question, becoming only the first in a long twisted tale of controversy and appearances that continues to plague the “green fairy” even today. Banned and beloved, feared and revered, one would assume the birth story of absinthe to be as spirited as its character.
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