Thujone in Absinthe Quiz

What was the legal thujone level in absinthe set by the French in 1907? You choose:

(i) 35mg

(ii) 100mg

(iii) 250mg

(iv) 1000mg

(v) There were no limits on thujone (alpha or beta)

Absinth : Good news for real absinth drinkers

Good news from the original Sebor distillery! Kyle Bairnsfather who sells 100% of his production – making his hand crafted Czech specialty a real rarity – is expanding. Due to increased demand – not least from the domestic Czech and Slovak markets – Kyle is busy expanding his production facilities. Bairnsfather products use the very latest modern filtration technology, along with the superb traditional regional mountain herbs, to produce Reality Absinth, as well as the anise rich Absinth Bitter range. The thujone levels in the latter range from 32-34 mg and hence, according to European Union regulations, are rated at the very top of the thujone scale as Hořká lihovina.

Where to drink Lucid Absinthe

The following article tells New Yorker’s where to find that elusive pussy cat of absinthe, Lucid:

Employee’s Only, 510 Hudson St

STK, 26 Little West 12th St

Waverly Inn, 385 6th Ave

Highlights include:

Wait, watch, marvel, stir, and serve — and, presumably, sink into a mad hallucinogenic stupor. Actually, the mad hallucinogenic stupor is sold separately, somewhere in Afghanistan:

Clarification and Correction: We earlier wrote that the Waverly Inn had obtained a license to serve absinthe, which was incorrect; a variant of absinthe has been approved by the FDA for sale in the U.S. and that is what is being served in the above-mentioned locations. For more information on what makes this version less likely to make you see little green fairies, see this article from the New York Post earlier this week. ETP apologizes for the error. The little green fairies made us do it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/06/21/abfab-at-the-waverly-he_n_53215.html

Looks like someone was “off message”

Then there’s another cracker: “Absinthe is like the ultimate experience in drinking,” says Employees Only bartender Dushan Zaric. “If you have a palate for it, you’re a grown-up.” Except that the thujone levels and anise flavour have been altered for the USA of course, Dushan.

Lucid absinthe even has it’s very own cocktail: The Mint Muse which, according to the New York Post, is made with Lucid, pineapple juice, muddled mint leaves, lime and lemon soda. I hope it comes with a little paper umbrella and a cherry 😉

Absinth Fest 2007

It was fun to see the photographs of the 80’s disco at the Boveresse Absinthe Festival in Switzerland – the best picture is here

Of course there was an alternative “Absinth Festival ” the very same evening featuring Co-Ca, Gospel of The Future, My Dead Cat and Emile Camelia. No Kate Bush or Adam and the Ants I’m afraid.

This all went on at Brodek u Přerova – along way geographically and musically from the Val de Travers 🙂

Prague Night with Absinth 1943

Adolf Hitler at Prague Castle

Here’s a delightful lost quote about absinth drinking from the evil days of the Nazi occupation of Bohemia.

Poručil jsem si dvojitou sklenku absintu, který právě je v módě. Je to takový zelený dryák. Jako rozpuštěné ještěrky. A vypil jsem to do dna. Potom mi bylo dobre.

I ordered a double glass of absinthe which is in fashion right now.  It’s a kind of green “dryák”. Like dissolved lizards.  I drunk it all. Then I felt good.

Pražské nokturno – Page 310
by František Kubka ( 1943)

Like dissolved lizards 🙂 Note: “dryák” means something like a cure for all diseases, or something bearing a medicinal quality. The word is ancient and relates to a curative potion sold in the Middle Ages and made from 54 types of herbs.

One cannot help wondering where that fashionable absinth – enjoyed by drinkers in Praha circa 1943 – came from.  Any ideas?

Modern Absinth Drinkers

Firey absinth fun – Czech style 🙂

The Absinthe Drinkers – Pijáci absintu – by Josef Čapek

 

Josef Čapek (1887 -1945) is a name that every Czech knows for his beautiful illustrations. Like Josef Lada he presents a charming naive beauty to his most famous playful illustrations. The above lithograph – The Absinthe Drinkers- is obviously Cubist and dates to the period of the First Republic. Josef Čapek invented the term “robot” – see http://capek.misto.cz/english/robot.html

The photograph below shows Josef in the centre with his brother Karel and Olga Scheinpflugova. Karel, who is considered to be one of the most important Czech writers of the 20th Century, was a Czech nationalist and a critic of fascism. Karel died in December 1938, before the Gestapo could get to him. Josef was arrested after the Nazi criminals came to Prague and his life ended, along with so many others, at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

For more information on Karel and Josef Čapek please visit http://capek.misto.cz

Czech Absinth Sculpture

Bedřich Stefan: Girl with Absinth, 1924

Was pre-ban absinthe bitter?

Certainly not! According to the Wormwood Society’s patronising dictat the following is the case:

It is not as bitter as its reputation suggests, and never has been, as can be attested by those who have tasted pre-ban absinthe. The extermely bitter idea is a modern one, most likely springing from modern attempts to make absinthe without knowing how it was suppossed to taste: raw, undistilled wormwood is the second most bitter botanical known.

According to another equally censorious source (Oxygenee Ltd):

The legend that the French sat at café tables by the thousands sugaring their absinthe to kill its nasty bitterness is due entirely to ignorance propounded by people who’ve never tasted absinthe, and assumed it must be bitter because there’s wormwood in it.

Those pre ban bottles of absinthe have certainly proved useful to the lucky few in deciding exactly what absinthe tasted like – and it’s very good of them to share their knowledge – albeit in a rather brusque manner. Extermely good 🙂

But wait – the spelling might not be the only error in Mr. Gwydion Stone‘s article – if we look at other American sources we see a completely different story:

Absinthe, according to the Century Dictionary, is ‘the common name of a highly aromatic liqueur of an opaline-green color and bitter taste,‘ and is prepared by ‘steeping in alcohol or strong spirit bitter herbs,’ the chief of them being wormwood. It was not denied that it is bitter, that it is used as a beverage, and is not a proprietary preparation. It appeared that the wormwood ‘has a medicianl effect upon the human system as a tonic,’ and that the article contains anisette, a cordial. On the other hand, Boonekamp bitters is a proprietary preparation, recommended to the public as such, and, as prepared according to a private formula, as a remedy for certain specific maladies. The label is duly registered at the patent office. There was evidence tending to show that it contains rhubarb, orange peel, turmeric, and an essential oil, probably oil of anise;

Source: U.S. Supreme Court ERHARDT v. STEINHARDT, 153 U.S. 177 (1894)

Then we have the words of one real absinthe drinker from the Belle Epoque, who descibes the “acrid odor of absinthe” (Paul Verlaine) and his companion says thus:

See the savage Bitters
Rolling down from high mountains!
Wise pilgrims, let us reach
The green-pillared Absinthe…

Arthur Rimabud.

Was pre-ban absinthe bitter? did pre-ban absinthe contain high levels of thujone? Testing bottles of absinthe from the Belle Epoque – which have undergone the process known as feuille morte (dead leaf) – isn’t going to answer the question. Contemporary reports from the era seem a more sensible source than the thunderous condescension of the modern absinthe clique.

Did pre-ban absinthe cause hallucinations as the medics of the age claimed. Let’s ask a very distinguished Englishman in France, Mr Charles Dickens!

Moustachiod men lean over my shoulder and shake pencils at their opposite neighbours fiercely. Seedy men sit silent in corners; prosperous speculators pay with shining gold. Shreiks of vingt-cinq, trente, quatre-vingt-cinq are bandied about like insults. It is the old under Capel Court Inferno with a few moustaches, some plate-glass, and a ribbon or two of the Legion of Honour; as I finish my absinthe in the din, I seem to see a Golden Calf on the marble, plate covered counter, very rampant indeed.

Household World: A Weekly Journal by Charles Dickens (circa 1850)

No Green Fairy – but a Golden Calf instead 😉

Legal News

 

• Philip Philips , of St. Gregory’s, was indicted for stealing a Silver Spoon, and 12 Shillings in Money, from the Person of Elizabeth Booth , on the 28th of Feb. last.

The Prosecutor depos’d, That the Prisoner and another Person came to her House on the Day aforesaid, and drank a considerable Quantity of Gin and Wormwood, which raising the Prisoner to a more than ordinary Elevation, he offered Rudeness to her, and perswading her over the Way to his own House, would there have been more familiar than her Modesty would admit of; after this he came home to her House. again, and continued his Rudeness, insomuch that the Prosecutor lost her Pocket and the Money mentioned in the Indictment: But it appearing to the Court that his Design was only on her Charity, and not on her Property, the Jury acquitted him

Old Bailey 5th July, 1727

• George Deportal , was indicted for stealing on the 17th of Oct. 1 cask fill’d with spirituous liquors called wormwood cordial, value 10 s. 1 cask of plague water, val. 10 s. 1 of brandy, val. 8 s. 1 of rum, val. 8 s. the goods of Noah Bernard . Acquitted

Old Bailey 9th December, 1747.

In the archive there is also the very sad tale of one Catherine Townsend who died August 26th 1718. The court heard how previously she had “teach’d her self a Pint of All-fours (i.e. Carraways, Wormwood, Angelico and Anniseed Water) which she drank, and afterwards let down he Stairs”