In 1888, Vincent Van Gogh famously sliced off part of his ear in a fit of absinthe-fueled delirium. Nearly two decades later, a Swiss farmer named Jean Lanfray allegedly killed his family after just two glasses. Absinthe had long held a reputation for making people oddly inebriated, but moments like these punctuated the rallying cries of the growing worldwide temperance movement.
The Swiss were the first to make absinthe in the late 1700s—and in 1910, they were the first to make it illegal. Bans and tight regulations followed throughout Europe and soon made their way overseas to countries like the United States, where absinthe was banned in 1912.
The culprit was thujone, a compound in wormwood (artemisia absinthium), the extremely bitter herb from which absinthe gets its name. A French psychiatrist first isolated thujone in the 1870s and found that it caused epilepsy and insanity in mice, and assumed that it must do the same to humans. To the delight of many, it did something else entirely.
“Absinthe was meant to be an aperitif or digestif but people quickly realized that it did more than just settle their stomach or stimulate their appetite,” notes Matt Stewart, CEO of Spirit Apothecary Botanicals & Findings in Bedford. “Thujone reacts in the brain very similarly to cannabis, except it doesn’t make you stupid.”
But what of conventional wisdom, which says thujone in absinthe makes one mad and murderous, with a penchant for self-mutilation?
“Back then, people were also prescribed cocaine and opium, so you have to take the medical insights from that era with a grain of salt,” Stewart adds. “Thujone occurs in abundance in herbs like sage and thyme, and no one raised a stink about those.”
Perhaps absinthism (as the madness came to be known) was not the doing of any one ingredient but rather the spirit’s extremely high distillation proof. And maybe, just maybe, Van Gogh cut his ear off because he was schizophrenic and the most depressed person to have ever moped the earth? And let’s not overlook the uranium-laced glow-in-the-dark cups in which absinthe often was served.
For his part, Stewart provides a more nuanced theory. “Absinthe was popular among free thinkers and the literary bohemian set,” he explains. “Back then, free thought was the enemy of government. Those rules were all about control.”
Restrictions on absinthe were relaxed in Europe in the 1990s, when the EU determined that thujone was largely removed during the distillation process and that the science behind the restrictions was questionable at best. The U.S. government began approving absinthe for sale in the States in 2007, provided they contained fewer than 10 parts per million thujone. Hardly a therapeutic dose.
“Brands like [the French-made] Lucid Absinthe are as close to the real deal as most Americans are going to get,” Stewart says. “If you want an authentic experience, you’ll need to go to Europe. Compared to European absinthe, Lucid is like pop.”
Or better yet, go to Stewart’s shop and get the botanicals you need to make your own. “It’s like drinking and smoking a doober at the same time,” he suggests.
How to Drink Absinthe
Absinthe traditionally is served with cold water to combat its strength and a sugar cube to combat its extreme bitterness. Stewart recommends three parts water per one part absinthe.
The most famous absinthe accoutrement, the absinthe spoon, sits atop a glass and supports the sugar cube. Water is added a drop at a time until the sugar is fully dissolved. A milky cloud called the louche (rhymes with douche) forms in the process, and alcohol-soluble essential anise oils are released into the drink, unlocking additional flavors and aromas.
Where to Drink Absinthe
To prepare several glasses of absinthe at once, you’re going to want an absinthe fountain, which provides a slow drip from two to six spigots simultaneously. Several places around Cleveland have them for you to enjoy:
• Pier W (Lakewood)
• Jeckyll’s Kitchen (Chagrin Falls)
• L’Albatros Brasserie (University Circle)
• Society Lounge (downtown)
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2013.
Publicity piece for Matt Stewart?
The information in this is piecemeal in its validity. Perhaps next time, you might attempt placing accurate information in your sales pitch for a particular shop.
The ‘expert’ consulted for this article clearly is an amateur at best in matters absinthe. The thujone content of absinthe is and has always been irrelevant. Preban absinthe contained very little thujone – a fact conclusively revealed by published studies in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Thujone is not hallucinogenic and does not contribute supposed effects that mimic cannabis – no recreational value. All but a handful of the absinthes in Europe amount to nothing more than artificially colored and flavored vodka. The absinthes presently available in the USA (with a few exceptions) tend to be of excellent quality. Absinthe was not frequently served in “uranium laced cups” (very few absinthe glasses were of vaseline glass). Absinthe does not exhibit “extreme bitterness”, and never did. Contrary to what this ‘expert’ wants readers to believe, genuine absinthe cannot be made by simply soaking (his) herbs in vodka any more than a genuine wine be made by adding grape extract to vodka.
All of these clarifications are easily obtained from unbiased sources by anyone willing to invest ten minutes of time on Google. This article however misinforms its readers to the benefit of Stewart’s homemade ‘absinthe kits’, which cannot produce anything remotely similar to the genuine distilled spirit for reasons which should be obvious to even a casual observer.
what a piece of shit of missinformation in here!! all information in here is false. Read trusty absinthe sources like the wormwood society.
Really poor and lazy job of writing here.
Wow, clearly there was no actual research done for this article… Nice job
as soon as it implied cannabis makes you stupid I stopped reading
It’s obvious that the author didn’t even perform a rudimentary google search before his fingers touched the keyboard. Look elsewhere for factual information and professional writing.
Wow.
Thanks, at least, for not pointing out that Jeckyll’s burned down the day this article went to print.
Agree strongly with everyone here. Its becoming far too often I come to read an article in scene where im highly invested in the topic only to find the author butchered it. Seriously a ten minute google romp could have made this article somewhat pleasing.
Also “stewart” cannabis does not make you “stupid”. What is stupid is your misinformation. The readers clearly have more common sense than to buy into whatever this wackjob is sellin.
Ive had the pleasure of having real absinthe made proper. Two glasses throughout the course of a couple hours was highly entertaining. Picking up the guitar and jammed for my friends with creativity that seemed to flow so naturally from my brain right to my fingertips.
Do not waste your time with this imitation “legal” garbage they are producing. It is like the k2 or “pep spice” imitation of cannabis. Plain garbage.
Try again Scene mag. I hope somebody is showing the higher ups at the company how the community feels about your writers.
Ill keep reading however I cant promise to be happy about it.
I guess my biggest qualm is the misinformation and laziness of this article. As for matt stewart you are highly wrong sir.
Good day.
I’m always suspicious of negative feedback from a series of so-called “engaged users” who have only have ever commented one time in internet history on a specific site…. its too ironic for me to take any of the above negative comments seriously.
I enjoyed the artical. I personally don’t agree with all of Matt Stewert’s views based on my personal research on the subject but love his passion for both botanicals and absinthe. I think that people are taking this artical for something different then what it is, which is a short piece to introduce a product to those that don’t know it. Ryan at no point claims to be an expert and only writes these pieces as a side hobby to fulfil an interest that others are interested in as well. Hopefully this will do what I think it will and spark interest in absinthe and inspire those who are unaware to it to look into it further and not be afraid of the story proof and anise flavor(which is not a flavor the American palate is comfortable with)…. Take it easy America it’s just booze, it should be fun!!!
*strong proof(not story proof)
People are always going to argue when it comes to absinthe. If thujone doesn’t indeed matter, why is it then limited in certain countries? Absinthe is TOTALLY about the thujone. There are people out there that say true beer is only lagers and pale ales and everything else is a poor imitation at best. I have been onto absinthe discussion groups in the past, and they say the same things, all without trying the “real” European absinthe. American absinthe is like American beer, weak and tasteless.
If you want high Thujone try Czech. If you want good louche/flavor go French. If you want a weak imitation go American.
@commonsense Most Czech “absinthes” contain little-to-no actual Grand Wormwood, therefore no thujone; they are merely high-octane grain alcohols artificially colored green.
FYI
I liked how everyone got their hackles up!!!