Everything old is new again, and one of the most exciting old novelties is absinthe
Read on to discover more about the curious history – and uncertain future – of absinthe. Find out how it became popular and then notorious; learn about what goes into absinthe, where to find it, and how to drink it; and see if you too might become a friend of the green fairy!
A dark green liquor with a high alcohol content, absinthe (sometimes spelled absinth) has only recently become legally available in the USA after being banned for almost a century – you didn’t know prohibition was still in effect, did you? Some drinks have been sold as imitations over the years, but only recently have drinkers been able to sample the real absinthe and meet the ‘absinthe fairy’ for themselves.
Over the years it’s acquired that special mystique which attaches to things-you-can’t-have: absinthe is supposed to drive you mad, give you visions, act as an aphrodisiac, turn you into an artist, and who knows what else.
But even when it was legal, during the original absinthe craze of the 19th century, everyone – whether they loved it or hated it – agreed that absinthe was something unique among drinks, far more than just a decoction of alcohol and herbs. Oscar Wilde compared it to a sunset. Van Gogh sipped it before he approached his easel. Hemingway offered cocktail recipes for it. And temperance campaigners insisted it would be the downfall of society, and used it to justify prohibition.