The Secret History Of Absinthe

By Author: MATT PETERSON
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Wormwood-based beverages have intrigued the human palette for more than 3,500 years. In 1500 BC, the Egyptians cultivated a form of absinthe akin to wormwood wine. Absinthe also played a huge role in early Greek cultural life. The great philosopher Hippocrates believed that the beverage could cure rheumatism, menstrual cramps, and other ills. Pliny the Elder, Pythagoras and other scholars also spoke highly of the beverage. Of course, the ancient Greek form of absinthe was notably different from the modern distilled variety.

In the era between ancient Greek life and the 18th century, wormwood spirits continued to entrance drinkers across Europe, although there were few devoted distilleries, and there were no uniform recipes for how to prepare the beverage. In the early 1790s, a French man named Pierre Ordinaire left France for the peaceful Alpine wilds of Switzerland and developed a recipe for modern absinthe after reading about the ancient Greek's medicinal use of the absinthium plant.

Dr. Ordinaire likely used a variety of herbs and elements in his absinthe -- including mint, hyssop, parsley, and, of course, ...
... anise. His strong beverage was at first used as a curative for villagers in his small town of Couvet. He passed on his recipe to two local girls, the Henriod sisters, who in turn let the recipe slip to fellow countryman Major Dubied. He in turn passed the recipe down to his son-in-law who formed the Pernod Distillery. This French company quickly became the single largest distiller of absinthe in the world. At first, the beverage enjoyed wide popularity -- not only among the citizenry but also among the country's medical establishment. During a war in the mid 19th-century, French soldiers took absinthe to treat malaria. After these soldiers returned home, they made absinthe a fashionable drink in cafés. By the turn of the century, the French were drinking more absinthe per year than they were drinking wine.

The French fascination with absinthe spilled into other countries, most notably Czechoslovakia, Spain, Portugal, and the United States.

Absinthe beachheaded in America in the port city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Today one of New Orlean's most famous buildings -- The Old Absinthe House -- testifies to the grandiose days of the French absinthe tradition in the United States. Notables such as Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, Franklin Roosevelt, and Frank Sinatra all drank there.

Not everyone appreciated the work of the Green Muse, as the artist Albert Maignan once described the beverage. During the heyday of the absinthe craze in France, social critics and advocates of Prohibition made hay about the negative effects of over indulgence in absinthe. Both the painter Edgar Degas and the novelist Emile Zola condemned the beverage and blamed it for social problems and moral failings in the country.

In the early 1900s, country after country across Europe (and the United States) banned absinthe and/or restricted its importation severely. For decades, absinthe drinkers had to go underground to enjoy their favorite nip (although both Portugal and Spain never prohibited the beverage's distillation). Although the original Pernod Absinthe Distillery shut down permanently in the 1960s due to lagging sales, absinthe drinkers celebrated a resurgence of their favorite beverage in the 1980s and 1990s, as many countries removed it from their prohibited beverage lists. Some modern absinthe connoisseurs criticize the bottles coming out of places like the Czech Republic and Spain for lacking the character of earlier vintages. Absinthe also now must share the spirits market with a similar tasting and very popular anise-flavored liquor called Ouzo. That said, many believe that the loosening of import/export rules governing sales and distribution will usher in a new golden (or rather green) age of absinthe enjoyment.