Green Gold

Green Gold
The return of absinthe
By Jack Turner
The New Yorker - 3/13/06

Toulouse-Lautrec went so far as to teach his pet cormorant to drink it. He carried his own dose in a hollowed-out cane and took it "dilutted" with cognac, a combination he dubbed "the Earthquake."

A combination of hysteria ansd quasi scientific claims turned popular opinion against absinthe.

In 1912, the dept. of agriculture, having decided that absinthe was "one of the worst enemies of man," issued a ban that remains in force to this day.

In March, 1915, fearful of being overrun by a more vigorous nation, the French Chamber of Deputies voted to rid the country of teh debilitating effects of endemic absinthism. "The absinthe drinker is content to crouch before the stalwart, honest, beer bred Teuton."

. . . ruinously expensive drink - a vintage bottle typically sells for more than three thousand dollars.

. . . the idea that absinthe should taste bitter is a misconception of the modern absinthe revival.

. . . pre-ban absinthe contained practically no thujone.