Killers By Trade Publishing

Life after Prohibition- the Lost Article

Clint Love

The Belle Époque

It was the toast of the post-French Revolution era, regaled by poets, captured by painters and inspiring the writers of classic literature. Lord Byron, Vincent Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec and Mary Shelley all tasted it. Texas founding father James Bowie sipped it as he sat across the table from the pirate, Jean Lafitte in New Orleans. It inspired jealous envy in wine makers, unthinking apprehension in lawmakers and was reviled by the Temperance movement. The only thing more powerful than the controversy it inspired is the mystery that surrounds it.

It is often referred to as “the Green Fairy”, but it is a drink and it is called Absinthe. It is strong alcoholic liquor, usually 60-70% alcohol. It is distilled of six traditional herbs, most notably Fennel, Anise and Wormwood macerated in 85% grape spirits. It can be clear or red but is most widely recognized as a peridot green that turns to opalescent cloudiness (called the louche) when combined with ice-cold water.

During the Belle Époque, Everyone who was anyone could be found louching a glass of absinthe. There were over 30,000 cafés in Paris alone. In fact, these cafés were the breeding ground for the French Revolution. After the Guillotine stopped falling and cries of “Liberte’ Egalite’ Fraternite’!” had ceased to echo in the streets, a new Revolution took effect. A French country doctor’s recipe for stomach ailments somehow mutated into fragrant and cloudy green cocktail and found its way onto the tables of the cafés and into the hearts of their denizens.

Once the drink of the European and American Nouveau Elite, the wild Bohemians of the age, it disappeared into the underground for almost 100 years. If not for a few enthusiasts, bootleggers and clandestine distillers, it might have vanished entirely. Why this beverage was singled out is largely speculated, but most attribute it to a perfect storm of public misinformation, junk science and political influence.

The Controversy

It mostly centered on the use of the herb Wormwood. Its Latin name is Artemisia Absinthium, hence the name Absinthe. In medieval times, this herb was used as a detoxifier and cure for intestinal parasites, which is why it was referred to as Wormwood. It was believed by some that Wormwood caused an unnatural addiction, often called “Absinthism”, and like the “reefer” of the 1930s, reputedly made one prone to madness. This particular propaganda was popular in leaflets distributed by the Temperance Movement, who opposed alcohol of any type.

This was aggravated by a paper published by one Doctor Valentin Magnan, who stated that exposure to Wormwood caused memory loss, hallucinations and epileptic seizures. His research was poor and his writings were grossly exaggerated. The results he claimed to get from “Absinthe” were achieved by feeding test animals absurd doses of pure Wormwood extract, not absinthe. His tests were the equivalent of injecting someone with caffeine equal to 200 cups of coffee and then reporting that espresso is a type of poison. The British medical journal, the Lancet decried his study as nonsense in 1886, but it was too late to sway the court of public opinion.

Wine and Cry

Until the advent of the Green Fairy, the bars and lounges of Victorian France and Central Europe were the undisputed territory of winemakers. Suddenly the wine glasses were going silent. They were replaced by water glasses, being filled part way with the green liquor and louched with cold water. These common water glasses evolved into “absinthe glasses” and paired with special slotted spoons used to distribute the water, and sometimes sugar, formed an interesting and wildly popular ritual unique to the Green Fairy. The message was loud and clear Absinthe was in, wine was out…and wine makers were livid! In fact, they were ticked off enough to put money and support behind the Temperance Movement to try to get their new rival banned. The new alliance paid artists to depict absinthe drinkers in paintings as miserable, broke, and out of control. They spread leaflets warning of the dangers of Absinthism and Wormwood (mostly using the misinformation included in the Magnan study).

Death Knell

The final blow came with the conviction of Jean Lanfray in 1905. In a drunken rage, Lanfray killed his pregnant wife, two children and nearly killed himself. To say Lanfray was a drunk was to make a vast understatement. His normal ration of alcohol often included up to five liters of wine in a day. The morning of the killings, roughly 8 hours prior, in addition to his normal maniacal drinking schedule, Lanfray had consumed two glasses of absinthe. There was frenzy of attention and under the influence (no pun intended) of backers from the unholy alliance between the Temperance Movement and French Winemakers; judges began to put the brakes on absinthe. By 1915, the Belle Époque was over, World War I had started and Absinthe was illegal all over Europe and the United States.

The Age of Magic and Mystery

Although outlawed, Absinthe was not dead. It was still legal in the United Kingdom, Spain and parts of Eastern Europe. There were still one or two clandestine distillers in Switzerland who made a “Blanche” or “Lebleue” Absinthe, which was white, rather than green to better allow it to be more easily smuggled. In what is now the Czech Republic, “Absinth” (without the e) was being made as well, but it is argued that the Czech drinks bore no resemblance to the real thing. In Germany, there was “Hausgemacht” or homemade Absinthe, distilled in very small batches. Even in America, the bootleggers were busy, importing it when they could and experimenting when they could not.

In the 1960s and 1970s, America’s counterculture exploded with such force that it rivaled the post-French Revolution Bohemians in art, popular culture and social experimentation. Ways to expand the mind were sought after by the new underground, made illegal by the government, and then used anyway by youths who refused to be “put down by the Man”. Making it illegal, to these new rebels, was proof that it was probably fun. It was not long before talk of Green Fairies began to spread.

The attraction, of course, was the mysterious Wormwood. It was then known that the herb contained a chemical called Thujone, which gave absinthe the secondary effect, at least in some, to experience a lucid drunk rather than the usual sluggish buzz of other liquors. The makers of Clandestine Absinthes began to advertize that their absinthes contained more Thujone than others to market to the new quest for mind-expanding substances in the counterculture. Advertising “more Thujone” in absinthe was just as silly as advertising “more hops” in beer. Luckily for clandestine absinthe producers, this had no bearing on peoples’ desire to acquire it. The lack of available product and testing gave the myths power to outweigh the facts. In 1972, a government study was released that compared the thujone molecule to THC; a chemical present in Marijuana and it was sealed. Every hippie in the world now wanted Absinthe. Of course, this was disproven as few as two years later by another study, but once again, the mystique charged ahead of scientific reason. The battle cry was, “If the government banned it, it has to be groovy, man.”

Boomerang

This time disinformation and junk science brought her back into the hands of artists, musicians and other members of the new Bohemian set. On through the 1960s and 1970’s people searched the world and found the light of the Green Fairy hidden in all its obscure places.

By the 1980s, Hippies had become Yuppies and had all either “sold out” or “bought in”. Punk was dead and the shaven headed rabble had gotten jobs or gone to college, dyed their hair black and become Goths. Despite the time’s polarizing effect on youth culture, two defining forces that began in the 1980s and rose to power in the 1990s blasted the drink back from the underground and into popular culture. Those things were Gothic rock music (and its retro-Victorian culture) and the Internet (with its retro-nerd culture).

What Generation X lacked in revolutionary spirit, they made up for in their lust for entrepreneurial progress. The revolution would not be televised it would be digitized. The thirsty subculture had an eyebrow ring, a new haircut and a communication tool that could not be understood by, much less squashed by “The Man”. Where was the drink of the Gothic Novels of old and the Green Muse of painters and poets? Just one click away, that’s where. New met Old, East met West and it exploded bigger than the H-Bomb! Long gone were Rimbaud and Van Gogh but they were replaced by new names, like Johnny Depp and Marilyn Manson. Though the old Bohemians had more talent, the new Bohemians were getting paid, and they wanted the good stuff!

By the time the Millennium rolled around, there were not only clandestine distillers, but also clandestine international couriers (oft-referred as “flying monkeys”), acting at the whim of mysterious distributors, whose only face was a web page on the Internet. It was more than movie stars and wanna-be vampires now. Home-Brewing Nerds and Wine Snobs now had new territory to conquer and they were spending a lot of time and money to add “Absintheur” to their lists of nebulous credentials. Clandestine Absinthe was being consumed in record quantities in Europe and the United States.

The Resurrection of the Green Fairy

In 2005 The European Union did the math, realized how many Euros they were losing in tax money and lifted the near century old ban on Absinthe. Governments did not have the money or manpower to fight the Green Tide anyway. The Flying Monkeys were in full force and the natives were restless in America. The EU knew thirsty Americans could generate a lot of Euros! So could a few people in America. In 2006, armed with science, a ton of money and an intrepid lawyer, a Texas liquor distributor went to Washington DC and made the case for the embattled Green Fairy. He had proof that the amount of Thujone in even the pre-ban Absinthes was not harmful and that the drink was only dangerous to the effect that any other hard alcohol was. For once, the science was real and the court of public opinion was open to new arguments.

As it turned out, the only real problems with America and Absinthe were the TTB’s refusal to allow the use of the word “Absinthe” on liquor bottles and the FDA’s prohibition of the importation and sale of any beverage containing more than 10 parts per million (mg/L) Thujone. Thujone was not scheduled as a dangerous drug, but listed as a poisonous food additive! All drinks sold in the United States had to be “thujone free”, with a margin of error of 10 mg/L, since amounts that small were considered insignificant and inaccurate for testing. As it turns out, almost every Absinthe ever produced would have been legal to import, barring the use of the word “Absinthe” on the label (which the TTB erroneously considered “drug lingo” and Absinthe distillers refused to do without). The Texan and the Lawyer finally got the TTB to compromise, by allowing the word “Absinthe” to be used as long as it was in a smaller print size than the brand name on the bottle’s label. Silly? Yes, but it did the job.

In 2007, Americans got an opportunity to do something they had been unable to do for nearly a hundred years-Enjoy a glass of Absinthe. As of this writing there are more than 5 brands, both Blanche and “Verte” (green) absinthes that have submitted to the FDA testing and label changes in order to reap the rewards of American liquor-drinking dollars. There are even American distillers getting into the game and weighing in with some Absinthes that are holding their own against their European cousins. Is a new Belle Époque upon us? One can only wait with ears open for the dripping sound of the Absinthe fountains and visions of Green Fairies!

Absinthe Facts:

• • Absinthe is strong liquor, stronger than most whiskey or vodka. Ordinary Bourbon Whiskey is 40-45% Alcohol. Absinthe is 60-70%.
• • Absinthe is designed to be mixed with water, not neat or as a shot. It is when the cold water is added that Absinthe releases its beautiful aroma and complex flavors.
• • Absinthe is not any more (or less) dangerous than any other hard alcohol. Failing to pre-judge its high alcohol volume and drinking too much too quickly is the usual cause of Absinthe-related problems.
• • The amount of Thujone in the common herb Sage is greater than in an equivalent amount of Wormwood.
• • Quality of Absinthe is judged on color, aroma, louche, mouth feel, and finish. Thujone content is not a determinant of whether Absinthe is good.
• Absinthe Myths
• • Absinthe will “get you high” or “make you trip”. Absinthe is nothing more than strong liquor. Some Absinthes do contain an alkaloid called Thujone that is reputed to cause a temporary secondary effect, often perceived as lucidity in people who are sensitive to it. Like any strong alcohol, it will wreck your world if you over-imbibe.
• • Absinthe causes insanity, Alzheimer’s disease or Epileptic fits. There has been no scientific connection between the consumption of Absinthe and these issues. People who have attempted to “get high” by drinking large amounts of pure Wormwood extract have caused themselves to become violently ill.
• • You can make Absinthe yourself by steeping the relevant herbs in grain alcohol. Although there have been drinks made of steeped herbs, they are not true Absinthe. Absinthe is made by macerating the herbs in 85% grape distillate and distilled to fine liquor. Homemade steeped versions taste foul, do not louche and might make you sick if you do not know what you are doing. Leave it to the professionals. Besides, you can buy the real thing for less than it would cost to make a weird science experiment.
• • The “Absinthe ritual” involves opium and/or lighting a sugar cube on fire. The ritual of placing a sugar cube on an absinthe spoon, saturating it in absinthe (or some other substance) and lighting it, has little history before its appearance in Hollywood movies. It is believed to have evolved from the use of sugar in the bitter Czech “Absinth” and fire rituals from other cocktails.

How it is pronounced-

Most Americans say AB (rhymes with blab)-Synth (as in Synthesizer). No one will think you are stupid for saying it that way. In the traditional French, it is more like Ob- (kind of like you would use in the word “observe”) saanth- (like if you were going to say “Croissant” but with a diphthong on the end). That is the best I can do as a non French-speaking Texan. Need a better explanation, ask a Frenchman.

Will I like Absinthe?

If you like the taste of herbal liquors like Pernod (Originally an Absinthe distiller), Chartreuse, Herbsaint, or Ouzo, you will probably enjoy Absinthe even more. If you hate those things, it may be a tough decision. If you have never heard of any of those, you need to get out more. Because of the anise and fennel present, Absinthe has a smell common with what we recognize as licorice. It does not taste like black licorice, though. You can hate black licorice and still like Absinthe.

Where do I find Absinthe?

7 Lucid Absinthe the first Verte legally available to Americans in 2007

Popular brands like Kübler (a Blanche) and Lucid (a Verte) are available in liquor stores and by the glass in some bars, like Pirates Alley Café in New Orleans. There is even an Absinthe Lounge in Dallas, Texas. If you go to the liquor store and they look at you all crazy, or try to sell you “Absente” (a fake), try going online. One of the first places to sell legal Absinthe in the U.S. was www.drinkupny.com and they will ship anywhere.

How much does Absinthe Cost?

A bottle of Absinthe can be bought for $53 U.S. and up. If you think that is high, keep in mind that Absinthe is fine liquor. It is not in the same family of the cheap booze that your local bar serves on $2 you-call-it night. If you were to take an interest in fine Single-Malt Scotch, you could end up a lot deeper in the hole. If you are still unsure, hit a bar that has it by the glass and try it before you pony up. Vintage (pre-ban) Absinthes can go for thousands a bottle. That is too rich for my blood, but more power to you if you can get it.

How to choose an Absinthe-

• • Avoid anything spelled “Absinth” (no E) or “Absente”. These probably are not real Absinthe. Spelling matters!
• • Make sure it contains Grande Wormwood (Artemesia Absinthium). True Absinthes will proudly display this fact.
• • Avoid Absinthes made with food coloring, or having sprigs of wormwood or other plants in the bottle. True Absinthe will be naturally green (or clear) and pleasantly so. It will not be fluorescent green from food dye.
• • Avoid things like “Wormwood Bitters” and “Versinthe”. They are nasty and not real Absinthe.
• • Avoid anything from the Czech Republic; it will probably taste like (and may be made of) window cleaner. The debate is pretty hot over whether most of this stuff can even be called absinthe at all.
• • Do not go by price; go for reputation among enthusiasts-The phony stuff can be as expensive as the good stuff.
• • Do not fall for “Based on an original recipe”. All of it is. It just depends on how strictly to which the recipe was adhered how good the Absinthe is.
• • Do some research. Find enthusiasts in your area or online. Absintheurs like to get the word out about which selections are good and bad. They will also help you find an online resource to order it legally if your local liquor store does not stock the brand you want. Avoid sites that focus on hype or the secondary effects of Thujone, rather than quality and taste. A good resource is “The Wormwood Society” at www.wormwoodsociety.org

How to Do the Absinthe Ritual

• • You will need a few things, an Absinthe glass and spoon and a fountain or decanter of ice-cold water. You may also want sugar cubes but that is a matter of taste. The spoon and glass can be bought together in some places for under $20 and they add a lot, so go ahead and spring for it!
• • Pour some Absinthe (1 to 1-1/2 ounces) in a glass. Absinthe glasses have a reservoir or demarcation built in to show you how full to pour the Absinthe. They are plentiful, but you can use a wine or similarly shaped water glass and measure it out.
• • Place a slotted absinthe spoon over the mouth of the glass. You can use any slotted spoon or even a fork in a pinch.
• • If desired, place a sugar cube in the spoon. Not all people like the extra sugar; it is purely a taste issue.
• • SLOWLY drip ice-cold spring water over the spoon (and sugar cube if added) into the glass. Smell the aroma as it fills the room and watch the louche appear.
• • Fill 3-5 parts water to 1 part absinthe to taste. If there is any of the sugar cube left, drop it in and give it a brief stir once the louche is complete.
• • Sip slowly and wait for the fairies.
• • Don’t drive. Anywhere. Period. You won’t want to anyway.
• • Don’t call your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend. Trust me, they will not understand.

Sources for Article-Clint’s own bad self and the Wormwood Society