Absinthe is said to make love sweeter. (Getty Images: Adam Berry)
Few drinks have as much of a reputation as absinthe.
The drink was banned for nearly a century in some countries and was said to be a source of madness and crime, and was even blamed for the artist Vincent Van Gogh cutting off his own ear.
The drink gets a lot of hype, but that doesn’t make its history any less interesting, says author and absinthe enthusiast Evan Rail.
The author of “The Absinthe Forger” told ABC Radio National’s “Late Night Live” that the Green Fairy was the drink of choice for Belle Époque bohemians and was a “romantic and mysterious” drink.
Ever since absinthe became legal again and available in most places, controversy has not ceased.
‘A cultural phenomenon’
Absinthe is a strong alcoholic beverage made from various plants, including the flowers and leaves of an herb called Wormwood or Absinthe.
Absinthe is popular throughout Europe, especially in France. (Wikimedia Commons: Public Domain)
Absinthe is controversial in part because it contains trace amounts of a neurotoxin called thujone.
Thujone is harmful to the human body, and all countries have regulations on the content of thujone in food and beverages.
“[But] the thujone in a few bottles of absinthe is not enough to poison a person. You don’t get thujone poisoning from drinking too much absinthe. You get alcohol poisoning,” Rael said.
This traditional green drink with anise flavor was first produced in Switzerland in the late 18th century and, like many other alcoholic beverages, was originally used as medicine.
By the 19th century it had become popular as a drink throughout Europe, especially in France.
“Absinthe is a cultural phenomenon.. there’s even a time of day for absinthe, the ‘green hour,’ when people get off work and have their first absinthe of the day, around 5 p.m.,” Rael said.
The drink was particularly beloved by artists, writers and other creative people, and it quickly became synonymous with French bohemian culture.
“It’s called the Green Fairy, or la fée verte in French,” Rael said. (One of her most famous recent screen appearances was by Kylie Minogue in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge).
Baz Luhrmann cast Kylie Minogue as the Green Fairy in his film Moulin Rouge. (Courtesy of 20th Century Fox via YouTube)
Absinthe has been a part of not only the lives of creative people, but also their art, from Edgar Degas’s In a Café (Absinthe Drinkers) to Pablo Picasso’s Glass of Absinthe.
It is said to have hallucinogenic properties and can inspire creative talents, but it can also drive a person crazy. Rael says this is all overstated and largely untrue.
Instead, absinthe can make people “think deeply,” he said.
“It inspires a lot of wonderful daydreaming… You can think about the past, but you can also think about the future.”
Moral panic around absinthe
By the end of the 19th century, France was in the midst of an identity crisis.
The French Empire was in decline, having lost the Franco-Prussian War and was in economic trouble.
“People are talking about the decline of French civilization,” Rael said.
Anti-absinthe posters appeared in the late 19th century. (Getty Images: SPL)
On top of that, society was modernizing and changing. New art and new ideas clashed with old ones. Not everyone was happy with this new France.
“As society changed, people tried to find .. something to blame, and they chose the green fairy. They chose absinthe.”
Ostensibly, absinthe was banned initially because it contained thujone. But “it was also banned because people wanted something to demonize it,” Rael added.
“It was a moral panic at the end of the 19th century.”
Wormwood poisoning was seen as a separate evil from alcoholism and was associated with many terrible crimes.
In 1905, a Swiss farmer murdered his family. He was an alcoholic who had been drinking many different types of alcohol, including absinthe. But absinthe was singled out.
Shortly thereafter, absinthe was banned in many parts of Europe and the United States.
Lifting the bans
Absinthe was prohibited from the early 20th century until the early 21st century.
Listen to the podcast
From incisive analysis of current events to the hottest debates in politics, science, and culture, Late Night Live keeps you informed.
But its eventual acceptance had less to do with a battle for the green fairy than with not-so-bohemian trade and capitalism.
Rail explains that absinthe was never banned in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic or Czech Republic and Slovakia.
In the early 21st century, after the Czech Republic joined the European Union, absinthe began to be exported to the United Kingdom.
That sparked a local absinthe “craze,” Rehr said, and the drink became fashionable again.
“[As a result] Switzerland re-legalized absinthe in 2005, with France and the United States following suit a few years later.”
The absinthe underground
After nearly a century of illegal circulation and association with some of the greatest artists and writers in history, absinthe has acquired a huge reputation and appeal.
Contemporary absinthe makers are creating new versions of this old classic, especially across Europe.
Although absinthe today is largely the same as what people drank in the past, a small minority still want absinthe made before Prohibition in the early 20th century, Rael said.
“It’s certainly special to be drinking not just the same brand of wine that Picasso drank, but the same bottle and batch,” Rael said.
- Did the Nazis and the CIA Help Shape the History of LSD?
- Is this man the first Australian novelist?
- Sugar in cookies and cakes has a dirty history
Or you can have a drink that Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway or Charles Baudelaire would have loved.
“It’s like traveling back in time to the 19th century,” Rael said.
“That inspires people to go find them .. and share them in this little secret group of underground communities, or keep them to themselves.”
This small European community of absinthe enthusiasts, or absinthe drinkers, sometimes pool their money to buy a bottle of absinthe, which is worth about $US5,000 ($7,600).
Then, drink it all.
“They opened these bottles with gusto, shared and drank them at their little soirees and underground meetings.”
However, Rail discovered that not all of these bottles were what they seemed.
The absinthe forger
To this day, absinthe continues to stir controversy.
To write the book, Rayle entered the world of absinthe connoisseurs and learned about the fraud that exists within the community.
Stream your favourite shows on the free ABC listen app
Photo shows an image of Dr. Karl and the Listen app logo on a pink background
Dr. Karl knows the best free podcast, radio, music, news, and audiobook apps… and you don’t have to be a scientist to find it!
Absinthe enthusiasts reported to Rael a man, whom the author only calls “Christian,” who they suspected was peddling the new absinthe as pre-Prohibition absinthe.
It is accepted by the public only because of the keen eyes and taste buds of this underground community.
“They started to realize that some of these samples seemed a little off, that maybe they weren’t correct in some way from a packaging perspective,” Rehr relayed.
“Some people will look at a bottle from across the room and say, ‘That’s not right because the label is not at the right height on the bottle’.”
Rail said the community ultimately uncovered about €100,000 (or $161,000) in fraud.
He said the evidence was strong and the forger later admitted his crime and apologized.
But there’s a complicating factor in the potential prosecution – the evidence has all but disappeared.
“It’s very difficult to prove that a crime had actually been committed because, in most cases, the evidence – the absinthe itself – had already been consumed.”
A ‘real joie de vivre’
After spending some time in Europe’s underground absinthe community, Rael struggled with one thing: What to do with the dwindling amount of absinthe left over from pre-prohibition days?
“I’m of two minds. I really think this stuff should be preserved… There are only a limited number of bottles made before 1914. They’re disappearing.”
But watching absinthe lovers consume the historic drink made him realize something else.
He said it was a strength to be able to “accept things like this and enjoy the moment and own the feeling of the moment.
“It shows a real joie de vivre, which I think is really admirable.”
Want to go beyond the news cycle?
Get weekly news on arts, books, history, culture, technology, politics and more with ABC Radio National’s newsletter. Your information will be processed in accordance with the ABC Privacy Collection Statement.
