One should go through the history of Absinthe. Absinthe was created by a French doctor as medicine for his patients in the late 18th century in the town of Couvet of Switzerland. By 1805 the Absinthe recipeshad got into the hands of Henri-Louis Pernod who started distilling it in his factory in Pontarlier in France.
Original Absinthe Recipes
Pernod’s Absinthe, Original Pernod Fils, was distilled from wine and contained many natural herbs and essential oils from plants including grande wormwood, aniseed, melissa, fennel, lemon balm, dittany, angelica root, hyssop, star anise, nutmeg and juniper.
The recipes and ingredients used by different manufacturers of the Green Fairy were not same. Absinthe is also prepared using the herbs like calamus root, mint, cloves, nutmeg, roman wormwood, anise seed, coriander, sweet flag and licorice. The herb wormwood, Artimesia Absinthium was the basic ingredient of pre-ban Absinthe which gave Absinthe it’s characteristic bitter flavor and name.
According to the general thought the thujone content of wormwood and THC in the drug cannabis were similar. The large consumption of thujone can give rise to psychedelic effects. Anethole is said to be psychoactive which is content of anise seed and fennel seed and Lapland grow Angelica root in the form of drug. Some artists and writers like Van Gogh and Oscar Wilde believed that they got their genius and inspiration from Absinthe! “A clear headed drunkenness” is the explanation on how being drunk on Absinthe.
Absinthe was famously banned in France in 1915 when Prohibitionists claimed that it was going to ruin the country and send everyone insane. There is no harm in drinking Absinthe. There is no health risk from Absinthe as it is mainly alcohol with a very less quantities of wormwood and the other herbs.
Homemade Absinthe Recipes
There are many Absinthe recipes on the Internet using different herbs and different methods – steeping, filtering etc. but making Absinthe at home from plants, dried herbs or essential oils is not to be recommended. Why?
– It is important to use distilled Absinthe.
– The thujone content cannot be known of consumed Absinthe.
It is far better to buy either a quality Absinthe, making sure that it’s got the vital ingredient wormwood, or to buy an Absinthe kit which consists of Absinthe essences that have already been distilled.
You can even buy Absinthe in the USA now – Breaux’s label “Lucid” is legal in the USA.
AbsintheKit.com does great Absinthe kits which consist of:-
– Absinthe essence – choose from classic, white (which makes clear Swiss style Absinthe, Strong 55 (with a 55mg thujone content) and Orange (flavored with orange oil).
– A measure of.
– Absinthe bottles can be decorated by Artistic Labels.
One bottle of essence is efficient for preparing 14 bottles of Absinthe!
One can prepare own bottled Absinthe by mixing 20ml of the Absinthe essence with a neutral alcohol.
As these essences are the very same as the ones sold to distilleries so one will definitely get a safe, top-quality product.
One can get a large number of online cocktail Absinthe recipes. One can enjoy finding and mixing the cocktails.