Artemisia absinthium (wormwood) is availiable from Horus.
I believe this plant was allowed to ferment, like grape-juice or
grain (hops) to form the liquer. Used by renowned writers ie Poe.
=============================================================================
Try the following reference (online databases are great!):
Arnold, Wilfred Niels.
Absinthe. (liqueur's history and analysis; includes related articles)
Scientific American v260, n6 (June, 1989):112 (6 pages).
=============================================================================
I've been meaning to repost these recipes for absinthe for some
time but just haven't gotten to it. A couple of people asked for
pointers to further information, and I have included a little.
Unfortunately most of the older books from which I got info on absinthe
were from various libraries and I can't give a good bibliography.
There are a few pages devoted to the culture of absinthe
drinking in an essay on Rimbaud by William Ober in his book _Bottoms
Up!_ (a rather unusual book, check it out). Alexis Lichine mentions it
in his books on spirits. Wormwood and its chemical constituents are well
documented in Mrs. Grieve's _Herbal_ (a very good source book on herbs;
I have found that British sources tend to be much more thorough and
grounded in research than American ones, which tend to rely on hand me
down tales and hearsay).
True absinthe was marked by its intense green color (which
usually came from herbs other than wormwood, which is a gray-green at
best). This lead to cases in which the drink was adulterated with copper
salts, doubtless to the consumers detriment. The best absinthe contained
70-80% alcohol, which in itself makes a case for why it might be a
dangerous drink. Of beverages still legal for sale in most places, both
Campari and Fernet Branca contain wormwood, but are not nearly so
alcoholic.
The 1911 edition of the Britannica remarks, "There is some
reason to believe that excessive absinthe-drinking leads to effects
which are specifically worse than those associated with over-indulgence
in other forms of alcohol.
The manufacture and sale of true absinthe is legal in Spain and
some other European countries.
Absinthe #1
1 pint vodka 2 tsp crumbled wormwood (dried)
2tsp anise seed 1/2 tsp fennel seed
4 cardomom pods 1 tsp majoram
1/2 tsp ground coriander 2 tsp chopped angelica root
1 2/3 cups sugar syrup
Place vodka in large jar with tight fitting lid. Add wormwood and shake
well; steep 48 hrs and strain out. Crush seeds and pods in mortar. Add them
and all remaining spices to vodka and steep in a warm place 1 week.
Filter and sweeten. (The sugar syrup mentioned above is your standard
simple syrup.)
Absinthe #2
1 tsp crumbled wormwood 1 cup vodka
2 Tbsp chopped peppermint leaves
1 piece of lemon peel, 3/4"x2"
1/3-1/2 cup sugar syrup
Steep wormwood in vodka for 48 hours. Strain out and add peppermint
leaves and lemon peel. Steep for 8 days, strain nd sweeten. Smells good
but is more bitter than #1.
Absinthe Wine
All herbs are dried.
2 tsp peppermint 2tsp dried wormwood
2 tsp thyme 2 tsp lavender
2 tsp hyssop 2 tsp majoram
2 tsp sage 2 pints port
Steep herbs one week, filter and bottle. My notes describe this as
"bitter, aromatic and potent".
===========================================================================
I at last have had the opportunity to try the drug Absinthe, and
though of reporting my experience on the net.
I was offered to try absinthe when visiting a cousin last week
end. Interestingly, while absinthe is illegal about everywhere in the
world, it is still legal in the small country of Andorre situated in
the mountains between France and Spain. When bringing it back to
Canada my cousin got searched, but absinthe is so little known in
Canada that the custom officers thought it was an ordinary bottle of
liquor, although it was clearly labelled Absinthe. I am told that it
is another story if you get caught with it in Europe...
[Erowid Note: Recent changes to laws in the European Union
have made absinthe legal in many European countries. But laws vary.]
For anyone familiar with late nineteeth century French
litterature Absinthe posseses a very special mystique, since it looks
like just every French writer of the time was hooked on it. I had
always been wondering if the effects of Absinthe were due mainly to
the high alcool content, of if there was anything specific. The fact
that the main active ingredient, Thujone, is listed a toxic convulsant
made me somewhat apprehensive.
I drank a total of 3 ounces of absinthe that night. The taste is
strongly aromatic and the mouth gets completely numb when drinking it.
The procedure for drinking is to mix the absinthe with water. It then
turns milky white.
After a few minutes of the first glass I could feel a
undistinct feeling of warmth and a rather pleasant buzz. The two more
glasses that I drank afterwards completely convinced me that the
effect of absinthe has little to do with alcool. After 3 ounces I was
experiencing a strong buzz, somewhat similar to a long lasting nitrous
oxide experience, minus the auditory disturbances. Duration was about
an hour, with a 30 minutes peak. The effect was extremely pleasant,
although I would not list absinthe as a psychedelic. It definitely
belongs in terms of subjective effects to the solvent/nitrous oxide
category, although pharmacologically very different. The following day
I felt very lethargic, but it is hard to say if it was due to the
absinthe since we stayed up pretty late that night.
My conclusion: I give it two thumbs up, but would not drink it
more than occasionally since it is reported as neurotoxic. Try it out
if ever you go to Andorre.
Pierre St Hilaire
MIT Media Lab
=============================================================================
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.herbs,alt.psychoactives
From: Galatia.9@debug.cuc.ab.ca (Robin and Ennien Ashbrook)
Subject: Re: Anyone Ever TRIED Abisinthe?
Date: Sun, 15 May 1994 02:34:46 GMT
Message-ID: <1994May15.023446.24820@debug.cuc.ab.ca>
alex@spiral.org (Dave Alexander) writes:
> I'm planning to make some Abisinthe -- well, not *real* Abisinthe with
> Pernod, etc., but Wormwood flowers soaked in Seagram's Crown Royal for
> several months.
>
> Has anyone ever actually tried this? I'm looking for something that's
> mildly opiate-like. I think this should be the ticket, but it would be nice
> to hear from a first-hand user.
Looks like this is the day for wormwood.
I have tried absinthe, real absinthe, not wormwood tinctured in alcohol,
but fermented with honey and anise-seed.
It gave me some interesting visions, if you like hallucinating. It
produced an interesting buzz, if you like a sound like drones in your
head. It also gave me an interesting headache, interesting stomache
cramps, interesting vomiting and a generally interesting hangover. This
was from one glass, that is, one ounce of absinthe, on the rocks, with
ice water as is tradtional.
Admittedly, my system is very sensitive to chemicals of any sort (cuppa
tea in the morning keeps me wired 'til supper), but it was enough to
convince me that I definately didnt want to get addicted to this stuff.
Absinthe is dangerous. It causes irreparable deterioration of the brain
stem and liver, due to the powerful hepatics in the wormwood being
altered by alcohol. Symptoms begin to show within 3 - 6 months of
continued use (remember, its addictive) and begin with depression,
emotional instability, and jaundice, then progress to tremors, difficulty
breathing, erratic heartbeat, neural failure, then finally heart/lung
failure. For these reasons, absinthe has been banned globally. Absinthe
was a traditional drink of poets in the 18th and 19th centuries and its
no coincidence that a) poets were considered to be mad b) poets died
terribly young (late 20's - early 30's)
Two years ago, a coven of wiccans in the city had a May Day ritual in
which they consumed a punch created by their high priest. This punch,
which he called "Jack in the Green" contained several varieties of
alcohol with several varieties of herbal narcotics, including wormwood
and valerian. All those who consumed the punch became very ill. Two
were taken to hospital when they fell unconscious and could not be
wakened. All suffered severe stomach cramps and vomited bile for several
days after. Several suffered hallucinations.
There are my experiences of this drug. Read them, and do as thou wilt.
-==- Ennien
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Ennein & Robin Ashbrook | |
| Internet: Galatia.9@Debug.cuc.ab.ca | " To each, their own. " |
| UUCP: calgary!debug!galatia.9 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
=============================================================================
From: aseem@mit.edu
Newsgroups: rec.drugs.psychedelic
Subject: Absinthe experiment
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 95 06:21:29 GMT
Message-ID: <49bld4$1f8@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>
Ok, I ordered a fluid ounce of wormwood extract from an ethnobotanical company. The bottle
was marked with poison symbols, which made me a bit apprehensive. I read
somewhere that the proper proportions to make the fabled Absinthe was 1 cup of Pernod
to 1 teaspoon of wormwood. I didn't feel like buying Pernod, so I cracked open the wormwood
bottle and added a teaspoon to a cup of Absolut vodka. The wormwood was very dark and
had a very strong odor, kinda minty but with a distinctive edge to it. The oil was very hard
to wash of the spoon, it stained it green, and the spoon smelled like wormwood for a while.
This worried me, considering I planned to pour it down my esophagus.
I mixed it vigorously, covered the cup in Saran wrap, and placed it in a refrigerator for two
days. After the wait, I stirred it up and strained it through a rag, removing a resiny layer
that had separated from the mixture. The resultant mixture was a cloudy green, it looked
a little like bong water, and smelled even worse. The white plastic spoon I used to mix it
was colored green, and wouldn't wash easily. I was getting apprehensive about the stuff,
and the smell was making me queasy.
I mixed a shot of the mixture with lots of water and sugar. It did not turn opaque white, as I
read it should. Summing my courage, I started drinking the 16 oz concoction. It had a strong
taste much like the smell of wormwood, and made my stomach very queasy. Every sip
I took made me gag and make sour faces. I don't know if my reaction was psychological
because I was afraid of the stuff, or if I just didn't like the taste, or if the stuff
really was bad for me and my body was complaining. I put red Kool-Aid crystals in it
to make it more palatable, but it didn't help. I gave up after a quarter of the cup.
I think I got a buzz off it, there was a drone in my head and I felt like I was on painkillers,
but I think I need to drink more. I ate alot of food and drank water afterwards, but the horrible
taste was hard to get out of my mouth, I think it coated my alimentary canal like it did the
spoon. This thought was not pleasant.
I think I am going to just try and down a shot of the wormwood and vodka without
diluting it, and hope I don't vomit it out. That will take some courage, though.
Does anyone have any experience with this, did I do anything wrong? Any suggestions
or dire warnings? If I don't get any negative feedback, I'm just gonna down the shot
and hope for the best, and then post the results.
I'm open to ideas and suggestions. Wish me luck!
Aseem
