Dancing with the Green Fairy
Absinthe gaining area popularity
By Mary Franzen
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“We had about 9 different cocktails; the effects of it were a much cleaner drunk, not sluggish at all.” – Cody Cottrell, Karma Bar and Grill
For those eager to “dance with the green fairy” and indulge in absinthe, the popular drink is now legal and available in local bars and liquor stores. Since the beginning of 2007, absinthe became legal to sell in the United States, even with the wormwood plant that is said to cause the so-called hallucinations that have made the drink famous, though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refers to it as an exaggerated myth.
Some local Milwaukee bars and liquor stores have chosen to carry two of the most popular absinthe brands, Kubler and Lucid. According to Lucid’s website, the chemical make-up of their absinthe is traditional, and they explain how they got it into the states legally.
“Wormwood is not illegal as long as the finished product meets applicable standards for content. We found that by adhering to the strict techniques used over a century ago, the result was not only a genuine, historically accurate product, but a product that also happens to meet U.S. requirements relating to alcoholic beverages.”
Also, according to that same website, the FDA has restrictions on how much thujone is allowed in the product. Thujone is the chemical that is produced by the Grande wormwood plant.
“Lucid contains an amount of thujone that is within the legal limits set by the US regulatory authorities. Any product that comes to the US containing Grande Wormwood must also meet those same requirements, which are similar to the requirements of many other countries. Lucid also meets the thujone requirements of the European Union.”
Karma Bar and Grill recently held an absinthe tasting. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student and employee at Karma, Cody Cottrell, enjoyed the drink.
“We had about 9 different cocktails; the effects of it were a much cleaner drunk, not sluggish at all.” Cottrell said. “A straight shot of it tastes like Sambuca with a hint of a moonshine taste so we make it in a few different cocktails.”
One shot at Karma will cost you nine dollars, but it is put into a cocktail. They offer both Kubler and Lucid.
Otto’s on Oakland Ave. by the UWM campus is also ordering both brands, with the Kubler selling at $49.99 and the Lucid for $59.99.
Other bars like the Twisted Fork have decided not to sell it, feeling that the cost of the drink is too high and fearing absinthe may be a passing fad that will slow down and burn out. It can also have a bitter aftertaste and they don’t believe people will want to sip on it as a drink all night. However, Twisted Fork did say that if it remains in high demand, they will order it.
The traditional way to prepare an absinthe drink is to pour a shot (one and one half ounce) of the liquor into a glass. Then put a knife or spoon over the glass holding a sugar cube on top of it. Take a shot of water and pour it over the sugar into the drink so it dissolves the sugar cube. Stir and enjoy.
The other Milwaukee East Side bars that are selling absinthe are Cans Bar and Canteen on Kenilworth and the Red Light at Trocadero on Water Street.
> Comments
Tallnate on Jan 23, 2008 at 12:21 AM:
Hey guys, I'm a bartender in Washington and would like to get my hands on a bottle of Absinthe. Does anyone know the best and fastest way I could make this happen?
ABSNTHDRNKR on Jan 23, 2008 at 12:57 PM:
Yeah Tallnate, check out eabsinthe.com. It's a UK based website, but they ship worldwide. They have a better selection than what is currently available in the US. It's not cheap by any means...but it ships very quickly and they have great customer service.
Modern Polymath on Jan 26, 2008 at 12:50 PM:
If Washington is anything like California, the bar MUST buy alcohol through a distributer. I know bars have and continue to go to the liquor store to refresh supply, but technically, it's illegal. If a bottle of something was found at the bar that was never bought through a distributer, there could be some trouble.
Another note... the picture you had on the Story synopsis, showed 'Absente'. Translated, that means 'absent', as in... absent of Thujone, the active ingredient that gives Absinthe it's 'secondary effects' (certainly not a hallucinogen by any means).
The new law strictly limits the amount of Thujone that can be in a bottle, and now makes it legal to call something 'Absinthe' that really isn't.
The law changed semantics and the definition of Absinthe, but didn't really make anything that was illegal now legal (except labeling).
Drew on Jan 26, 2008 at 08:35 PM:
Tallnate, All three absinthes are available locally now, you don't have to go international distributors. Since you are close to California, check out St. George Distillery. They just released the first US distilled absinthe.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/dining/05absi.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Drew on Jan 27, 2008 at 06:02 AM:
Absinthe is now legal in the US once again after decades of prohibition. A distiller and microbiologist from New Orleans developed an Absinthe that is true to 19th century formulae as well as being within legal US guidelines. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce this subject as well as debunk some of the myths and rumors that surround this complex liquor.
Lucid, Kubler, and St. George’s Absinthe (the legal absinthes) contains Thujone, it is impossible to separate it from Artemesia Absinthium. It does however, not cross over through the distillation process to any great extent. Where the US absinthe’s are concerned, the distillers assert they have either reverse engineered actual 19th century Absinthes found at estate sales and from other collectors or (in the case of Kubler) gone back to original preban recipes passed down through the family, actual thujone content of these traditional absinthes just happens to fall under the legal requirements of the US (along with a successful argument in semantics with the FDA about the labeling of the liquor NOT THE CONTENT) and here it is.
The problem we are facing today with all the other producers of the appertif is that the true formulaes were lost and those that produced it in the internm, what with the law screaming about thujone, assumed that there must be high concentrations in the original formulaes, which we now know is untrue.
Alcohol is a GABA agonist. It stimulates the production of this neurotransmitter which causes drowsiness and sleep.
Thujone is a GABA antagonist. It prohibits alcohol from performing that part of it's function.
Absinthe is therefore a type of 'speedball', it's chemical constituents at once promote the production of GABA and opens its receptors, while also closing those receptors off. This explains the 'lucid' effect that absinthe has, as oppossed to just normal drunkenness, which is associated with drowsiness.
Another definition would be that the inhibitory effect of the antagonist thujone allows the consumer of absinthe to reach a stage of drunkenness that one would not be able to experience; the key word here is experience, not achieve; if one were consuming normal alcohol.
This is the muse revealed. All the thujone allows is for the door opened in the psyche by alcohol to remain open longer, allowing the consumer to experience the effects of the alcohol as he would normally not be able to.
My above passage is further proved by this quote from the National Academy of the Sciences.
“...the 10 ppm (66 µM) upper limit of the European Commission (6) and particularly the 260 ppm (1710 µM) thujone content of old absinthe (6) would give a detectable to major inhibitory effect beyond that of the ethanol content. Current low levels of thujone in absinthe are of much less toxicological concern than the ethanol content”
Wormwood is traditionaly an insecticide and used to treat intestinal worms. The herb itself has been safely used for centuries for this specific treatment.
Lucid, Kubler, and St. George are perfectly legitimate classic absinthes that contain thujone. When you drink it, you will be producing the effect in your brain that I described above.
I refute Polymath’s claim that it has only been a change in semantics. This is categorically untrue. Polymath is referring to post-ban Chezch Absinthes which for purposes of media and sales distill large amounts of wormwood with their liquor. These are not traditional absinthes. This is not what the writers and artists of old were drinking. I encourage all readers of this post to do your own research and you will uncover the truth. Do not let the media cloud over this victory over unnecessary prohibition, censorship, and irresponsible journalism.