absinthe history
Absinthe was allegedly
invented by Dr. Pierre Ordinaire in 1792, as an all-purpose remedy.
Used as a cure-all, it was nicknamed "La Fée Verte"
or "The
Green Fairy";
a nickname that has stuck.
Artemisia Absinthium was used
" in medicine
and magic. . .to rouse a languid appetite and stimulate digestion"
Ironically, Absinthe originally treated drunkenness though it was often added to
wine "to
make it more intoxicating".
The name "La Fée Verte" is associated with magic, mythology and provocatively intoxicating female figures.
This long history of magical associations with wormwood
and its
powers worked to
popularise Dr. Ordinaire's concoction, and to heighten Absinthe's popularity
and mystical appeal.
The plant has been recognised for centuries (the Egyptians called it Saam) but Dr. Ordinaire probably used a recipe from the sisters Henriod at the beginning of the 19th century. By 1805, the Pernod-Fils absinthe company was set up in Pontarlier, France, by Henri-Louis Pernod.
The popularity of the drink spread further, as
it was used as a fever preventative by French troops
fighting in Algeria from 1844-1847.
When the troops returned to France, they brought with them their taste for the
anisette drink.
Absinthe hit its peak during the years from 1880-1914, named
the "great
collective binge".
Absinthe is a symbol of inspiration
and daring, associated with the artistic life,
and is sometimes used as an aphrodisiac.
Absinthe drinking was "one of the special marks of Paris in the 1890s; "the drink of Parisian abandon". In 1874 the French consumed 700 thousand litres of Absinthe, by 1910 it rose to 36 million litres of Absinthe per year. It was also exported to New Orleans, where it quickly became extremely popular, but Americans' enjoyment of The Green Fairy was cut short when United States health officials imposed a ban on the drink in 1912.
This ban followed the examples set by Holland,
Belgium, Brazil and other countries.
France was last to ban, finally prohibiting absinthe after a long series of
debates, in 1915.
Still, the drink remained so popular that it continued to be sold (sometimes
in disguised form,
one of the more unusual being in hair tonic bottles) as late as the 1920's and
1930's.
It has never been illegal in Spain or the United Kingdom to make, sell or drink
Absinthe.
The
Absintheur's love affair with the drink begins with an interesting courtship:
Sugar is placed on a spoon and suspended over a tall glass
filled with a shot of green Absinthe.
Then ice-cold water is dripped over the sugar
and allowed to fall in beads into the drink.
Each drip turns to a fresh snow-packed white.
The sugar cuts the Absinthe's
bitterness,
while the method was attractive in itself,
the drink's change in colour, drip by drip, resembles alchemy.
The
New Orleans Old Absinthe House was famous for its Absinthe fountain,
which dripped water into the glasses automatically.
Absinthe is also drunk in a variety of personalised ways. Toulouse-Lautrec
made a special concoction
called un tremblement de terre(earthquake), which combined Absinthe and brandy.
Absinthe can be served with red or white wine instead of water,
or drunk straight by the purist. (look at the
cocktail page for more ideas)
In "For Whom the Bell Tolls" Ernest Hemingway writes "...one cup of it took the place of the evening
papers,
of all the old evenings in cafes, of all chestnut trees that would be in bloom
now in this month...".
Oscar Wilde
added:
"The first stage is like ordinary drinking, the second when you
begin to see monstrous
and cruel things, but if you can persevere you will enter in upon the third
stage where you see
things that you want to see, wonderful curious things". Wilde goes
on to explain how, during this third stage,
one imagines tulips and simultaneously feels them brushing against one's shins.
In the cheerful atmosphere of recovery that followed the Franco-Prussian War, l'heure
verte "the green hour"
became an established daily event. Because of a generally increased liberal
attitude in France
and relaxed policies for opening cabarets and cafés in France during the 1860s,
almost 366 thousand existed
in Paris by 1869, and 5 p.m. signified l'heure verte
in almost every one.
The cafés were an extremely popular place to socialize; by the 1870s, it became
common practice
to preface a meal with a cheap aperitif, and of 1500 available liqueurs,
Absinthe accounted for 90% of the apéritifs drunk.
For
those more interested in flouting authority absinthe is closely identified with
counterculture.
Absinthe is romanticized and captured in artwork and writings by, Van
Gogh, Verlaine, Rimbaud,
Baudelaire,
Oscar Wilde, Ernest Hemingway, Picasso, and many others. It almost seems as if there was
no artist who lived during the "great collective binge"
who did not revel in Absinthe.
All these artists were exemplary of an alternative life style.
Degas' famous 'L'Absinthe' (1876) pictures two forlorn-looking café-squatters staring, dishevelled,
out beyond their opaline drinks. Although the people pictured were merely actors, this painting later
roused intense Francophobia in England.
Manet, however, dared to paint an actual street bum with Absinthe,
titled 'The Absinthe Drinker' (1859).
The man leans on a wall, vacuous-eyed and bundled in rags.
Manet’s work signified the beginning of modernist realism in
painting,
and thus, Absinthe and a movement against the mainstream are linked in his work.
Even more unusually, VanGogh (introduced to absinthe by Toulouse-Lautrec and Gauguin)
painted many of his works in ochres and pale greens, which are the colors of
Absinthe.
Many of these paintings also depict the bar in which Van Gogh drank Absinthe,
and himself with glasses of the apéritif.
The
history of Absinthe lends credence to the conviction that if something is too
good,
it will eventually be stopped. Absinthe was
banned because of the fear of the drink's counter-culture
revolutionary aspect; Absinthe is "a symbol of the bohemian spirit".
Absinthe had its own slang, which is attractive to those in the know and undeniably
irritating,
if not terrifying, to those who are not.
Absinthe
has recently regained popularity;
As we approach the next decade the thirst
for Absinthe will grow as people search for new
recreational experiences at home, in bars and clubs.
It is time the green fairy be let out and allowed to fly freely through the bars of the
world once again,
adding mystique, intrigue and something slightly timeless
to modern culture.
" idea-changing liquid alchemy"