Absinthe. It’s a liquor that’s shrouded in mystery and fear. Today, many may know the liquor was banned for nearly 100 years because of its hallucinogenic quality. However, the stigma surrounding the ominous green liquor is mostly fabricated when, in reality, absinthe’s shady notoriety originated from powerful political forces in France and eventually extending throughout all of Europe and even the United States. How and why did this happen? Let’s look at the context.
In the 19th century, the influential classes in France transitioned away from the wine to absinthe because of a blight caused by phylloxera, an insect that brought famine and disease to many grape farmers and devastated the French vineyards. The blight caused a significant decrease in wine production and consumers were left to explore other options to fill their alcoholic cravings. In the US many turned to whisky. In France they turned to absinthe.Soon after, absinthe grew in popularity in the country, especially among the creative and artistic community. Notables such as Picasso, Van Gogh, Hemingway, and Wilde enjoyed the anise flavored libation. This had a trickle down effect and, eventually, French commoners grew to love absinthe as well, consuming 700,000 liters of the drink in 1874 alone. By 1910, that number would grow to 36,000,000.
As France’s wine industry recovered from their plight, they took notice of the encroaching competitor and, seeking to reestablish their dominance in France’s alcohol industry, teamed up with the abolition movement to launch a propaganda campaign against absinthe. Previously, the abolition movement had been gaining steam for decades because debauchery and drunkenness were seen as growing problems in France. Many in the movement blamed it on high proof liquor, like absinthe.
With financial backing from the wine industry, the abolitionists set their sights on getting absinthe banned. So much attention was devoted to the drink that a new pseudo-science was dedicated to the effects of consuming too much of it: the study of absinthism.
Though similar to alcoholism, absinthism had some key differences. It was defined as the disorder associated with the habitual abuse of absinthe. The symptoms included hallucinations, sleeplessness, tremors, blindness, mental deterioration, and convulsions. There was debate over whether absinthism was due to the actual absinthe in the drink or the alcohol contained therein. Between 1867 and 1912, 16,532 patients were admitted to asylums and one percent of those were diagnosed with absinthism.
So serious was this new disease, that entire studies were dedicated to the subject. The biggest name among them was Dr. Valentin Magnan (1835-1916), who believed absinthe was a major contributing factor in the degradation of French society. He devised several experiments to study the effects of the ingredients listed in absinthe.
Absinthe had one defining ingredient that separated it from the rest of its alcoholic brethren, wormwood. Wormwood gives absinthe its bitterness and green coloration and balances the strong herbal flavors like fennel and anise. Wormwood also contains a toxin – thujone. This potentially dangerous ingredient became the focus of Magnan’s studies and he began experimenting on animals with differing levels of thujone and wormwood oil. When he gave mice high concentrations of thujone, they experienced convulsions and died. When he gave a dog a vial of wormwood oil, it went crazy and barked at a wall for a half hour.
These studies fueled the belief that absinthe would make you crazy. Anecdotal reports of absinthe drinkers seeing the “green fairy” only bolstered these claims to the point that absinthism was published as an illness in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.
As momentum grew in the prohibition campaign against absinthe, a single court case put the drink on the big stage. In 1905, in a fit of drunken rage, a Swiss man named Jean Lanfray murdered his wife and two daughters. For the days preceding the murder, Lanfray had been drinking absinthe – along with cognac, brandy, crème de menthe, beer, and wine. Regardless of the other alcohols connected to his crime, Lanfray’s murders brought absinthe to the spotlight.
With Magnan’s studies, public opinion waning, and now murder, absinthe was believed to be too dangerous for consumption. By the early 1900s the drink was banned in most places throughout the world. Absinthe wouldn’t become legal to sell and drink until 2007. So, what changed?
It appears there were many flaws with Dr. Magnan’s studies. Magnan used exceptionally high doses of thujone in his experiments in order to show its negative effects. However, those high doses were nearly impossible to ingest under normal circumstances.
Recent studies found that it would take 30 mg of thujone before you would begin to feel any negative effects – symptoms like tunnel vision, tremors, and delayed reaction times. In gas chromatography tests on vintage absinthe bottles, thujone levels showed a range of 25 mg/L to .5 mg/L. What does that mean?
Well, to give you some context, in the United States today, thujone levels in absinthe are capped at 10 mg/L. In other words, you would die of alcohol poisoning before you would ever die from the effects of thujone. This was also true in the 19th century during Magnan’s tests.
So, absinthe has had a wild history. The public loved it, then feared it and despised it. It’s competitors feared it and tried to destroy it. And science worked diligently to defame it, then defend it. Today you can enjoy it once again, adding it to your cocktails or having it straight up in a glass. So, the next time you enjoy the distinctive taste of absinthe, remember the incredible and turbulent history affiliated with it.
Because, after all, history is better with a drink.
