VeeshanVault

Country unknown, 68% alc. vol. (136 proof), 1.0 liter
...
I can’t compare this substance to any other Blanche Absinthe, because Logan Fils Extrait D’Absinthe Suisse Blanche is NOT Absinthe. The high alcohol content might appeal some who are looking for only that. The incredibly exorbitant price ($149.90) of this inferior product will appeal to no one.

Step on it! Man drives down Rome tourist treasure

Wed Jun 13, 11:45 AM ET

A man was arrested before dawn on Wednesday as he drove his Toyota Celica down the Spanish steps, one of Rome's most popular tourist spots where visitors are usually banned from drinking and singing, let alone driving.

Photographs showed police surrounding the sports car as it neared the bottom of the sweeping 18th-century staircase, almost reaching the Piazza di Spagna.

Police told Italian media the driver was a 24-year-old man of Colombian origin who had turned left at the Trinita dei Monti church at the top of the staircase, apparently mistaking the steps for a road.

He was found to be twice above the legal limit for alcohol, media reported.

Our company, after a lot of struggle on many fronts, is launching a new product, Absinth 35, on the market. Why another absinth again? We tried to get out of barriers called the absinth ones in the past. We wanted to prepare both the design and the taste for the future. We used exactly the amount of the drug THUJON corresponding to that mentioned in the name of the product, i.e. 35 mg, which can be recognized at once: for the taste is bitter, very fine and contains a considerable relish of herbs. However, the lovers of aniseed may be a little disappointed, for this absinth contains only little of this spice. Its colour is natural, we put nothing there in this direction and thus, it is a "pure natural product".

That being said, if one goes seeking an absinthe that claims to be ‘high in thujone’, he will almost invariably find himself purchasing inferior ‘absinth’ of Czech or Eastern European origin, bearing little to no resemblance to traditional absinthe, and whose claims of ‘high thujone’ are almost always false, misleading, and irrelevant regardless.

Siji wrote:I've tried a few brands from different countries and found that they basically tasted and smelled the same.. as above, black licorice. If you like that, a lot, you'll like it. It's definitely not something I'd want to find myself puking up as it can be sickly sweet.

Dregor Thule wrote:

Siji wrote:I've tried a few brands from different countries and found that they basically tasted and smelled the same.. as above, black licorice. If you like that, a lot, you'll like it. It's definitely not something I'd want to find myself puking up as it can be sickly sweet.

So there is stuff you'd want to find yourself puking up? Eww

Siji wrote:

Dregor Thule wrote:

Siji wrote:I've tried a few brands from different countries and found that they basically tasted and smelled the same.. as above, black licorice. If you like that, a lot, you'll like it. It's definitely not something I'd want to find myself puking up as it can be sickly sweet.

So there is stuff you'd want to find yourself puking up? Eww

Louis XIII.. cause if I were puking it up, it would mean that I got to have some..

2. Why was absinthe banned?


Because that stuff makes you crazy!! After all, the French slogan goes "Absinthe rend fou!", and they ought to know, right?

One French politician who supported the ban claimed that if absinthe remained legal, half the population would eventually be employed in fitting the remaining half with straightjackets as a result. The facts are less lurid. A number of purportedly scientific studies performed in France in the latter half of the 19th century claimed to prove that absinthe was harmful to human health. The foremost of the researchers who carried out these studies was one Dr. Valentin Magnan, whose specialties were alcoholism and insanity. Due in large part to the efforts of Dr. Magnan and his supporters, a political struggle ensued between the liquor industry on one side and prohibitionists on the other. The prohibitionists were eventually victorious, forcing the passage of laws that banned the manufacture and sale of absinthe in Switzerland in 1910, in France in 1915, and in many other western countries in which it was popular, including the United States in 1912. It must be noted that in some countries, such as Spain, Portugal, and Britain, absinthe was never banned.
3. Was the banning of absinthe rational?

The short answer is no.

The question is simple but arriving at an intelligent answer is complex, requiring consideration of cultural and scientific factors well beyond the obvious - the banning of absinthe did not take place in a vacuum.

In the first place, although Dr. Magnan made progress for his time in the treatment of alcoholism, he saw absinthe with tunnel vision. He thought that the French "race" was in a downward spiral of degeneration, fueled by absinthe. He thought that absinthe had deleterious effects on the drinker over and above those produced by alcohol alone, based upon experiments that today would be considered laughable, and which, even in Magnan's time, were considered dubious by intelligent, objective observers. Magnan was also convinced that alcohol was the main cause of insanity, and that absinthe-induced insanity was hereditary, capable of being passed on in the genes from parents to children! Magnan considered absinthe to be a curse upon France that had to be lifted at any cost.

The motives of Dr. Magnan's supporters must also be considered. For the French temperance movement, absinthe was the poster-child for the evils of drink - stronger than any other liquor, cheaper than brandy, increasingly popular with the working class, and “proven” by one of the most eminent scientists in France to be uniquely dangerous. Since banning all alcohol was for practical purposes impossible in France – wine was regarded as food from the soil, and part of the French national heritage – absinthe became the primary target of French prohibitionists. In this struggle, they were actively aided by the wine industry itself, which had no use for absinthe, considering it an "industrial" alcohol, an usurper of wine's rightful place in French culture, not to mention in the French economy. The vintners were only too happy to climb upon the prohibitionist bandwagon. Consider that in 1910, 36 million liters of absinthe were consumed in France, part of an apparent trend toward consumption of hard liquor as a whole, not a healthy thing in the eyes of the wine producers, who still smarted from the sting of a plant disease that had all but wiped them out at the end of the 1870’s.

Sensationalism and yellow journalism also played their parts. A particularly lurid set of domestic murders, committed by a Swiss laborer named Jean Lanfray in 1905, was laid at the door of absinthe, in spite of the fact that Lanfray was a hopeless alcoholic who drank whatever wine or liquor he could get. All of Europe read about these crimes, and absinthe's fate was sealed.

It must also be noted that the term "absinthe" cannot be used to describe any and all products sold under that name before the ban as though they were all the same thing. For every carefully distilled product, made with the finest natural ingredients, there were any number of shoddy, even dangerous, concoctions made with poorly rectified alcohols, essences of doubtful manufacture, dyes unfit for human consumption and other harmful chemical additives. So we have bad science, selfish financial incentive, cultural bias, ignorance and scare tactics. Do these make for good law? Unfortunately, even today, legislation is sometimes enacted for exactly the same reasons. Some things never change.

Tyek wrote:Why was it illegal? It has minor hallucinagenic qualities according to some.
>>
The fact is, you could buy the American version of Absinthe, go to any local Nursery and buy some wormwood, ferment it in the bottle and make the illegal stuff. Unfortunately, you would probably kill yourself if you did it too long, put too much in, etc..

Deward wrote:I could be wrong but isn't real absinthe illegal?

Siji wrote: They all mostly taste the same, and I concur that the whole hallucinogen stuff is b.s. It's alcohol plain and simple.

That devil juice is brewed from the urine of Lucifer. Now I know why Van Gogh cut off his ear and why Toulouse-Lautrec painted funny looking midgets; it wasn't mental illness, it was that goddamn absinthe.

It also smells like a high school boys locker room.

redeemed wrote:I thought wormwood did in fact have some hallucinogenic properties...

Lalanae wrote:

It also smells like a high school boys locker room.

I never understood the appeal of absinthe, but I guess I do now!

Someone mentioned it tasting like black licorice which is one of the nastiest tasting "foods" on earth so I doubt I'll ever try this stuff

Canelek wrote:I'm not a fan of that flavor (maybe too many Jager shots in my youth)..

Intersting conversation though with a buddy today. He was thinking of brewing up an uber-hoppy batch of IPA with some wormwood thrown in (if he can find).

Thoughts? I think it sounds kinda disgusting, although the overkill on hops may balance it a bit. I have not brewed in years, and was never an expert....

Wiki wrote: India Pale Ale (IPA, a variation of which is known as Imperial Pale Ale) is a distinct style of beer and is characterized as a sparkling pale ale with a high level of alcohol and hops; the hops lending it a distinct bitterness.

Deward wrote:

Canelek wrote:I'm not a fan of that flavor (maybe too many Jager shots in my youth)..

Intersting conversation though with a buddy today. He was thinking of brewing up an uber-hoppy batch of IPA with some wormwood thrown in (if he can find).

Thoughts? I think it sounds kinda disgusting, although the overkill on hops may balance it a bit. I have not brewed in years, and was never an expert....

What is IPA? As an occasional brewer myself, I hate high hop brews. Just makes beer way too bitter for my tastes. A good alternative if you like a little more bitter than usual is to use chocolate beans in the recipe.

As far as wormwood, it is it an actual wood or grain/edible? Wood alcohol makes you go blind so if that is the case, be careful.

Traditionally, absinthe is poured into a glass over which a specially designed slotted spoon is placed. A sugar cube is then deposited in the bowl of the spoon. Ice-cold water is poured or dripped over the sugar until the drink is diluted 3:1 to 5:1. During this process, the components that are not soluble in water, mainly those from anise, fennel and star anise, come out of solution and cloud the drink. The resulting milky opalescence is called the louche (Fr. 'opaque' or 'shady', IPA [luʃ]). The addition of water is important, causing the herbs to 'blossom' and bringing out many of the flavors originally overpowered by the anise. For most people, a good quality absinthe should not require sugar, but it is added according to taste and will also thicken the mouth-feel of the drink.