Vincent van Gogh, Still Life with Absinthe

In an earlier post about “Edgar Degas and The Green Fairy” The Devoted Intellectual pointed out that absinthe, the famed 19th-century liquor, has been illegal in Europe and the United States since the early-20th century. A shame too, because the science on which the laws was based turned out to be completely bogus. Well, the regulators finally noticed. In a detailed report for the New Yorker magazine in 2006, Jack Turner mentioned an important, (if unsurprising), fact. “Thujone,” the neurotoxin supposedly found in absinthe, did not show up in tests of old bottles. As many had suspected for years, absinthe wasn’t poison.

Since that research became more and more well known, the regulatory picture has changed. Absinthe made according to these old (thujone-free) recipes, is starting to enter the US market legally. Currently, there are two brands available: Lucid (from France) and Kübler (from Switzerland). No doubt, many more options will follow.

For a recent report from somebody who’s tried the new absinthe brands, click here.

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