Absinthe Time

Absinthe was considered a vivifying elixir long before it could be ordered in a cafe. When Madame de Coulanges, one of the leading ladies of the seventeenth-century French court, became ill, she was prescribed a preparation containing wormwood. When it calmed her stomach, she wrote to Madame de Sevigne, ” My little absinthe is the remedy for all diseases.”
According to history, or perhaps myth, the elixir of wormwood was orginally developed by Dr. Pierre Ordinaire in 1789. He was a French doctor who was living in the Suisse town of Couvet, in the Canton of Neuchвtel. The doctor was in self-exile due to political reasons from the Franche-Comtй region. It was said that he discovered the plant wormwood (Artemisia Absinthium) while traveling in the Val-de-Travers. He mixed wormwood and other herbs with alcohol to create his 136 proof elixir, which he employed in his treatment of the sick and retched. After many claims of miraculous healing powers, it became a panacea or cure-all. It was eventually nicknamed, “la Fйe Verte”, which means the Green Fairy…

During the Algier War in the 19th century France made use of the inciting effects of Absinthe and provided the Soldiers with regular rations of the liquor. The veterans who had survived this war soon pushed the production output from 400 liters daily (appr. 90 gallons) to more than 20.000 liters (appr. 5.000 gallons) a day and more. Absinthe distilleries started to spread all over France like mushrooms. For different reasons around 1910 the total turnover of Absinthe distribution had reached immeasurable peaks. Many distilleries made use of low-grade alcohol which in some not too rare cases caused blindness among the consumers. These irresponsible dealings with the drink finally resulted in the prohibition of Absinthe in (almost) all countries of Europe by the year 1920.