Absinthe Recipes
Absinthe comes with an interesting history. Absinthe was developed in the town of Couvet, in Switzerland, during the late eighteenth century by a French doctor who utilized it as an elixir or tonic for his patients. By 1805 the Absinthe recipes had got into the hands of Henri-Louis Pernod who started distilling it into his factory in Pontarlier in France.
Original Absinthe Recipes
Pernod’s Absinthe, Original Pernod Fils, was distilled from wine and was comprised of several natural herbs and essential oils from plants like grande wormwood, aniseed, melissa, fennel, lemon balm, dittany, angelica root, hyssop, star anise, nutmeg and juniper.
Various manufacturers of the Green Fairy (Absinthe’s nickname) made use of different recipes and ingredients. Other herbs employed in Absinthe production involved absinthe recipe calamus root, mint, cloves, nutmeg, roman wormwood, anise seed, coriander, sweet flag and licorice. The herb wormwood, Artimesia Absinthium, was always utilised in the creation of pre-ban Absinthe as it was the element that gave Absinthe its characteristic bitter taste, as well as its name.
Wormwood has got the chemical thujone that was thought to be just like THC in the drug cannabis. Thujone is psychoactive and could cause psychedelic effects when ingested in large quantities. Anise seed and fennel seed both contain anethole which is considered to be psychoactive and Angelica root is grown as being a drug in Lapland. Absinthe is a mysterious mix of sedatives and stimulants, no surprise that artists and writers such as Van Gogh and Oscar Wilde believed that it provided them their genius and determination! “A clear headed drunkenness” is how being drunk on Absinthe have been described.
Absinthe was notoriously forbidden in France in 1915 when Prohibitionists claimed that it would definitely ruin the country and send everyone insane. However, studies have shown that drinking Absinthe is simply as safe as drinking any of the other strong alcoholic drinks like whisky and vodka. Absinthe is primarily alcohol and just contains minute volumes of wormwood and the other herbs so, if consumed sparingly, is no real health risk.
Homemade Absinthe Recipes
There are lots of Absinthe recipes on the web using different herbs and different methods – steeping, filtering etc. but making Absinthe at home from plants, dried herbs or essential oils just isn’t to be encouraged. Why?
– Absinthe has to be distilled.
– You don’t have any manner of learning the thujone content of your finished Absinthe – a lttle bit risky.
It’s advisable to buy either a quality Absinthe, making sure that it has the vital ingredient wormwood, or to buy an Absinthe kit which comprises of Absinthe essences that have already been distilled.
You may even buy Absinthe in the USA now – Breaux’s label “Lucid” is legal in the USA.
AbsintheKit.com does great Absinthe kits which contain:-
– Absinthe essence – select from classic, white (which makes clear Swiss style Absinthe, Strong 55 (with a 55mg thujone content) and Orange (flavoured with orange oil).
– A measure.
– Artistic Labels to embellish your Absinthe bottles.
One bottle of essence could make 14 bottles of Absinthe!
To make Absinthe making use of these kits you merely mix 20ml of the Absinthe essence by using a neutral alcohol just like Everclear or vodka and that’s it – finished, your won bottle of Green Fairy.
Quick and easy to make use of and, since these essences are the very same as the ones sold to distilleries, you know that you are getting a secure, top-quality product.
Should you search online there are lots of cocktail Absinthe recipes such as Ernest Hemingway’s famous “Death in the Afternoon” – Absinthe and champagne. Get pleasure from finding and mixing your cocktails.