Absinthe Recipes

Absinthe has an interesting history. Absinthe was developed in the area of Couvet, in Switzerland, in the late eighteenth century by a French doctor who utilised 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 within his factory in Pontarlier in France.

Unique Absinthe Recipes

Pernod’s Absinthe, Original Pernod Fils, was distilled from wine and contained 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.

Different manufacturers of the Green Fairy (Absinthe’s nickname) made use of different recipes and ingredients. Other herbs employed in Absinthe production included calamus root, mint, cloves, nutmeg, roman wormwood, anise seed, coriander, sweet flag and licorice. The herb wormwood, Artimesia Absinthium, was always used in absinthe-recipe the creation of pre-ban Absinthe as it was the element that gave Absinthe its typical bitter taste, along with its name.

Wormwood contains the chemical thujone which was considered to be much like THC in the drug cannabis. Thujone is psychoactive and can easily cause psychedelic effects when used in big amounts. Anise seed and fennel seed both contain anethole that’s reported to be psychoactive and Angelica root is grown as being a drug in Lapland. Absinthe is a strange mix of sedatives and stimulants, no wonder that artists and writers similar to Van Gogh and Oscar Wilde reported that it provided them their genius and creativity! “A clear headed drunkenness” is how being drunk on Absinthe has long been referred to.

Absinthe was famously forbidden in France in 1915 when Prohibitionists claimed that it would ruin the country and send everyone insane. However, studies show that drinking Absinthe is just as safe as drinking any of the other strong alcoholic drinks just like whisky and vodka. Absinthe is mainly alcohol and only contains small amounts of wormwood and the other herbs so, if consumed in moderation, isn’t real hazard to health.

Homemade Absinthe Recipes

There are several Absinthe recipes over the internet using different herbs and various methods – steeping, filtering etc. but making Absinthe in your own home from plants, dried herbs or essential oils is not to be proposed. Why?
– Absinthe should be distilled.
– You have no means of understanding the thujone content of your finished Absinthe – a little risky.

It’s much better to buy either a high quality Absinthe, ensuring that it has the vital ingredient wormwood, or to buy an Absinthe kit which is made up of Absinthe essences which have previously been distilled.

You can also buy Absinthe in the United States now – Breaux’s label “Lucid” is legal in the USA.

AbsintheKit.com does excellent Absinthe kits which include:-

– Absinthe essence – pick from classic, white (which makes clear Swiss style Absinthe, Strong 55 (with a 55mg thujone content) and Orange (flavored with orange oil).
– A measure.
– Artistic Labels to embellish your Absinthe bottles.

One bottle of essence will make 14 bottles of Absinthe!

To produce Absinthe making use of these kits you merely mix 20ml of the Absinthe essence using a neutral alcohol like Everclear or vodka and that’s it – finished, your won bottle of Green Fairy.

Simple and easy to use and, since these essences are the very same as the ones sold to distilleries, you already know that you are receiving a secure, top-quality product.

In the event you search on the internet there are lots of cocktail Absinthe recipes like Ernest Hemingway’s famous “Death in the Afternoon” – Absinthe and champagne. Take pleasure in discovering and mixing your cocktails.