Curious about Absinthe

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My friend is a painter and she has been discussing buying Absinthe from the internet.

I went to you tube and watched a few videos and am still curious.

Has anybody here tried it or know anything about the drink?

Ya it looks and tastes like Windex, but that when you drink it straight up, the proper way to drink Absinthe is to use an absinthe fountain, that pours the alcohol over a sugar cube, into a glass with water, what you will see is what is commonly called the Green Fairy, which is the Absinthe precipitates that form with the water, the same thing you see with Pernod a liqueur that was made after Absinthe was outlawed. Give it a try, drinking Absinthe is more of a ritual, but its fun, you don't actually get high on it

Hi

One word of correction: an absinthe fountain is used to pour water into the absinthe. There are lots of other devices for doing this - drippers, small spout pitchers and so on. The idea is to get a constant and very slow trickle of iced water into the green liquid. Why? This releases the herbal oils held in suspension in the alcohol and creates the louche. The potency of absinthe is in these herbal oils. The most notorious herb (plant actually) used in absinthe manufacture is grande worwmood (artemisia absinthium) and that contains thujone.

Alcohol is a GABA agonist. It stimulates the production of this neurotransmitter which causes drowsiness and sleep. Thujone is a GABA antagonist. It prohibits alcohol from performing that part of it's function. Absinthe is therefore a type of 'speedball', it's chemical constituents at once promote the production of GABA and opens its receptors, while also closing those receptors off. This explains the green fairy effect that absinthe has, as oppossed to just normal drunkenness.

Absinthe sold in US stores must test thujone free or <10ppm thujone. The norm in Europe is around 35mg/l or in some cases 100mg like Century Absinthe You can easily buy them online but they do tend to rather expensive. The good news is you only need a little to experience the effect at a ratio of 1:4 with water and two glasses is quite enough...don't forget that this drink is very high proof alcohol

Well being a former alcholic in another lifetime. I went to a friend's friend's house, it was all extravagant and fancy looking so of course I wanted a drink.

I was told it was better to take it in small doses, but did I listen...no.

The effects I got were far worse than any strong alcohol I had. I got dizzy and could hardly coordinate my movements. No I didn't experience any creativity with it like I would with my choice of liquor but I did feel like I was hallucinating in some ways.

I'm not sure how to describe because it wasn't a strong form of hallucination. It just felt like things seemed unreal...don't know if that makes any sense.

Anyway, I had really bad seizures afterwards. Plus I had no idea the stuff was illegal. I think it's legal if you have it but not if you're caught having it imported. I guess it all depends on where you live.

Nevertheless, I never touched the stuff again and went back to my other liquor of choice. Happy to say I no longer drink. But I realize that some people don't have that problem with alcohol or drugs so......can't say for sure.

The taste of it made me want to gag.

MissConstrue, any idea which brand that was? Do not drink absinthe if you have problems with alcohol. This is a deceptive drink, and as it is cold and refreshing, you are not always aware of what you are putting away. It is much stronger than you think!

As far as legal to import: it is OK if you import it for personal consumption.

i've only had it straight up, and for a strong alcohol i didn't find it that bad. i'd like to try it the proper way sometime just to see.

there have been studies on it and i think most of them found the hallucinogenic properties to be negligible, and that you just get really drunk because it's stronger than most liquors.

the herbal business I sometime (but no longer regularly) work for has absinthe kits...

www.mazatecgarden.com

I have never tried absinthe made from these kits.

I did try absinthe one Halloween night at a party. It was homemade absinthe....I wound up puking and passed out in the yard behind a boat.....

I reccomend the very strong Liqueur...Chartreuse.....that stuff is mildly hallucenogenic.....

So drink Chartreuse...pretend it is Absinthe....you will get the crazy effects..they have a green fairy too..it just looks like a fat little monk.....(just kidding)

My husband got hold of some Fée Verte off the Internet, because he was curious. He worked his way through a bottle of the stuff, but only very occasionally, over about a couple of years - every so often he'd do the whole ritual with the spoon and sugar and what have you. He said he liked it, but not as a regular thing. I tried some and wasn't really keen on the taste. Then again, I'm not a huge drinker and I don't take alcohol well, so I wouldn't drink anything purely for the, um, effects.

I thought I'd heard that they now remove the substance in it that reputedly rotted the brains of some of France's greatest artists, but I'm not absolutely sure. I do know that absinthe and Red Bull is supposed to have been a lethal combination for a few people, but I believe they drank stupid amounts of it.

What exactly is absinthe?

I have tried it once overseas, it tastes like I'm guessing rubbing alcohol would taste.

yes... it looks like the thing I use to clean the bathroom. I hate it.

I have 66% proof bottle of some German label in my fridge that I acquired back in May to celebrate my birthday with that I honestly haven't touched for fear of a bad reaction. On the back there's a recipe for an absinthe and energy drink (Red Bull) mix which sounds unsafe.

Ooooooooohhhh, Absinthe .....

I bought some on the Interweb, it came in a ceramic bottle with a lovely minature Swiss flag. It was the straight stuff, I took a sip without diluting it first and almost choked. It was like straight alcohol with anise in it. Burned my lips and mouth, and all the way down ...
After that I was careful to dilute it with just enough water to get the milky louche. The high is not like liquor at all, I found myself clumsy and un-coordinated, but able to think straight. Very odd. Rather expensive. I looked it up and then looked over several websites before ordering. Never did tell the Missus about it. She likes strong drink, but it doesn't agree with her...

Important note: Where I live I can perfectly legally drink absinthe at age 20.

I'd love to drink absinthe. It a very strange interest, but I can explain that. I just want to try it once. I don't get drunk usually, alcohol has little effect on me. I read about absinthe by chance and now I'm just interested.

But it was also explained to me that about 80 to 90% of today's absinthe is mess compared to what they drank even back in the 19th century.

I tried to go through all kinds of local shops and they didn't have absinthe in any of them. I'm trying to find a specialised shop on alcohols and wines now and hope that I'll be lucky.

If I find it, I wonder if I can get any of my friends to try it. But it would be a real waste. They drink a lot to get drunk, which is something I cannot understand.

They're more into funny chemical modern stuff like anything mixed with red bull too. I must puke from energy drinks, so I'm not sharing that adoration.

'real' absinthe is illegal in the US, a remnant of a sympathy law based on a spasm of politically corrupt wineries in france following absinthe's rise during a few particularily bad drought years that killed the grapes- from back when we were allies against britain in the revolutionary war. Went down similar to how the cotton industry attacked pot- it was railed against because of it's fictitious "dangers" when in reality they were trying to kill hemp's viability as competition. Absinthe is about as harmful as pot- not very, especially compared to alcohol.

You can buy 'fake' absinthe made without wormwood but it's like comparing top-shelf vodka to rotgut. You get the gist but it's still nothing in comparison.