Absinthe is Back and Barely Legal

Green leaves are disappearing, but green worms are starting to appear in bottles all over the Mid-Atlantic. Following a recent European trend, the United States approved the sale of Absinthe this summer.

Why now? A recent New York Times article found that The New Yorker discovered that a controversial ingredient called thujone, which was thought to cause hallucinogenic effects, did not "show up in significnant quanities in analyses of historical absinthe."

Absinthe varieties approved to sell in the United States contain real wormwood-drived thujones, but in a regulated amount by The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

Absinthe had been banned for so long, it's hallucinogenic effects have become legendary. Nineteeth century Western artists and writers like Van Gogh, Toulouse Lautrec, Paul Verlaine, Oscar Wilde and Hemingway, are fabled to have exhibited bizarre behavior, all documented in the online Absinthe Museum.

Two brands of Absinthe are available in select markets in the United States for about $60 a bottle, including Lucid, produced in Manhasset, New York, and Kübler, a Swiss bestseller distilled using a 1863 family formula. You can also try to make your own Absinthe, with instructions found at Greendevil.

The assistant manager of Pascale's Liquor Square in Syracuse says his store does not carry the green juice yet because the New York State Liquor Authority has only approved Absinthe retail sales in the New York City area. But you can order Lucid online from Shoppers Vineyard and have it delivered in time for the holidays to inspire a little green envy.

(inspiration for this entry: The Liquid Muse)