Absinthe legal once again in the US!!

[riguy4tglady]

http://cocktails.about.com/b/2007/11/24/the-comeback-of-absinthe.htm

Once this made the news last week here in the northeast the bottles flew off the shelves...

I've seen good reviews of Kubler here & there online and very curious to try.

Has anyone given it a try yet?

[irvin66]

It aint real Absinthe :!:

[Night Rider]

Has anyone given it a try yet?

warning :stop do not drink if you have to visit your gf's family.....I've warned you

[Ecstatic]

It aint real Absinthe :!:

That's a matter of definition: Lucid is made with real wormwood and is thereford real absinthe. However, when Ted Beraux reverse engineered the absinthe of the 19th c, he reduced the amount of thujone (the hallucinogenic--and potentially poisonous--ingredient) to a minimal amount. Thus some purists claim it isn't absinthe, others that it is.

I have not tried it, but once 30-odd years ago I had some smuggled into the US which I was told was the real deal. I didn't really care for it one way or the other.

[Dino Velvet]

Anybody know how much a bottle of this Kübler Absinthe runs and where in Los Angeles you can buy it? I guess it's wishful thinking that I can just swing over to my neighborhood Ralph's or Trader Joe's to pick one up, or is it?

[cantona5]

absinthe is rank. sends you loopy. well does me anyway. and i don't mean it in a good way. didn't realise it wasn't legal in the US - it's all over europe but i don't touch it anymore since some bad experience on it!

[Dino Velvet]

absinthe is rank. sends you loopy. well does me anyway. and i don't mean it in a good way. didn't realise it wasn't legal in the US - it's all over europe but i don't touch it anymore since some bad experience on it!

I guess it's not something you can guzzle like Jack Daniels.

[trish]

traditionally one dilute it until it's the same proof as wine (about 1 part absinthe to 4 or 5 parts water). a shot of absinthe is poured into the bottom of a clear tall glass and a slotted spoon is balance over the mouth of the glass. a sugar cube is placed on the spoon. iced water is poured over the sugar into the glass until the proportions are right. though the absinthe is clear and green, the prepared drink is a light cloudy green. never had it myself. it only just became legal in the U.S. i'm looking forward to giving it a taste though. thanks riguy4tglady for the product referals. anyone recommend one over the other, kubler or lucid?

[vegasboy]

I've had it, it's strong. I had a few shots straight up. Didn't notice any particular hallucinogenic effect, other than being just plain smashed. But I read ecstatic's post cause I always wondered if there was some sort of special additive that made people say it was hallucinogenic.

But it scorched my throat a bit and I was smashed :D .

[Ecstatic]

Some useful info:

The distinctive herb in absinthe is grand wormwood (Artemesia absinthium),
and the chemical name for the principle active ingredient in wormwood is
thujone. Thujone is a terpene and is related to menthol, which is known for its
healing and restorative qualities. In its chemically pure form, it is a colourless
liquid with a menthol-like aroma. Oil of Artemesia absinthium (or wormwood oil
as it's usually called) is approximately 40-60% thujone.

Thujone – pronounced "thoo-jone" with a soft 'J' – is a naturally occurring
substance, also found in the bark of the thuja, or white cedar, tree, and in other
herbs besides wormwood - including tansy and the comon sage used in
cooking. Aside from absinthe, other popular liquors, including vermouth,
Chartreuse, and Benedictine, also contain small amounts of thujone. In fact,
vermouth, which was originally made using the flower heads from the wormwood
plant, takes its name from the German "wermut" ("wormwood").

Extremely high doses of thujone are dangerous, and have been shown to
cause convulsions in laboratory animals, but the concentration of thujone
actually found in absinthe is many thousands of times lower than this.

Thujone's mechanism of action on the brain is not fully understood although
certain structural similarities between thujone and tetrahydrocannabinol (the
active component in marijuana) led to some speculation in the 1970's that both
substances have the same site of action in the brain. Doubt was cast on this
hypothesis almost immediately, and more recent scientific research has
completely discredited this idea.

AND:

Since absinthe is 55% - 72% alcohol, the alcohol's effects will in any event limit the amount of thujone
you can ingest. Most modern “legal” absinthes, in keeping with EU regulations,
contains less than 10mg of thujone per litre, and recent research has shown
that pre-ban Pernod Fils, contrary to ill-informed speculation by several
authors, including Strang and Arnold in a widely quoted 1999 British Medical
Journal article, also had relatively low thujone levels.

More can be found at http://www.thujone.info/

Also check out http://www.absinthefever.com/thujone

[Coroner]

Absinthe has always been legal in Spain and Portugal but was forbidden in Germany until 1981. The law wasn´t that strict against Absinthe anymore and it´s totally legal since January 29th 1998 in the EU but with a specific dose of Thujone. I didn´t drink it for a long time but had 3 bottles at home last summer. :lol: