absinthe dreams

Absinthe was the drink of choice among artist and writers in the mid to late19th century. It inspired poets and appeared in works by Pablo Picasso and Vincent Van Gogh. It was drank by the scandalous playwright Oscar Wilde, the eccentric Toulouse-Lautrec, the poets Charles Baudelaire and Edgar Allen Poe, and the famous 20th century author Ernest Hemingway, just to mention a few.

By the end of the 19th century, the use of absinthe was widespread, and in France, it was as popular as wine. In the cafés of Paris, the cocktail hour bacame known as "L'Heure Verte", the Green Hour.

As its popularity grew, so did public hysteria over its mysterious effects. Absinthe was the subject of many studies into alcoholism, at the time it was referred to as Absinthism. Its use was even considered a ticket to the insane asylum. In August 1905, Jean Lanfray, a Swiss farmer and known absinthe drinker, shot his entire family. The story made headlines around Europe, proclaiming that he was under the influence of absinthe, and ignored the fact that he had consumed several bottles of wine and other spirits during the course of his day. Absinthe was eventually banned in many countries around the world. Commercial production in Switzerland ended around 1910, and in 1914 for France. The Pernod plant (pictured below) at Pontarlier in France was sold in 1917 after 110 years of production.

According to history, or perhaps myth, the elixir of wormwood was orginally developed by Dr. Pierre Ordinaire in 1789. He was a French doctor who was living in the Suisse town of Couvet, in the Canton of Neuchâtel. The doctor was in self-exile due to political reasons from the Franche-Comté region. It was said that he discovered the plant wormwood (Artemisia Absinthium) while traveling in the Val-de-Travers. He mixed wormwood and other herbs with alcohol to create his 136 proof elixir, which he employed in his treatment of the sick and retched. After many claims of miraculous healing powers, it became a panacea or cure-all. It was eventually nicknamed, "la Fée Verte", which means the Green Fairy.


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