Absinth

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nonicman

Slack Brewery
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I know this is not beer, but thought others should be warned. Saw a bottle of Absinth at the bottlo last night and couldn't resist. It is a Czech drink and the alcohol is either 60% or 70% (obj?) depending on whether you peel the sticker back or not.
It tastes nice, but is simply a strong drink that will leave you thinking a steel capped Scotsman is living in you head. As for any other effects? Well the bottle is pretty much empty and this poor suffering brain could not detect anything other than alcohol.

Myth Busted.
 
Actually the stuff in asbninth that made people trip out is no longer in modern asbinth.
 
I'd read that wormwood was removed, but people still claim it trips people out. A mate in Sydney swears that it works. I think not.
 
The only way to get the tujone(?) is to steep wormwood in alcohol.

Don't seem worth it to me, but I am no spirit drinker anyway

Jovial Monk
 
It is still available overseas with wormwood and there's a few places around Melbourne stocking Absinth with wormwood, although it's a little hush hush.
 
Hi all,
I dont want to be charged with hi jacking of a thread but I would like to tell you about what I learnt about wormwood.

I have a customer in my business who is in her 90's.
She is an active old thing and she still lives in the original farmhouse by herself and manages quite well.
Long story short, I went their a few years ago and she had a sheaf of wormwood bush tied up under the eaves (verandah) of her house.
I asked her about it and she claimed it stopped the bees taking up an old hive that was present in her roof void.
She made me a cuppa after I finished the job, and proceeded to tell me about wormwood.
Apparently there is quite a few varieties ( only one is a deterrent for bees) some of which were used extensively in various drinks and medicinal concoctions and she claimed that over indulgence can cause loss of faculties.
The wormwood in this country was brought here by english settlers (as she tells it) to be planted in the garden close to the settlers homes.
According to her, some varieties had an amazing effect in keeping parasites and fleas etc away from immediate areas such as chook runs etc. ( hence the bee treatment).
I bet someone on here will do a Google and raise some more interesting points or maybe even get back to tell us all that the old lady was talking crap.
I still see wormwood bushes at times around old farmhouses and I often wonder if the residents actually know the power and value of that herb.
As I said, sorry about the hi jack.
Cheers
 
Did the Google and found this article that gives a bit of history and uses for wormwood. Dicko it appears the old lady was onto something. Appears to be a very useful herb.

The plant was a useful strewing herb, the leaves and flowers also making a good insecticide. Hung up it will also help to stop flies coming in the house. It was also thought to be good at repelling evil spirits! It the Middle Ages, scribes added it to ink to help prevent mice eating their paper. Believed that if Wormwood was rubbed over a baby's hands before it was 12 weeks old it would never suffer extremes of hot or cold.

Wormwood had other uses throughout history. Medieval medicine used it as an antidote to Hemlock and Toadstool poisoning, and it was placed among furs to deter moths and fleas. It has also been rubbed on the head in infusion form to help reduce hairloss (I don't know how effective this is though!) and has been used as a hair dye. The plant also yields a yellow dye. Alleged the plant will also ward off plague.

http://www.englishplants.co.uk/wormwood.html

edit: actually thats a poorly written text. The following site is a lot more informative, and I quote from the site FAQ, appears wormwood is in Absinth.

La Fee Verte

15. Will absinthe make me trip?

No, it will not.

It's easy to find, on the internet, descriptions of alleged absinthe "trips". They were either written by idiots, or the substance upon which the describers tripped was something other than absinthe, or both. There are no psychoactive (in the sense of LSD, THC, etc.) ingredients in absinthe. Absinthe will not make you fail a drug test, either, unless the test is designed to find the ingredients in absinthe, all of which are legal substances. If absinthe makes you fail a drug test due to false positives for illegal substances, your problem is not absinthe, but an incompetent drug tester. Yes, you can find glorious descriptions of absinthe highs in 19th century literature. They're largely so much flowery hot air, written by poets. Poets tend to exaggerate things. There are odes to the divine attributes of whisky and beer. There are thousands of poems about wine. You get the point.

16. Then why drink absinthe at all?

Because it's a delicious, refreshing drink.
Because it's fun to watch it change color.
Because you can't get it at your neighborhood bar and you want to be exclusive.
Because you want to pretend you're Toulouse Lautrec (although it won't make you paint any better).

All kidding aside, some people claim to experience "secondary effects" from absinthe. By secondary, they mean effects apart from those due to the alcohol. Not all people claim to experience these effects, but those who do say that absinthe produces a markedly clear-headed drunkenness. It has to be experienced to be understood. It's subtle; it's NOT like being hit by lightning or anything. Other people say absinthe enhances their dreams. Many absinthe drinkers report no effects other than those youd expect from any high proof liquor.
 
nonicman said:
It tastes nice, but is simply a strong drink that will leave you thinking a steel capped Scotsman is living in you head.
[post="62358"][/post]​

And..... there is a problem with this ;)

Actually I quite like it as a little digestif, heavily diluted with water.

If I want to get drunk though, I tend to stick to the barley. Singe malt, no hops :super:
 
My vote for an 'unusual' drunkenness is Thailand's Sang Thip whisky. No hangover and a very bizarre high. Don't think you can get it here.

Edit - just found this review on the net:
Sang Thip is lethal stuff, and contains (according to rumour and hearsay I picked up) ampethamines, formaldehyde and God alone knows what else amongst the massive levels of alcohol designed to turn the human brain to cheese. It tastes not all that bad to be honest, and does have the amusing tendency to get you drunk from the feet up.
 
Steering this thread even further off track....Does anyone know if you can purchase buckfast in Australia?

BTW I have tried absinth and it did nothing out of the ordinary for me. :blink:
 
Well I didn't realise the total history in wormwood, it is like your first beer appreciation trip to a place like the BelgianBeer Cafe.

I bet when that dear old sole was telling me about wormwood she was looking at my nearly bald head and thinking "rub a bit on there son" or dont turn up here to do a job if you are under the influence of "wormwood" :D while I was having my tea and scones with jam and cream.

At times I love working in areas that time has forgotten :)

Cheers
 
Wormwood a strewing herb eh?

I have 2 tansy plants close to the back door, also a strewing herb, and those plants sure help keep down the number of flies!

JM
 
From what i have read, a lot of people believe it was the other ingredients such as copper sulphate that the asbinth makers added that cause the famed hallucinagenic effects.
 
There are plenty of good sites out there on the
current absinthe craze.
It is just a high alcohol bitter liqeuer.
I like the stuff but use the Prestige Absinthe essence
to make it at home. I quite like the essence.
 
My mate brought me back a bottle of "Hapsburg" Absinthe from Europe.

Its a whopping 89.9% and it gave a cracker of a headache.

It claims to have the highest amount of wormwood allowed (by the EU? i think)

But i'm pretty sure you'll be passing out before any hallucinogenic properties kick in.
 
im a chemistry student and i can tell you this... copper sulphate is not hallucinagenic. ever had a trip from drinking water from the copper garden tap or some home brews that were made in a brewery with copper tubing? most likely not
 

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