http://www.vintageabsinthe.com/ The guy behind that is Ted Breaux. He's the chemist who was on Attack of the Show a few weeks back. Real absinthe almost dissappeared, but he's been working with vintage bottles of the real stuff to figure out the real deal. http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/episodes/5060/Robert_Knepper_Ted_Breaux.html There's a video there, just scroll down to a link on the left called "The Absinthe Chemist." Watch the vid to see what Abinthe really looks like and how to serve it.
Agree with other posters who said that you have to be selective in what absinthe you sample. Last year while I was in Prague, for instance, I tried an "absinthe" that was just a strong alcoholic drink. A decent buzz, but nothing else. In Budapest, however, I had some of the real deal, and it's a VERY different experience: your mouth goes numb, and you very quickly feel the effects. The buzz is different that alcohol, more euphoric, but you maintain a great degree of control. I would recommend trying it once, but I wouldn't drink it habitually. Besides the fact that it's long term effects are unknown, I woke up with a MONSTER hangover the next day, and I'm no lightweight when it comes to adult beverages. As for where to get it: I'm sure you can order it online. The problems are: 1.) How to insure you're receiving a quality product and 2.) How to get it into the U.S., since it is a banned substance. This site may help: http://www.absinthebuyersguide.com/
I went to Prague last year and I had some there...don't remember anything that night after it touched my lips. I bought a few small bottles home to Texas and tried it again with some friends. I also didn't remember anything that happened after it touched my lips. I still have some left under my bathroom sink and I refuse to touch it. It is so potent and smells so bad. Beware when playing with this stuff!
Absinthe is some nasty stuff. It burns like hell going down, and left me with a nasty sore throat the last time that I took it. Other than dilating your eyes a little bit, it doesn't do much except make lights look really cool.
i had some a few years ago after a friend's friend brought some back from europe. i honestly couldn't tell you if it was the real deal or not, but we did the whole sugar filter technique and what not. stuff tasted absolutely awful, basically a 140 proof licorice shot. i didn't feel much of the effects, but i only took one shot.... i couldn't do anymore, the taste practically made me gag and stayed in my mouth for hours, but my friend took several shots and he was definitely out of it. he was acting giddy and kinda spacing out. i would like to try it again so i could experience the real effects.
I've never tried it either, but in that video I posted, you saw how easily it went down and Breux said it is surprisingly smooth. So my guess is that if you have tried Absinthe and it was horrible, it was probably wasn't the real deal. I think he said that absinthe from europe that most people buy is vodka, herbs, and green dye.
We made friends with this really nice family on our honeymoon. On our stopover in Belize, the Dad apparently tried some. He was certainly loopy the rest of that day and I was jealous that I didn't go with him.
You guys are talking very openly about something that is careless to use. The long term affects of this stuff is unknown and this stuff will more than likely fry your brain.
it didn't seem like anyone was an addict to it. most ppl's replies have been "i tried it one time..." so it's not like we do it all the time. twice in my life is plenty and i'll never do it again. but yes, take with caution...it can be very potent.
Lay off the lifestyle moralizing, dude. You've done this in a couple of threads already today. Few things in life are more annoying than someone trying to tell others how to live, the "I don't do this and if you do you're ignorant/unhealthy/doomed/unhappy/whatever attitude. Responsible adults are perfectly capable of making decisions for themselves. "[M]ore than likely fry your brain"? Ridiculous.
A little defensive today huh? If you're an adult, do what you wish, but kids could be reading this and everyone's putting in their 2 cents about "how cool this drug is" or whatever. Go read my post again, I said you guys are being careless about the way you "openly" talk about this substance, not that you are being careless by taking it. So **** off.
Long term effects? It has been around for hundreds of years. It is about as bad for you as alcohol. So, yeah, it is not good for you, but it won't fry your brain. Once again, it seems what (very) little you know comes from the movies or some other fantastical source. As has been mentioned, if you try absinthe and it is nasty, then you have some kind of knockoff. Unless you really hate anise, the real stuff should not be disgusting. Also, it sounds as if rubytuesday had something else. Absinthe should not make you black out like that unless you drank a huge amount.
Kids could be reading this. Not only will they be fat assed drug users, they'll be profane and rooting for admitted adulterers to boot!
Don't take the the wrong way, because I don't agree or disagree with you, but don't you think you should write the G4 channel about this too? They are pretty kid-oriented (video games). This is an interesting thread, so let's keep it out of the hole that is D&D, please? Anyway, I've been curious about this stuff for a long time. My experimental days are all but done, but I would definately try it. I have a German friend who is going for a visit home in April, and he is going to buy me some.
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=7486 Definition of Wormwood Wormwood: The essence of absinthe, an emerald-green liqueur flavored with extracts of the wormwood plant, licorice and aromatic flavorings in a alcohol base. Absinthe was manufactured, commercialized and popularized in France in the late 1700s by Henri-Louis Pernod. It became an extremely popular and addictive drink. Among the famous figures who made absinthe a symbol of decadence were the writer Oscar Wilde, the poet Charles Baudelaire, and the artists Edouard Manet, Vincent Van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Pablo Picasso. The first important medical research on absinthe was initiated in 1864 by a psychiatrist, Valentin Jacques Joseph Magnan, who exposed a veritable Noah's arkful of animals to wormwood oil and alcohol. He put cats, rabbits, and guinea pigs under an individual glass case next to a saucer of either wormwood oil or alcohol. The animals that breathed the alcohol fumes became drunk while those that inhaled the vapors of wormwood had epileptic seizures, reported Dr. Magnan in the medical journal The Lancet. Prolonged drinking of absinthe causes convulsions, blindness, hallucinations, and mental deterioration. Absinthe has been banned but something of its taste is still available in such drinks as ouzo in Greece and in France, pastis, long considered "the mother's milk of Provence." Drink up! Idiots.
Please tell me you know the definition of prolonged? And we expect an apology for your profanity. It's not for us, it's for the children.
