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Article about Absinthe
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 2:01 pm
by shiznit
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.1 ... topic_set=
The new absinthes became popular among hipsters, just as the drink had been 125 years before. But now the presence of thujone was a selling point. Marilyn Manson boasted of recording an album while "on" absinthe. Johnny Depp compared its effects to marijuana. "Drink too much," he said, "and you suddenly realize why Van Gogh cut off his ear."
This wasn't just idle celebrity conjecture. In a 1989 Scientific American article, an American biochemist named Wilfred Arnold hypothesized that Van Gogh's insanity (acute intermittent porphyria, he speculated) was caused by the thujone in absinthe. Based on the description of raw materials used to make the liqueur, Arnold calculated that the thujone content was a dangerous 250 parts per million. "I would advise not drinking it," he says.
Breaux rejects Arnold's methodology. "He didn't take the effects of the distillation process into account," Breaux says. "He made a WAG - a wild-assed guess." Breaux wanted to settle the thujone question once and for all. And he was uniquely positioned to do so. "Back when the original was around, they didn't have any decent analytical chemistry. And when Arnold performed his research, he didn't have any samples of the original liqueur. I have both," he says.
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 2:58 pm
by Grudge
how goth
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 3:24 pm
by Ryoki
Distilled liquid
with secret ingredient
brain fever for all!
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 3:25 pm
by MKJ
its also quite overrated, it would not suprise me if 80% of the effects are psycosomatic
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 4:20 pm
by Giraffe }{unter
Some info
You can own in the us, but not sell it
you can order it, but take the chance it will be confiscated in custioms
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 4:38 pm
by losCHUNK
or you could go to la bamba and ask for a shot of absinthe
or for the lightweights, try petrol
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 5:23 pm
by shiznit
Most people have the idea that it’s this crazy green forbidden drink that gives you hallucinations (remember in EuroTrip?) When in reality it’s just alcoholic drink and should not have been forbidden in the first place.
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 6:23 pm
by [xeno]Julios
nice article - cleared up a few questions i had on the substance.
here's a bit of info from the article:
"It's like an herbal speedball," he says. "Some of the compounds are excitatory, some are sedative. That's the real reason artists liked it. Drink two or three glasses and you can feel the effects of the alcohol, but your mind stays clear - you can still work."
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 6:45 pm
by bitWISE
shiznit wrote:Most people have the idea that it’s this crazy green forbidden drink that gives you hallucinations (remember in EuroTrip?) When in reality it’s just alcoholic drink and should not have been forbidden in the first place.
'Fake' absinthe is legal in the US. Any drink containing thujone is not. If you're only looking for an alcoholic drink get the knockoff stuff. Otherwise, you will need to import a bottle of some strong shit (30-35mg of thujone). Too much thujone can cause brain damage so you gotta be careful.
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 6:57 pm
by Guest
Bitwise is right, most people have the knock off with no thujone, or not enough of it - that won't make you hallucinate.
Knock off:
http://www.originalabsinthe.com/absinth ... -p-57.html
Good stuff:
http://www.originalabsinthe.com/absinth ... -p-56.html
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 7:13 pm
by bitWISE
Damn thats some hardcore stuff! I think I'm gunna get a bottle of this shit for my first time (mainly because its affordable and semi strong):
http://www.alandia.de/absinth/product_i ... cts_id/330
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 8:10 pm
by shiznit
Yeah but even the real stuff doesn't make you hallucinate, did you not read the article?
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 8:13 pm
by bitWISE
shiznit wrote:Yeah but even the real stuff doesn't make you hallucinate, did you not read the article?
Nope
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:58 pm
by Guest
Yeah, that's a good deal actually...I would go for it, but I'm living at the university in the dorms, and when they hear a glass bottle, they'll open the package up. originalabsinthe.com packages it in a way where they don't hear it or know what it is.
I just wouldn't want to shell out the money for the absinthe and the shipping to the US to get caught and not be able to have it.
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 10:38 pm
by andyman
My freind has a bottle of 100%, and my other freind has a bottle of 15%.
They both taste like black licorice and the taste is shit.
Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:13 am
by Guest
That's why you buy an absinthe spoon and use sugar and water. Just play around it with it the first time until you find a combination of how much sugar and water you like.
The stuff I linked to earlier with 100 mg/kg of thujone, you only need one drink, maybe two.
Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 1:15 am
by bitWISE
andyman wrote:My freind has a bottle of 100%, and my other freind has a bottle of 15%.
They both taste like black licorice and the taste is shit.
They have different flavors. The non-asine stuff is supposedly really good.
ctrlnuke wrote:I just wouldn't want to shell out the money for the absinthe and the shipping to the US to get caught and not be able to have it.
That's what I'm afraid of.