The precise origin of absinthe is unclear. The medical use of wormwood dates back to ancient Egypt, and is mentioned in the Ebers Papyrus, c. 1550 BC. Wormwood extracts and wine-soaked wormwood leaves were used as remedies by the ancient Greeks. Moreover, there is evidence of the existence of a wormwood-flavoured wine, absinthites oinos, in ancient Greece.
The first clear evidence of absinthe in the modern sense of a distilled spirit containing green anise and fennel, however, dates to the 18th century. According to popular legend, absinthe began as an all-purpose patent remedy created by Dr. Pierre Ordinaire, a French doctor living in Couvet, Switzerland, around 1792 (the exact date varies by account). Ordinaire's recipe was passed on to the Henriod sisters of Couvet, who sold absinthe as a medicinal elixir. By other accounts, the Henriod sisters may have been making the elixir before Ordinaire's arrival. In either case, a certain Major Dubied acquired the formula from the sisters and in 1797, and with his son Marcellin and son-in-law Henry-Louis Pernod, opened the first absinthe distillery, Dubied Père et Fils, in Couvet. In 1805, they built a second distillery in Pontarlier, France, under the new company name Maison Pernod Fils. Pernod Fils remained one of the most popular brands of absinthe up until the drink was banned in France in 1914.
Rapid growth of French consumption
Absinthe's popularity grew steadily through the 1840s, when absinthe was given to French troops as a malaria preventive. When the troops returned home, they brought their taste for absinthe home with them. The custom of drinking absinthe gradually became so popular in bars, bistros, cafés, and cabarets that, by the 1860s, the hour of 5 p.m. was called l'heure verte ("the green hour"). Absinthe was favoured by all social classes, from the wealthy bourgeoisie, to poor artists and ordinary working-class people. By the 1880s, mass production had caused the price of absinthe to drop sharply. By 1910, the French were drinking 36 million litres of absinthe per year, as compared to their annual consumption of almost 5 billion litres of wine.
International consumption
Absinthe was exported widely from its native France and Switzerland, and attained some degree of popularity in other countries, including Spain, Great Britain, USA, and the Czech Republic. Absinthe was never banned in Spain or Portugal, and its production and consumption have never ceased. It gained a temporary spike in popularity there during the early 20th century, corresponding with the French influenced Art Nouveau and Modernism aesthetic movements.
New Orleans has a profound cultural association with absinthe, and is credited as the birthplace of the Sazerac, perhaps the earliest absinthe cocktail. The Old Absinthe House bar, located on Bourbon Street, sold absinthe since the first half of the 19th century. Its Catalan lease-holder, Cayetano Ferrer, named it the Absinthe Room in 1874 because of the popularity of the drink, which was served in the Parisian style. The building was frequented by many famous people, including Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Franklin Roosevelt, Aleister Crowley and Frank Sinatra.
Absinthe has been consumed in the Czech countries (then part of Austria-Hungary) since at least 1888, notably by Czech artists, some of whom had an affinity for Paris, frequenting Prague's famous Café Slavia. Its wider appeal in Bohemia itself is uncertain, though it was sold in and around Prague. It is claimed that at least one local liquor distillery in Bohemia was producing absinthe at the turn of the 20th century.
Bans
Spurred by fabricated claims and smear campaigns orchestrated by the temperance movement and the wine industry, absinthe soon became publicly associated with violent crimes and social disorder.
One critic claimed:
Edgar Degas's 1876 painting L'Absinthe, which can be seen at the Musée d'Orsay, epitomised the popular view of absinthe addicts as sodden and benumbed. Although Émile Zola mentioned absinthe only once by name, he described its effects in his novel L'Assommoir.
In 1905, it was reported that Jean Lanfray, a Swiss farmer, murdered his family and attempted to take his own life after drinking absinthe. The fact that Lanfray was an alcoholic who had consumed considerable quantities of wine and brandy prior to drinking two glasses of absinthe was overlooked or ignored, therefore placing the blame for the murders solely on absinthe. The Lanfray murders were the tipping point in this hotly debated topic, and a subsequent petition to ban absinthe in Switzerland collected more than 82,000 signatures. A referendum was subsequently held on banning the drink on 5 July 1908. After it was approved by voters, the prohibition of absinthe was then written into the Swiss constitution.
In 1906, both Belgium and Brazil banned the sale and distribution of absinthe, although these were not the first countries to take such action. Absinthe had been banned as early as 1898 in the colony of the Congo Free State. The Netherlands banned absinthe in 1909, Switzerland in 1910,[28] the United States in 1912, and France in 1914.
The prohibition of absinthe in France would eventually lead to the popularity of pastis, and to a lesser extent, ouzo, and other anise-flavoured spirits that do not contain wormwood. Following the conclusion of the First World War, production of the Pernod Fils brand was resumed at the Banus distillery in Catalonia, Spain (where absinthe was still legal), but gradually declining sales saw the cessation of production in the 1960s. In Switzerland, the ban served only to drive the production of absinthe underground. Clandestine home distillers produced colourless absinthe (la Bleue), which was easier to conceal from the authorities. Many countries never banned absinthe, notably Britain, where it had never been as popular as in continental Europe.
Modern revival
In the 1990s, realising the UK had never formally banned absinthe, British importer BBH Spirits began to import Hill's Absinth from the Czech Republic, which sparked a modern resurgence in absinthe's popularity. In countries where absinthe was never banned or truly popular, absinthe began to reappear during the revival in the 1990s.
Absinthes available during that time consisted almost exclusively of Czech, Spanish, and Portuguese brands that were of recent origin, typically consisting of Bohemian-style products. Absinthe connoisseurs considered these of inferior quality and not representative of the 19th century spirit.
In 2000, La Fée Absinthe became the first commercial absinthe distilled and bottled in France since the 1914 ban. Originally produced for export, it is now one of dozens of French absinthes that are produced and sold within France.
In the Netherlands, the restrictions on the manufacture and sale of absinthe were successfully challenged by the Amsterdam wine seller, Menno Boorsma, in July 2004, thus confirming the legality of absinthe once again. Similarly, Belgium lifted its longstanding absinthe ban on January 1, 2005, citing a conflict with the adopted food and beverage regulations of the Single European Market. In Switzerland, the constitutional ban on absinthe was repealed in 2000 during an overhaul of the national constitution, although the prohibition was simultaneously rewritten into ordinary law instead. That law was later repealed such that as of March 1, 2005, absinthe was made again legal in its country of origin. Absinthe is once again distilled and sold in its Val-de-Travers birthplace, with Kübler and La Clandestine Absintheamong the first new brands to emerge.
While the drink was never officially banned in Spain, it began to fall out of favour in the 1940s, and almost vanished into obscurity. The Catalan region has seen significant resurgence since 2007, when one producer established operations there.
Absinthe has never been illegal to import or manufacture in Australia. Importation requires a permit under the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulation 1956 due to a restriction on importing any product containing "oil of wormwood". In 2000, an amendment proposed by Foods Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) as part of a new consolidation of the Food Code across Australia and New Zealand, made all wormwood species prohibited herbs for food purposes under Food Standard 1.4.4. Prohibited and Restricted Plants and Fungi. However, this amendment was found inconsistent with other parts of the preexisting Food Code. The proposed amendment was withdrawn in 2002 during the transition between the two codes, thereby continuing to allow absinthe manufacture and importation through the existing permit-based system. These events were erroneously reported by the media as Australia having reclassified it from a prohibited product to a restricted product. Since this clarification was made, what is claimed to be the first Australian-produced brand of absinthe (Moulin Rooz) was released in 2007.
In 2007, the French Lucid brand became the first genuine absinthe to receive a COLA (Certificate of Label Approval) for importation into the United States since 1912, following independent efforts by representatives from Lucid and Kübler to overturn the long-standing US ban. In December 2007, St. George Absinthe Verte, produced by St. George Spirits of Alameda, California, became the first brand of American-made absinthe produced in the United States since the ban. Since that time, other micro-distilleries have started producing small batch artisanal absinthes in the US.
The 21st century has seen new modalities for absinthe, including various frozen preparations, which have become increasingly popular.
In May 2011, the French Absinthe Ban of 1915 was repealed following petitions by the Fédération Française des Spiritueux, who represent French distillers.
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