[HN Gopher] Absinthe: From green fairy to moral panic
___________________________________________________________________
Absinthe: From green fairy to moral panic
Author : prismatic
Score : 18 points
Date : 2024-12-15 04:08 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.historytoday.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.historytoday.com)
| tetris11 wrote:
| A 45-74% green Anise drink for anyone wondering
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe
|
| Gin is around 35-60%
| yawnxyz wrote:
| the article doesn't dig deeply enough into why specifically
| absinthe triggered the panic -- why not all anise drinks? What's
| specific about absinthe that's so psychedelic?
|
| If anything, tequila has way more of an effect on poor
| judgment...
| alephnerd wrote:
| > why specifically absinthe triggered the panic
|
| Classism and moral panic. In the 19th century, it was a poor
| man's liquor. Jean Lanfray's drunken murder suicide of his wife
| also played a massive role in that.
|
| This was also the era of a very active and prominent temperance
| movement, as women were often at the mercy of alcoholic
| husbands and had few options for legal recourse.
|
| You'll find similar temperance movements today in India,
| Thailand, Vietnam, and other developing countries.
|
| > If anything, tequila has way more of an effect on poor
| judgment
|
| Never understood that stereotype either. I love drinking Mezcal
| neat and that's basically aged and smokey Tequila (yes ik this
| is a massive simplification).
|
| The only poor judgement it induced was me spending a ridiculous
| amount on niche Mezcals plus the occasional trip to Oaxaca.
| kergonath wrote:
| > If anything, tequila has way more of an effect on poor
| judgment...
|
| Absinthe was around 70% abv. Much easier to overdose on alcohol
| than with 40-odd % tequila. It is although understood that
| there was a lot of adulterated absinthe around. And even in the
| presumably good stuff, the distillation techniques of the time
| left somewhat to be desired and the resulting drinks contained
| nasty chemicals (notably methanol).
|
| That said, I still think the moral panic was completely out of
| proportion and, as the article mentions, absinthe ended up
| being a convenient scapegoat. It is very similar to how gin was
| seen in England.
| hocuspocus wrote:
| That, and the French wine lobby.
|
| Funnily enough 110 years later, Pernod-Ricard is the #2
| spirits and liquors group in the world.
| schwartzworld wrote:
| > resulting drinks contained nasty chemicals (notably
| methanol).
|
| This is a popular myth for two reasons:
|
| - you can't make enough methanol to harm you through
| fermentation alone. Stories of methanol poisoning are more
| likely due to unscrupulous bootleggers adding it in.
|
| - you can't separate methanol from ethanol using fractional
| distillation. There are things that do fraction out, like
| fusel oils. Methanol isn't one of them.
|
| This means that the ratio of methanol to ethanol in the
| distilled drink will be pretty much the same as in the
| unfermented version. It is higher in ferments done with fruit
| skin, but not possible to actually harm yourself, especially
| in the presence of ethanol, which is used to treat methanol
| poisoning.
| polotics wrote:
| There you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thujone
| bitmasher9 wrote:
| > Once the expensive drink of the French bourgeoisie and artists,
| absinthe became more affordable in the second half of the 19th
| century, whereupon workers, women and those in the French
| colonies, from North Africa to Indochina, began drinking it.
|
| For a period of time Absinthe was the cheapest, strongest drink
| in France. Its bad reputation comes from that.
| rx_tx wrote:
| Gastropod is a great listen, and they did an absinthe episode,
| interesting history and details.
|
| https://gastropod.com/absinthe-the-worlds-most-dangerous-dri...
| TheGRS wrote:
| I remember when absinthe became legal to purchase in the US again
| and it seemed like it might become a cool drink to get drunk and
| maybe a little high from. I feel like it mostly got passed over
| though. The high from it seems like it was over-reported; I mean
| alternative ways to get high and drunk are pretty common these
| days, I don't think absinthe could really ever compete with
| edibles or whatever. The taste is fairly specific and I've only
| had a handful of cocktails that feature it well,
| gin/vodka/rum/whiskey are just better bases. In fact most
| cocktails I've seen it in usually have something else featured
| with absinthe meant to spruce up the taste and color a bit.
| schwartzworld wrote:
| The hallucinogenic effects of wormwood are pretty highly
| overstated. You'd get alcohol poisoning before you get there,
| at least with commercial absinthe. Can't say what it was like
| in Poe's time.
|
| I think the main reason it got passed over is that anise isn't
| popular with Americans. If you don't like ouzo or arak or raki
| or pastis, you're probably not going to love absinthe.
| jghn wrote:
| I'm convinced that even at that time the effects described
| were at best the product of getting drunk off of very high
| proof alcohol, and probably some opiates in their daily
| routine to boot.
| leetbulb wrote:
| I'll leave this here
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yO6iS5kFOc
| TheGRS wrote:
| Its true that anise is pretty unpopular. I grew up loving
| black licorice so its always been a nice treat to me, but the
| vast majority of people I know hate that taste and are pretty
| adamant about it.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-12-16 23:00 UTC)