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absinthe

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does anyone know how i might go about getting my paws on a bottle of absinthe with at least 100mg/l of thujone? if not, what is the highest concentration formula available?

thanks for the help...

Hehe, I had my first absinth today, and I feel very reassured after your post Atratus, I was sure you weren't supposed to light the suger cubes and that it was supposed to go cloudy. As it turns out, it's a Czech cafe which serves Green Fairy brand. I feel reassured.

Absente has a very low thujone level, somewhere in the neighbourhood of 10mg/l if I remember right.

The highest concentration available is 35mg/l. Czech brands have higher content than French/Swiss/Spanish-style absinthes, but they taste like ass and don't louche (cloud when water is added). Historically fire is not used in preparing a glass absinthe, that is a very recently added  tradition coming from the marketing of the Czech brands, and even at that you are not burning the alcohol for long, but rather using the alcohol to get the sugar burning to carmelize it a bit before stirring it into the drink.

In the Belle Epoche absinthe was typically prepared by very slowly dripping water over a lump of sugar suspended over the drink on an absinthe spoon. The reaction of the water with the anise causes the drink to cloud or "louche". Contemporary research on surviving bottles of Belle Epoche area absinthe has show that the concentrations of thujone no higher than the modern brands.

Fact is, most of what is attributed to the wormwood and thujone is really the result of absinthe being considerably higher in alcohol content than most spirits. If you are looking for a beverage with notable side-effect kicks, try some real mezcal tequila or Agwa coca-leaf and guarana liqueur. Vermouth, for what it is worth, has as much thujone in it as any absinthe - the name itself is derived from the German word for wormwood. Absinthe, in reality, is an herbal liqueur and the secondary effects (after the fact that you are drinking something that is 40% to 75% alcohol, i.e. 80 to 150 proof) are a complex interaction of *all* the herbs involved. The complexity of the chemistry is such that individual reactions vary. I know lots of people that swear by another herbal liqueur, Jagermeister, whereas I'd rather have a railway spike lobotomy than get drunk of that stuff ever again for what it does to me.

When you order Absinthe from abroad, don't be surprised when they refuse to ship to Canada or you order gets nabbed by customs. The importing and shipping of alcohol is illegal in Canada.

To answer your other questions, the thujone is disolved in the alcohol. However, attempting to distill out the the thujone by freezing or other methods is foolish. For one you can buy wormwood essential oils so why wreck good booze in order to make a vial full of poison? As little as 10 mg straight up can kill a person, but when it is disolved in the a litre of 55% alcohol (anything less than 55%, BTW, can't keep the thujone from precipitating out of the solution), the booze will knock you out well before the toxicity of the thujone is a problem.

Sage has a higher concentration of thujone than wormwood. You're more likely to get high from turkey stuffing. Seriously.

All this being said, I am very fond of absinthe and there are three kinds and a nice pastis in my liquor cabinet at the moment. I prefer the traditional French preparation with a spash of grenadine (something called a Tomate).

so i just got myself a few of bottles, of absinthe... one is on route... i was wondering if anyone knows anything about absinthe... the questions i have are:

1. is the thujone disolved in the alcohol or the water?

2. if i burn off the alcohol, will i kill off the thujone?

3. if i freeze the the absinthe, (i'm talking about a sub zero freezer, -80 or -140) and pour off the still liquid alcohol, will the thujone be present in the frozen part, or the alcohol part?

the absinthe i have are as follows...

1. absente distributed by crillon 110 proof

2. absinth distributed by hill's 140 proof

3. absinth king of spirits gold 140 proof (on route)

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