Louche life

Thursday, 19th November 2009

Dave Broom rediscovers the ritual of absinthe

Let’s try some Vieux Pontarlier Francaise Superieure. Ahh! Such a louche! Creeping, swirling, opalescent. I’m getting obsessed. This slow transformation is happening because I’m now dripping water through a sugar cube suspended over the glass on a slotted spoon. Absinthe has its own paraphernalia! The sugar takes the bitter edge away allowing a lifted and herbal, spicy quality to rise along with camphor and moss. Is anything happening? Who cares. I’m happy staring into the glass.

That’ll be the thujone they say, the psychoactive chemical contained in wormwood. Well, thujone is psychoactive but only in large and I mean LARGE doses. In fact, there was less thujone in 19th century absinthe than in today’s and even now the levels are way below what the European Union has decreed is dangerous. In reality, the alcohol will get you long before the thujone does and if you dilute it 1:5 it’s no stronger than wine.

You see, absinthe is misunderstood. It started life as a medicinal tincture and would have remained a speciality from the France/Swiss border if it hadn’t been given as an anti-malarial drug to the French roops at the start of the 19th century. Back come the all-conquering troops, up go sales. Patriotism. Then it falls into the hands of bohemians such as Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Gaugin, vanGogh who spread their tales of how it promotes visions.

Why was it banned? It was cheap, so it was drunk by the poor, then there were these pesky anti-establishment artists. It was at its height as the temperance movement was gaining ground. A soft target, absinthe took the rap, just as gin had in 18th century London. In 1905 it was banned in Belgium, then Switzerland and Holland, the United States and, finally, France in 1915.

Now, it’s legal once more. Time for La Fee. The standard is a decent absinthe with quite high anise notes but XS Francaise has extra complexity and a subtle lingering louche. Things are getting woozy. Finally, I uncork the Fleurs du Mal, then look at the back label. It’s got colouring added! Yes there’s wormwood but there’s also lots of mint. I sip the jade liquid.

I like the borderline normality of it all, as if the best of these still have the wildness of the original elixir, I’m engaged but detached, I’m stretching for another glass, another sugar cube, another bottle. It’s seductive.

It’s... louche.

RETAILERS
Un Emil, Verte de Fougerolles and Vieux Pontarlier all available from Liqueurs de France: www.liqueursdefrance.com
La Fee from: www.thedrinkshop.com