Facts about Absinthe
- 09
Pontarlier, a French town near the Swiss border, produced approximately 90 percent of the world's absinthe supply during the nineteenth century before the 1915 ban devastated its distillery-dependent economy.
- 08
Absintheurs in Belle Époque Paris consumed roughly 36 million liters annually by 1910, making it the fifth-most popular beverage in France after wine, beer, cider, and coffee.
- 07
Vincent van Gogh consumed absinthe regularly during his time in Paris from 1886 to 1888, and art historians debate whether the drink's thujone content influenced his vivid, swirling painting style.
- 06
The Pre-Raphaelite painter Marie Bracquemond and Impressionist Edgar Degas both depicted absinthe drinkers in their 1876 paintings, immortalizing the drink's cultural grip on Parisian bohemian society.
- 05
Pernod Fils, a competing anise-based liqueur, capitalized on absinthe's 1915 French ban to become the dominant substitute for working-class drinkers throughout the twentieth century.
- 04
Absinthe bottles typically displayed alcohol content between 45 and 74 percent ABV, making it significantly stronger than most spirits consumed in nineteenth-century Europe.
- 03
Nineteenth-century Parisian cafés called absinthe the Green Fairy, and the ritual of preparing it with a special spoon and cold water poured over a sugar cube became a celebrated social ceremony among artists and intellectuals.
- 02
Swiss distillers in the 1990s revived absinthe production after the 1915 French ban, using lower thujone concentrations to comply with modern EU regulations of 35 milligrams per liter.
- 01
In 1915, France banned absinthe after thujone, a compound in wormwood, faced accusations of causing hallucinations and addiction among the working class.