the "green fairy" has a mean kick!!

[Mike.357]

alcohol that was distilled from different base products causes different effects or is going to make you feel different.

For example tequila or mezcal is a lot different buzz than what one gets from grains. The buzz from corn is different than from potatoes.

But whatver you are feeling is based on alcohol in your bloodstream.

Heck, I say if it makes you feel good do it.

Personally I have not peaked since my mid twenties I'd be afraid of stroking out now at my age.

[JeffL]

BTW....LUCID is the brand that seems to get the best reviews but it was not what I had. it was made by Elie Arnaud Denoix and it doesn't get near as good of a review

Tried Lucid, didn't like it as much as Kubler or Grande Absente.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Never tried absinthe. Long ago in some school class a prof said that absinthe was banned because it contained methanol and the methanol is what had the bad health effects associated with absinthe. I suppose methanol would have a certain buzz too, while it is killing all those brain cells. Of course any ordinary ethanol kills brain cells along with the buzz.

Apparently the prof was remembering accurately what people of the time had believed, but it may not be the whole story. Here is what appears to be a reputable opinion on the matter--

The contents of vintage and modern absinthes

"After enjoying popularity in the second half of the 1800s, absinthe was blamed for a variety of sins, leading to a ban in many western countries in the early 1900s. The myths and suspicions regarding absinthe are too numerous to name, but many involve toxicity and psychedelic effects. Some people believed toxic copper adulterants are responsible for the green color of the drink and antimony contaminants for the "louche effect," where the absinthe turns milky upon the addition of water. Others claimed that the beverage contained dangerous levels of methanol, a poisonous alcohol.

More commonly, herbal extracts in absinthe were suspected of being hallucinogenic or behavior altering. A popular myth names thujone, a natural essence of wormwood, as the active ingredient that caused the drug-like quality of absinthe"

"In terms of toxin content, absinthe is quite clean. For every absinthe examined, the concentrations of methanol were below the maximum tolerable limit of 2% by volume. Almost every bottle of absinthe had copper concentrations under the current EU standard of 2 mg/L. Only one pre-ban absinthe, the Edouard Pernod, went above that with a copper concentration of 6.59 mg/L. To put it into perspective, some modern sherry brandies have copper levels as high as 5.3 mg/L, and some Brazillian cane spirits have concentrations up to 14.3 mg/L. Thus, copper cannot be responsible for the characteristic green color of absinthe. None of the bottles had detectable amounts of antimony."

"Natural essences like thujone, fenchone, and pinocamphone can be dangerous because they have convulsant and epileptogenic properties. The EU and the US FDA do not set limits on fenchone and pinocamphone, but thujone is regulated. The EU has a thujone limit of 35 mg/L, and the US requires that finished spirits have less than 10 mg/L.

Pre-ban absinthes do not have significantly higher concentrations of thujone than modern absenthes."

"The data shows that, regardless of the period of production, absinthe is no more dangerous than any other beverage with a high ethanol concentration. However, we must realize that the pre-ban absinthes are not a random sample of all brands from that period. People probably only kept the most exclusive brands in their cellars for over a century; it's doubtful that anyone would keep a cheap bottle around for that long, so we can't say for sure that cheap brands were not adulterated with toxins.

Nevertheless, a wide ban of absinthe in the early 1900s was extreme and unsupported by any scientific findings. Current regulations are more reasonable than a wide ban, although the limits on thujone concentration have little to do with toxicology. The past and present restrictions on absinthe illustrates that actual scientific data does not always influence governments' actions."

[Guest buttonhook]

I dont care what it was or wasn't it felt good......I have a package coming in from germany in about a month..... we will see. def. no peaking though....it was a shame too