The Incredible story of Absinthe: From being toasted to becoming a symbol of decadence!
Absinthe has a colorful history attached to it. Absinthe’s journey from glory to decadence is an interesting one. From drinking it as a medicine, absinthe was believed by people to be death itself. The sudden rise in fame and popularity of absinthe and its equally sudden exit is intriguing. This is what makes the absinthe story worth retelling.
How Absinthe became the flavor of the moment
It may be difficult for us to imagine that absinthe started off as a medicine. French soldiers fighting in Algeria were offered the drink as a tonic. It was given as a remedy to cure stomach aches. Whether it made them all right or not, they developed a liking for the drink and drank it without prescription. The drink grew bigtime and slowly started gathering a following.
Slowly it got an image as an inebriating drink. People described wonderful experiences they had with the drink. They reported it to give them hallucinations. It made reality as they wished it to be, as Oscar Wilde famously put it. The drink was also stated to bring on a state of reverie.
This brought many artists to experiment with the drink. After taking the drink, they passed their own judgment on the drink. They believed it improved their imagination. Taking the drink was said to spur their creative energies. It gave them fresh ideas for their work. It also began to find a place in their work. Poet Rimbaud began mentioning it in his writings. Van Gogh made it the subject of his paintings.
Association with people of such class gave the drink a bohemian image. It also drove high the popularity of the drink. It became the stuff everyone wanted to taste and try, to say the least.
Absinthe’s journey to decadence
Soon circumstances ran out of favor for the drink.
The wine industry suffered a setback. A disease had ruined the crop and affected production of wines. People who were addicted to drinking wine, saw a replacement, in absinthe. They took to the drink like water.
This coupled with the popularity enjoyed by absinthe gave more reasons for people to take it. People began drinking it indiscriminately, even though the drink contained extremely high levels of alcohol. They probably drank it as they would wine and suffered the consequences. Side by side, people also began experimenting with the original recipe of the drink.
All this lead people to die due to over-consumption or suffer from symptoms like convulsions. It also gave rise to social problems associated with alcohol abuse.
It drove people to murder their own. One such incident proved to be the last nail on the coffin. A farmer in Geneva brutally murdered his wife with a hatchet. This incident sparked off wide-spread antagonism for the drink. The hues and cries became louder and louder. The government finally responded to the cries of the people and banned Absinthe to prevent the situation from worsening. An era for the drink had ended and it was going to be lost in oblivion for some time to come.