🥃 Absinthe

Absinthe is a spirit drink flavoured with wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) and usually anise. It carries a reputation far bigger than its chemistry, so it helps to start with the rules. The EU has no separate category for it; the content of thujone, a substance found in wormwood, is limited by Regulation (EC) 1334/2008 to 35 mg/kg in alcoholic drinks made with plants of the genus Artemisia. The only EU geographical indication is “Absinthe de Pontarlier” (France, 2019) ¹³.

The “Absinthe de Pontarlier” specification, approved in France in 2013, requires wormwood and green anise to be distilled in copper stills of up to 3000 l, and star anise is banned. The colour comes from an infusion of Pontic wormwood (Artemisia pontica) and hyssop, and the strength must be at least 45% vol. (90 proof). The wormwood is grown and dried in 20 communes of the Doubs department around Pontarlier, without fertilisers or herbicides ².

The recipe is attributed to the physician Pierre Ordinaire, but a 2006 review presents this only as a supposition; Henri-Louis Pernod began commercial production in 1797 ⁹. In 1805 production moved from Val-de-Travers to Pontarlier: the specification names Major Dubied ², while the review names Pernod, whose first still gave 16 litres a day ⁹. By the early 20th century the town had 25 distilleries, in 1907 more than 3,000 people worked in them, and in 1914 they produced 66,000 litres a day ².

The bans came country by country: Belgium 1905, Switzerland 1908, the USA 1912, Italy 1913, France 1915, Germany 1923 ⁹. Wormwood drinks were allowed again in 1988 ²⁹; Pontarlier even sets a minimum thujone level of 20 mg/l so that the wormwood aroma is kept ².

The primary data do not support the hallucination myth. An analysis of 13 authentic bottles made in France before the ban found thujone from 0.5 to 48.3 mg/l, averaging 25.4 mg/l, far less than was once believed. The authors of the study (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2008) found nothing in old absinthe except ethanol that could explain so-called “absinthism”, and modern absinthes do not differ from historical ones in thujone ⁴. A 2006 review concludes that “absinthism” cannot be told apart from chronic alcoholism, but cautions that long-term effects are poorly studied ⁹.

When water is added the drink turns cloudy because anethole dissolves less readily; the specification describes an opal, ivory-coloured tint. Anethole breaks down in light and precipitates below 10 °C ².

Why it matters to you. The main risk of absinthe is its high strength (at Pontarlier from 45 to over 65% vol., that is 90 to over 130 proof) ², not thujone ⁴⁹. Promises of a “hallucinogenic effect” are marketing, as the review also points out ⁹. WHO: no amount of alcohol is safe ⁸.