Absinthe:- a women's drink?

All about absinthe

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kiwi Bruce
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Absinthe:- a women's drink?

Post by kiwi Bruce »

I have become interested in the advertising shift that took place from the late 1890's on, until the Absinthe ban. The Absinthe makers turned their attention to selling to women. The shift is very obvious in their advertising posters and I think there was a shift in the product as well...to a spirit that was less over the top aniseed, to something more candy-like or fruity. I think I know why...Dilaudid (Hydromorphone) was being sold as a pain killer for women with menstrual issues. IT TASTES DISGUSTING (I had to take a similar opioid substance for several months, to slow down my gut, after surgery.) So I can tell you first hand...IT TASTES DISGUSTING. Now mixing Dilaudid with Absinthe would do wonders to improve the taste (No I only wish I could have tried it, but I was bed bound.) Any way I think this may explain some of the odd tasting reviews that were being written in the 1900,s The very nature of the beast or fairy if you will, had become more sophisticated/civilized. Example...in my opinion C.F. Berger 1905 - has an underlying butterscotch flavor, not making it a "girly drink" but something far more approachable to the masses. And there were cherry, peach and other flavors out there too.
Anyway... just sharing a thought, Kiwi Bruce
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NZChris
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Re: Absinthe:- a women's drink?

Post by NZChris »

I wonder where the 'butterscotch' would have come from? Was it from extreme age, the base spirit, was it in the bottle when new?

I hadn't read about the other fruity favors before. I could easily add some peach schnapps to a run.

The only fruit spirit I've used is a lightly flavored grape spirit, which has made several batches that I like very much.
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Re: Absinthe:- a women's drink?

Post by kiwi Bruce »

I'll down load some of the labels and posters that show what fruits were used by some of the makers.
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Re: Absinthe:- a women's drink?

Post by contrahead »

I'd like to horn in on this conversation a bit. I'd like to do so without blovation somehow, but I doubt that will be possible.

By the 1890's all alcohol production and consumption was facing direct assault from the temperance movement; which in some ways and on some continents, was actually a utensil for the larger cause of women's suffrage. Absinthe distillers in particular were the subjects of assault. Because at the time, many believed that aside from evil alcohol - absinthe contained evil psychotropic substances. Softening or sweetening the liqueur might have been a political move to assuage the opinions of women.

I've a friend that is a connoisseur of sorts. He has introduced me to several flavors that I don't much care for; absinthe, chartreuse, Campari and an aperitif here and there. But one time he gave me a sip of an expensive little bottle of absinthe that he brought from Rome. It was remarkable.

A little history.

During the mid 19th century France was still a colonial power, that had holdings or military investment in several places throughout the world (Fr Polynesia, Fr Guyana, several Caribbean islands, Northeast and Central Africa, provinces in western India, Madagascar and in Indochina (Vietnam). The point is that by the mid 19th century hundreds of thousands of French soldiers were infected with malaria, and as a result were introduced to the cinchona alkaloids that originally came from certain trees in Peru. As patients sweating under mosquito nettling in tropical medical wards – they grew to like the bitter taste of quinine. When they left the army and returned to France, they brought their newly adopted taste preferences with them.
The English too encountered malaria fever and quinine in the same way. But instead of adopting distilled spirits infused with quinine (or bitter substitutes like 'grand wormwood'), the British subjects commonly acquired an affinity for 'Gin & Tonic' coctails. The tonic waters of yesteryear were far more bitter with quinine and were seldom sweetened.

If you look at Wikipedia, it states that absinthe was first created in Switzerland. Be that as it may, the absinthe sensation quickly took Europe by storm. But nowhere was it more popular than in the bars, dance-halls and sidewalk bistros of Paris. Paris was the epicenter of intellectual, bohemian hipness back in those days.
But France had a powerful political lobby, in the form of grape growers and vintners. At one point the sales of absinthe was greater than the sales of French wine; a fact that was bitterly resented. So even before protestant influenced prohibition was enacted in several countries, absinthe was banned; outlawed in 1915 in France (and in Belgium, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria-Hungary and the U.S.). Absinthe didn't become legal again until 82 years later in the U.S. (2007). The French did not repeal their prohibition of absinthe until 2011 (86 years later).

I should stop and go do something useful now, but I have a little more to point out.

kiwi Bruce mentioned: Dilaudid (Hydromorphone)

I had to look that one up. Unfamiliar to me, but not surprising that it's an opiate. One has to wonder about the sanity of pharmacologist, some doctors and certain biochemist in general. They have an obsession with and have structured their lives around the study of what has become an enormously complex subject. Their studies and professions are exclusively centered around brain chemistry or getting high. As mere distillers of alcohol we are alike simple children, teething a toy.
There are some 25 – 30 alkaloids in the opium poppy. You might have heard mention of Morphine, Narcotine, Codeine, Papaverine and Thebaine; but not of the others. Laudanum is a tincture of the whole opium poppy; and still legal because of grandfathered status. But a prescription of laudanum (a couple years ago – inflation) cost between $600.00 and $700.00 per ounce.
You've probably heard the name of several opioids (synthetic opiates) too. Names like Oxycodone (OxyContin), Roxicodone, Percodan, Percocet and Fentanyl. But fentanyl is only one member of a large number of engineered compounds that make up the “phenylpiperidine family”. The group is distinguished by a molecular structure that shares similarity in the form of two attached, cyclic carbon rings. There are more than 1,400 compounds from this family alone, that have been described in scientific and patent literature. A few of the more distinguishable names in the phenylpiperidine family include: Alfentanil, Meperidine, Remifentanil, Sufentanil, Carfentanil and Ketobemidone. And then there is Bromadol, Demerol and Methadone. (Methadone as just one example has several other modern trade names including: Phy, Symoron, Dolophine, Amidone, Methadose, Physeptone and Heptadon).
At some point the list must exit the phenylpiperidine group and become instead another family of opioid. I'm not sure were Naloxone, Naltrexone, Oxymorphone, Buprenorphine, Pentazocine and Cyclazocine belong. But I am pretty sure that the authentic opiates and the thousands of synthetic opioids- all fall inside the category of “narcotics”. What does not fall into the category of narcotics are substances that relieve pain without depressing the central nervous system. The relief of pain and present or not or a hallucinogenic element determine whether a compound is a tranquilizer, barbiturate or narcotic.

So beyond just narcotics, the enormous list of psychoactive drugs continues. The world of “medicine” is full of various stimulants, anti-depressants, amphetamines, inhalants, tranquilizers, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, depressants like alcohol, psychedelics, dissociative drugs and delirium causing hallucinogenics.

My self perception, as being normal, must change. I am not. I have no medical prescriptions nor take any painkillers. Won't touch acetaminophen or even aspirin unless its an emergency. But I do drink coffee and take a nip of homemade hooch now and then. But like I said somewhere else; some 1.9 billion servings of Coca Cola are consumed each day. Someone is drinking my share, because I haven't had a sip of that crap in probably 10 years. Same with “Hydromorphone” and all that other stuff listed above. Opiates and other medical compounds flushed down the toilets are intoxicating the fish that live in rivers, streams and sea bays open to the ocean. (Someone is flushing my share).

Na. I wouldn't consider absinthe a woman's drink.
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kiwi Bruce
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Re: Absinthe:- a women's drink?

Post by kiwi Bruce »

Cherry.jpg
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Here's one....cherry flavored Absinthe.
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Re: Absinthe:- a women's drink?

Post by NZChris »

I did a trawl of the net looking for fruit on labels and only came across grapes, which I already often use.

Cherries sounds nice. If I freeze some in the season, I could put them in a Carter Head on Absinthe day.
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Re: Absinthe:- a women's drink?

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label II.jpg
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made with candied fruit
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Re: Absinthe:- a women's drink?

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Absintheorange.jpg
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and orange (this sounds fantastic!)
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Re: Absinthe:- a women's drink?

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kiwi Bruce wrote: Sat Jun 18, 2022 11:50 am IT TASTES DISGUSTING (I had to take a similar opioid substance for several months, to slow down my gut, after surgery.
I would have had no experience with morphine, had I not been plugged into a drip which was stuck into my own arm, after surgery. For couple of days I felt like a regular Sherlock Holmes. (Enthusiastic and prideful in conversation, full of myself and from all the attention by nurses, much more loquacious than normal).

I am certainly mindful and completely non-judgmental about the need of others to deal with their own pain. For most, me included, physical pain comes with age. It's just that the devils of alcohol and painkillers generally don't mix. Seems like a body must pick between one or the other.
800px-Tonic_water_uv.jpg
If the alkaloid quinine will fluoresce under black light, that makes me wonder about other substances that will do the same.
Like artemisinin, from Artemisia annua (or sweet wormwood); or thujone from mugwort (Artemisia absinthium / absinthe wormwood).
US_$20_under_blacklight.jpg
I knew that these hidden strips were sandwiched into bills. Just never worked behind a counter or appreciated that they could be seen under black-light.

Image

I wonder if Pink Floyd appreciated that Black-light (invisible) marks the lower boundary of visible light. Or that bug-zappers use the cheaper UV-B type lamps rather than the UV-A type?
Plakat_Cheret_95.jpg
A parallel curiosity. Sounds familliar, but haven't tried it either.
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Re: Absinthe:- a women's drink?

Post by NZChris »

I wonder where it would be best to put the orange? In the steep, coloration, both? I'm sure that orange and green makes brown and the color in the bottles on the label isn't exactly the bright green that I get, so maybe they used it when coloring.

Some time ago I was playing with UV and I recall that there was an unexpected reaction with my Absinthe. I think it went pink. I'm not going to repeat the experiment at this time of the morning. I've just had a look around my drinks cabinet with a UV torch and Absinthe in a clear bottle blocked the UV and reflected red light. I also found some modern commercial bottles made from glass that lit up blue. Only one of two Glayva bottles lit up.
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Re: Absinthe:- a women's drink?

Post by sweeps »

Before we all get carried away with fruity absinthe goodness...

Image

This appears to be an ad for a distillery, rather than a product and I think it just means that they made both kirsch and absinthe (two things for which Fougerolles was famous back in the day), rather than a kirsch-flavored absinthe.

Image

These were hard candies, not absinthe.

Image

I'm pretty sure this is more Photoshop than Belle Epoch. That said, I must admit I find the idea of an orange flavoured absinthe quite intriguing...
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Re: Absinthe:- a women's drink?

Post by patrzal »

Cherry/orange flavoured (and why not rose, when we're at that!) absinthe sounds pretty tasty for me.

@Chris - pink reaction of absinthe under UV was most probably caused by chlorophyll extracted from herbs - while normally green, under UV it presents red luminescence.
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Re: Absinthe:- a women's drink?

Post by kiwi Bruce »

I just read (and now I can't find it...& how much whisky is involved?) one of the French liquors is flavored in the coloring stage with orange marmalade, as it doesn't mess up the color and gives a great orange flavor. I was looking up something on Mark Twain's brothers death and went down a google hole. When I find it again I'll post it.
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Re: Absinthe:- a women's drink?

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contrahead wrote: Tue Jun 21, 2022 12:48 pm By the 1890's all alcohol production and consumption was facing direct assault from the temperance movement; which in some ways and on some continents, was actually a utensil for the larger cause of women's suffrage. Absinthe distillers in particular were the subjects of assault. Because at the time, many believed that aside from evil alcohol - absinthe contained evil psychotropic substances.
Quoting myself.

There is another vector in the equation, another reason absinthe was outlawed for 86 years.

I won't call him an "asshat", given the technology available at the time. But he was opinionated, set against alcoholism and especially against absinthe with its wormwood. His science was not all bad. Until just recently everyone believed that thujone acted upon the cannabinoid receptors – just like THC.

"GC-MS testing is important in this capacity, because gas chromatography alone may record an inaccurately high reading of thujone as other compounds may interfere with and add to the apparent measured amount".

Recent studies have found only minute levels of thujone in absinthe
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