Adams Avenue Art – Scupture & Carvings

Absinthe Green Fairy and the Art World

Absinthe is renowned for inspiring a lot of artists and writers associated using the Bohemian culture of the Montmartre area of Paris. Popular Absinthe drinkers include Vincent Van Gough, Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, Charles Baudelaire, Edgar Degas, Ernest Hemingway and Oscar Wilde. A lot of writers and artists were convinced that Absinthe gave them inspiration and gave them their genius. Painters like Van Gogh and Picasso even featured Absinthe and Absinthe drinkers in their paintings.

Absinthe's association with old Montmartre, the Moulin Rouge plus the Bohemian sect, was just the excuse that prohibition campaigners required. Once it was linked using the murder of a family along with the growing problem of alcohol addiction in France it was effortless for campaigners to get the sale of Absinthe made illegal and it was banned in France in 1915. Other countries also banned it but it remained legal inside Czech Republic, the UK, Spain and Portugal.

The chemical thujone, present in wormwood, was blamed for the psychedelic effects of drinking the Green Fairy. Thujone was thought to become similar to THC in cannabis. Even so Absinthe is mainly alcohol, ethanol, and therefore only contains minute quanitities of thujone. Research has shown that Absinthe is just as safe as any other powerful liquor and that it is the alcohol content not the thujone that is dangerous. Numerous studies and articles have been written on the subject. In the event you remember that it can be about twice as powerful as vodka or whisky and drink it with care and in moderation, it is simply a drink which gives pleasure.

During the time of prohibition several people enjoyed getting and drinking vintage style Absinthe in Absinthe bars in the Czech Republic, served inside the classic Absinthe big glasses and in surroundings decorated with vintage Absinthe posters. Now, in 2008, Absinthe is legal in many countries although thujone levels are controlled inside the EU plus the United States only enables Absinthe with trace amounts of thujone to be bought and sold.