Niche Alcohol: Absinthe

After the Success of sideways I have come to an unavoidable conclusion, America loves its niche alcohol. What's better then getting drunk? Getting drunk on some mystery liquor that makes you feel important and exotic, well more so then Alcohol already makes you feel. In short I will spend the rest of this article enlightening you on an Alcohol called Absinthe.
Absinthe was originally sold as a stomach worm tincture back in the days when you could just bottle some odd tasting liquor or opiate and call it a tonic. Used by the French Army during their war in Algiers in the 1840's to help fight off heat stroke and stomach ailments. The soldiers, being poor uneducated Frenchmen brought back their love for this strange green drink and began indulging in it to the point of Caligula-like excess. By the end of the century it was the most widely produced and drunken spirits in the world.
The most famous of brands was Pernod, which unlike many other producers of far cheaper absinthes, didn't use dangerous additives like Silver Nitrate to create the drinks superior appearance and Louche. The Louche is a French word describing the affects of mixing water with Absinthe (which was part of its preparation), A proper louche would turn the drink a lighter color of green or even white and makes the water cloudy instead of transparent. The primary tastes of a Absinthe are Anise, Wormwood, Mint, and Hyssops though there is a great variety of tastes from brand to brand depending on their formula. Also the Thujone, a mild hallucinogen found in Wormwood, was said to add a feelings of clearheadedness and creativity on top of the effects of the alcohol.
Absinthe was banned through out the world, with the exception of Spain, UK, Portugal, and few eastern European nations, in the early part of the 20th century as part of the Prohibition movement. The EU permitted sales in the 1990's and Absinthe has seen a large increase in popularity after movies such as Moulin Rouge and From Hell helped popularize it.
If you would like to learn more about this Alcohol go to: http://www.feeverte.net/