Absinthe in it's current form has been around since the late 18th Century. After the first Absinthe distillery opened by Pernod in 1797, it's popularity grew rapidly in the Western World. It was mostly imported from Switzerland and France, however there is evidence of domestic production in other countries as well.
As is the case with most popular trends, the explosion of absinthe is due in large part to the upper crust's indulgence in the Fairy with the Green Eyes. The price dropped around 1880, due in large part to very low quality and poisonous counterfeit absinthe. This only helped to spread it's use even more.
The first reference to
absinthe
being sold in Bohemia is from
1888 in
a book called
Otto's Dictionary of Knowledge. It mentions that the best absinthe is
the "Suisse" version and that it can be bought in shops. Absinthe is
spelled "absinth" without the "e" in the Czech language. The
Klenovský distillery
mentioned by
Viktor Oliva in his diary was likely producing absinthe either at this time,
or not too long afterwards. There were also small newspaper advertisements
placed in Bohemia regarding
making and
selling
absinthe all surrounding the turn of the century.
The downfall started because of some serious heath problems caused by the imposter liquid. It became such a problem, that 58% of the people of Switzerland voted to ban it in 1908. The following year 900,000 Frenchmen signed a petition to do the same. The final blow came in 1915. WWI was sucking the populations of Europe dry. Many countries decided to ban whichever form of alcohol most used by their people. Soon after Russia banned Vodka, France made permanent their ban on absinthe that had been in effect since the start of the war.
After this and the U.S. ban, the world was largely dry of absinthe.
The absinthe world was mostly quiet until the 1990's when a Czech distillery decided to make something resembling absinthe for export to England. This spawned the current revival of the drink. Several large absinthe brands have emerged, most of them still not accurate portrayals of the true,
original, Green Fairy.
In many countries that produce absinthe, the proper spelling is "absinth"
without the "e". The spelling designates the proper spelling in the
country of origin, nothing more. Most countries do not have a legal
definition of absinthe at the moment. Therefore, manufacturers can label a
product "absinthe" or "absinth", regardless of whether it matches the
traditional definition. We have worked very hard to make
our products match that
traditional definition.
Most of the world has opened up to absinthe now, with the Notable exceptions of
the USA and France. For all intents and purposes France can sell absinthe domestically, however it must be labeled "Spirit made from the wormwood (absinthe) plant" rather than simply "absinthe". It is produced there currently in all authentic forms. We hope that the US will soon reconsider this outdated ban they have placed on thujone.
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