You Aren’t Seeing Things—Absinthe is Legal in NYC

If you imagine yourself drowning in artistic sorrow (and brilliance) next to the likes of Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Baudelaire, or Hemingway in a dimly lit Parisian cafe, your fantasies are one step closer to being fulfilled. Paris is still an ocean away, but another artistic muse of 19th-century bohemia is back in the U.S.—l’Absinthe.

Rumored to heighten the senses more than normal alcohol does, absinthe was banned in the United States for decades. In the last few months, though, it has made a celebrated return.

Absinthe, made out of several different herbs, most prominently anise and wormwood, is light to dark green in color, bitter, and extremely alcoholic. It can be anywhere from 90 to 150 proof, though its wormwood content can cause effects beyond simple inebriation.

The lore that surrounds absinthe’s hallucinogenic effects originated because of a chemical component of wormwood called thujone. Several varieties of Eastern European absinthe advertise high levels of thujone, but traditional absinthe actually contains very little of the chemical. If concocted correctly, the levels of thujone are so low that distribution of the product is actually legal in the United States. In October 2007, the FDA defined legal levels of thujone in a product to be anything less than 10 parts per million.

Ted Breaux, a chemist from New Orleans, developed a recipe to put on the American market last year. His product, Lucid Absinthe, became available in liquor stores last May, and ever since, the U.S. absinthe market has skyrocketed.

Now that the absinthe market has opened up, several varieties are available. East Village Wine and Liquors (183 Stanton St., Manhattan) hosted an absinthe tasting last Thursday, featuring Le Tourment Vert, a French absinthe, supposedly distilled from a 100-year-old recipe.

Traditionally, absinthe is poured into a glass. Then a cube of sugar is placed atop an absinthe spoon resting over the glass. Ice water is then strained into the glass until the sugar cube has dissolved. The sweetness of the sugar offsets the bitterness of the anise flavor in the drink and contributes to an altogether delicious experience. Good absinthe should fog up when it mixes with the sugar, creating what is called a “louche.”

Le Tourment Vert had a disappointing louche, but still tasted excellent. The sugar took the bite off the alcohol and the anise flavor, leaving a licorice, candy-like flavor. Though no hallucinogenic effects were apparent among the tasters that packed the room, my one small glass packed a feel-good punch that made me feel as if I had made a new green friend.