illustration: Gerry Selian
Absinthe’s purported power to conjure fairies and send drinkers insane endures thanks to misrepresentations in art, literature, music, and movies and loaded, pseudo-scientific experiments. In reality, painting the so-called “Green Fairy” as some kind of conscious-expanding elixir is the work of pure fiction, the effects of which have rippled for more than 100 years.
The truths can sometimes feel as cloudy as the liquor itself (when prepared properly), but there’s little need to worry about absinthe. To set the record straight, here are five of the biggest myths surrounding absinthe, busted.
Absinthe Makes You Hallucinate
Absinthe is a botanical distillate that contains, among other ingredients, a mixture of anise, fennel, and a type of wormwood called Artemisia absinthium. This wormwood imparts the psychoactive chemical thujone into the spirit. But the quantity of thujone present in modern absinthe is so little (a maximum of 10 parts per milli