The Green Fairy

Absinthe, an almost mythical green-colored alcoholic drink that for many years was forbidden in most European countries. The Green Fairy, as Absinthe is sometimes called, is anise flavored and made with the Artemisia Absinthium (wormwood) herb, which gives it its distinctive flavour.

Spurred by the teetotalism movement at the beginning of the 1900s, absinthe was publicly associated with violent crimes and social disorder. As one critic put it: Absinthe makes you crazy and criminal, provokes epilepsy and tuberculosis, and has killed thousands of French people. It makes a ferocious beast of man, a martyr of woman, and a degenerate of the infant, it disorganizes and ruins the family and menaces the future of the country.

In 1906, Belgium banned the sale and distribution of absinthe. The Netherlands in 1909; the United States banned it in 1912, and France in 1915.

Since a few years back Absinthe is once again manufactured and available and has since regained some of its former cult following.

I for one am a big fan!