Sup bruh, it's us your favorite Bohemians. Producer Absinthe helps us figure out now what we knew yesterday as we go deep on this toothpaste adjacent drink. We meet Normal Pete and learn the green fairy's role in murder and mayhem while flouting bans and laughing in the face of madness. Stay tuned till the very end to hear Molly lose big time at Never Have I Ever.
Whatcha Snackin? - Bibigo Japchae potstickers!
Matthew's Now but Wow! - A Spoonful of Time by Flora Ahn
Speaker 1 0:04
I'm Molly, and I'm Matthew, and this is spilled milk, the show where we cook something delicious, eat it all, and you
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:09
can't have any. And today we're talking about Absinthe, the green fairy.
Speaker 1 0:15
This episode, I don't know where it came from, but I don't either. But listener, excuse me. Listener, and producer. Listener, because she is our producer. Oh, okay, producer, Abby. She told us that she loves Absinthe, and every Halloween, she makes sazeracs in honor of her and hot pots. That's husband of the producer of the shows, correct? First married Halloween, which they apparently spent in New Orleans,
Matthew Amster-Burton 0:41
yeah, home of the Sazerac and I assume, I assume Abby is short for Absinthe. That's right, yeah, that's right. Absent producer is absent circuit. Yes. We go, well anyway, banned, banned in many countries. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 0:55
More about that. Okay, yes. Anyway, we'll come back around to sazeracs a little bit at the end, but mostly this is an episode about the fascinating story of absinthe, which I think precedes it. Oh, for sure everybody, I think everybody who has ever been in a cocktail bar has some sort of notion of what the deal is with Absinthe. But I
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:19
know two people can agree on what the notion is, I
Speaker 1 1:21
personally did not know any of what I now know until yesterday. Okay, great,
Matthew Amster-Burton 1:28
if I if I knew then what I now know yesterday, as the saying goes, Yeah, my memory lane is I have had Absinthe in cocktails and a cots D, who is into, like, Victor Hugo and like old old, like old time, European stuff, ballet, poke sure asked for, like Absinthe and like stuff for making for, like, serving Absinthe for their 21st birthday and so and so. Like a cheap, a cheap Absinthe glass and spoon on Etsy, and a bottle of absinthe, which is still 99% full. So, so we did, we did, like, a sugar cube. I think we like, like, flamed it a little, you did the flaming and and, like, drank a little of it on their 21st birthday. And I haven't had any since, okay, I don't think I've ever had it. I mean, I've definitely, I've had a Sazerac so that that has an Absinthe rinse, right? I think I've had something with an Absinthe float, maybe, oh, an Absinthe float, yes. Or, as I said, float, float.
Speaker 1 2:28
I think that we're about to learn some things.
Matthew Amster-Burton 2:31
Yeah, I think, I think maybe we're about to learn a lot of things because, you know, we print out our agenda because we, you know, we're like, we're like, a couple of middle aged dads who go to AAA and they have to print out the triptych. This is like a heavy like tome. This is a tome of absinthe information. Yeah.
Speaker 1 2:50
Okay, so where to begin? And I should also say that despite all the learning we're about to throw down, there are going to be, I presume, a lot of you listeners out there who are real like Absinthe heads. Oh, yeah, and you guys are gonna know a
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:04
lot our show would
Speaker 1 3:07
Absinthe heads? Totally, totally. So okay, synth poppers. So for those who have only heard of this stuff and never really thought about it like me before yesterday, absinthe is an anise flavored spirit, and it's derived from several plants. The most famously, you know, thought of, or the one that's sort of thought of, first, is Wormwood, typically grand Wormwood, wow, I didn't know it was grand wormwood. Yeah, there's also, like, petite Wormwood, okay, we're not gonna get into that. Okay. Wormwood, interestingly enough, is native to North America and temperate parts of Europe and Asia, and it's now widely naturalized across Canada and like the northern us.
Matthew Amster-Burton 3:47
Okay, but you haven't said what the Latin name of Wormwood is. You have to say it, oh, Artemisia absinthium, that's right. Didn't know that.
Speaker 1 3:54
And so Mr. Etymology is going to come visit us later. Okay, great, and he'll talk a little bit about this. I've been missing
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:00
that guy we haven't recorded for a couple weeks because I'm now mostly recovered from gum surgery, and I've been missing visits from Mr.
Speaker 1 4:06
Etymology. I'm so glad he's going to stop by me, too. Yeah, Wormwood, in fact, you might have seen it. It's often used as an ornamental these days, okay, but it's also used to make Absinthe, specifically the flowers and leaves of Artemisia absinthium. Absinthe also has a bunch of different herbs in it, most notably green anise and sweet fennel. Okay? It is highly alcoholic.
Matthew Amster-Burton 4:30
Yes, I noticed that we've got, we've got a bottle, a bottle of absinthe sitting in front of us, 130 proof. That's 65% alcohol by volume.
Molly 4:38
That's right. That's right. Yeah, it varies from 45 to 74% ABV, okay? And 90 to 148 proof, wow, yeah. So it's often diluted before drinking with a little bit of ice water. Yeah, I think we're gonna do that traditionally. It has a natural green color that comes from the chlorophyll in the herbs. We're gonna talk a little bit more about that. But sometimes it's colorless. In historical literature, it's often referred to as the green fairy, or LA Fay verte, you know, a reference to its traditional green color.
Matthew Amster-Burton 5:10
Yeah, we'll probably get this. Get to this. But the bottle I have here is, like, very luridly artificially colored green. I chose this one because, first of all, this stuff is expensive. How much was, I think was $65 Whoa, I got the second cheapest one at the store because I didn't like the bottle of the cheapest one, and it was a gift. And I thought this had a nice bottle with a fairy on it. I mean, Gruner Fay. I assume that means green fairy in German.
Speaker 1 5:36
Seems that way, and we'll talk more about it. But this one is a traditional Absinthe, and we're gonna, we're gonna get into this, because I venture to guess that unless you are shelling out a lot of cash for your Absinthe, you're probably gonna wind up with one that is maybe not made by traditional methods. But this one is, but this one is, I looked it up. Nice. I looked it up. Oh, product of Austria. You know, one thing I just want to say at the outset, because I just didn't really fully understand this. I think that I had sort of an instinctive understanding, but so I didn't know that spirits and liquor are the same thing.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:13
I think I would have guessed that if you asked me, me
Speaker 1 6:16
too, but I think I wouldn't have been able to tell you exactly what that meant. And what that means is basically, both are made by distillation, okay? And they do not have added sugar like after they've been distilled.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:27
Distillation a thing we tried to explain on a previous episode, and just got very confused.
Molly 6:31
That's right, that's right. We're not going to try to explain it this time. Spirits and liquor are the same thing. Absinthe is a spirit. Absinthe is typically referred to as either a spirit or a liquor. It is not a liquor. A liquor would be something that would have sugar or flavorings added, like after the distillation.
Matthew Amster-Burton 6:53
That's right. Okay, this stuff Wormwood, the the sort of like root plant behind Absinthe has been used medicinally for a very long time. Okay, all the way back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and we're talking grand wormwood. We're talking grand Wormwood, in fact, yeah, yes. It says grand Wormwood on the back of this bottle. I didn't notice that till you mentioned it, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 7:15
Like the first evidence of a distilled spirit being made from wormwood and containing these typical herbs of anise and fennel, dates to the late 1700s in Switzerland. Oh, okay, okay. It was first made in this town called cuvee, which is in the canton of Neuchatel. Oh, of course, okay. And legend has it that there was this doctor named Pierre ordinaire. And here I feel
Matthew Amster-Burton 7:45
this sounds like the beginning of, like an East like Maurice Sendak. Yeah, that brother's grim.
Speaker 1 7:50
Oh, I was thinking of the Maurice Sendak book Pierre. Oh, didn't care. There we go. Yeah, because he was ordinaire, right? So there was this doctor named Pierre ordinaire, who was French, apparently, but he lived in cuvee, Switzerland. He supposedly made this like distillation of Wormwood, anise and fennel as a remedy for his patients, okay. Okay, that checks out. But then I also found sort of a more like feminist origin story, okay, which seems kind of just as likely, frankly. So basically the deal is, is, if we, if we continue on with that first story I just told you, Pierre ordinaire. After he devised this, he gave the recipe to these sisters in town who were kind of famous for making, like, tinctures and things to supply to the local village. The tincture sisters, they were the Henriot sisters. Oh, okay, okay. Basically, I kind of think of them as, like, witchy pharmacists. Nice, yeah, I like it. Okay, so apparently they were the ones who then took on making Absinthe, and it kind of caught on, right? But in a different, a different reading on this history, it's actually the two sisters who came up with what we now know as Absinthe, but because there were, this was the late 1700s right? So there were a whole bunch of laws about, like, witchcraft, and everybody was on the lookout for witches, right? And they had guillotines at that time, is that? Right? They had all kinds of terrible ways of killing people. So these women, they separate, apparently, like, solicited the help of their upstanding physician friend, Pierre ordinaire, to kind of come along and be like, check out this product that I endorse through the combination of the two of them, this stuff took off.
Matthew Amster-Burton 9:35
Is there any part in this where Pierre ordinaire makes his way to North America and like changes his name to Peter, ordinary, or just ordinary Pete, how about normal? Pete, normal? Pete,
Speaker 1 9:54
I wonder if, actually, I think that we've got, like a great, great, great grandson of normal. Pete, who has offered to come in today with Mr. Etymology. Okay, we'll find out. We'll see. We'll see what we can learn.
Matthew Amster-Burton 10:06
Okay, Thanks for, thanks for setting me up to have to figure out this character.
Speaker 1 10:12
Well, hey, you started it. That is true. Okay, in any case, it was so the story is not over. This story is just so stupid. Okay, great. So there was this guy named major du be a Okay, and I think he was a major, I don't think, oh, you're a major Duba. Anyway, this guy was French. He was a businessman. Anyway, he bought the formula for what we now call Absinthe from the sisters. And he was the one who opened the first distillery. He opened it in cuvee, and it was called du be a pair e fice, so father and son, and he this is because he went into business with his son and his son in law. Guess what? The son in law's last name was Absinthe.
Matthew Amster-Burton 11:03
Per No Oh, like per node, which we still have today, right?
Speaker 1 11:06
And which we're going to talk about a minute. It was very successful. And in 1805 they built a second distillery, this time in France, and they called it Maison per no fils. So that means, like, House of and son or Pernod the son, I'm not really sure. So per no fees remained one of the most popular brands of absinthe until 1914 when it was banned in France. Do? Do? Do. So basically, here's what happened with Absinthe. You got this stuff that like, supposedly has medicinal qualities, but it also tastes good, and people really like drinking it, and it becomes slowly more and more popular. And in fact, part of what made it really popular is that when French troops were on one of their many campaigns of oppressing the people of Algeria, sure, apparently, they sent Absinthe to French troops in Algeria as a malaria preventative. Do you think it worked? I don't think it worked. But anyway, these soldiers came home and were like, this stuff is tasty. Let's keep drinking it. And so by the 1860s this is, you know what, probably 80 years after it was first made and marketed, it was so popular and across all kinds of social classes, actually, that the hour of 5pm was, like, popularly termed le vert, like the green hour, nice. Yeah, this stuff was, like, really popular.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:31
When you said that was like, oh, obviously 5pm because that's when people got off work. I don't think that was the case then at all.
Speaker 1 12:37
Right. I guess it was just roughly, you know, stop by your local cafe.
Matthew Amster-Burton 12:42
Yeah, have a break before you go back to work. That's right. By the 1880s
Speaker 1 12:46
Absinthe was really quite affordable, because it was that by then, being mass produced, and it was exported widely and became popular in a lot of places, like Spain, the US, the Czech Republic, these places are going to be important in just a second. Okay. But anyway, you know, as adult child of the show, December has shown, yeah, what this stuff is often really known for is its connection to Parisian artists and writers in bohemian types. That's right. Yes, right. So like, yeah,
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:18
I was, I was afraid my child would fall in with bohemian types, and
Speaker 1 13:23
they did. So, you know, few notable Absinthe fans. We've got Hemingway, James Joyce, Lewis, Carroll, Baudelaire, Verlaine and Rambo, okay, and Toulouse Lautrec, yeah. These are a bunch of Bohemians. So these major bohemians, yeah, but this stuff starts to get a really bad reputation. And part of it is that in the early 1900s actually in 1905 so there was this 19 oh fives. Sure, yeah, the Oh fives, that's right, there was a really famous murder attempted suicide situation in Switzerland.
Matthew Amster-Burton 13:56
Is this when we introduce our true crime podcast? Because I hear people love that
Speaker 1 14:00
they do. They do. Get ready. Get ready, do it. So there was this Swiss farmer named Jean lanfray, and he killed his wife and children and attempted to kill himself. And basically, people went nuts because he had had a couple glasses of absinthe. Sure, for this. All right. Case closed. But they also leave out the fact that he apparently had had a lot of wine and also brandy. But I guess by this point, like Absinthe was popular enough had been, you know, already, I think people were people, especially in the temperance movement, which was a Bruin at that time, yep. And I mean Bruin telling people to stop. Bruin, right? Yeah, that people were kind of already up in arms about people's love for Absinthe.
Matthew Amster-Burton 14:49
Sure, it was like early, early 19th century reefer madness. I guess there was probably Reefer Madness at the same time.
Molly 14:57
Yeah, so Absinthe had been. Totally acquiring a bad reputation, like it became associated with violent crimes like the lanfrey murders became associated with social disorder. There were a bunch of like, paintings and novels. Emile Zola wrote a novel, I believe, called lesson more that basically was about somebody who becomes a total like deadbeat, Absinthe. Swiller, numbed out Absinthe. Swiller, yeah. Like, people basically started to believe that the effects of absinthe were different from the effects of alcohol. Yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 15:32
That was exactly the reputation that, like, when I first started hearing about Absinthe, that was the idea that, like, you know, alcohol will make you drunk, but Absinthe will make you crazy.
Speaker 1 15:42
That's right, yeah. The idea was that people came to believe that it was more like, like a hallucinogen, like, like a harder drug, and it gave rise, in fact, to its own term. So in contrast to like alcoholism, there was absintheism. Oh, sure, okay, and some of this. I mean, it's true, Wormwood contains a compound called thujone. I don't know if I'm pronouncing it, that's right, which basically gets into Absinthe, because absinthe is made from Wormwood, and this compound, like it, can, in high doses, cause neurological problems, like convulsions, neurotoxicity, sure. So that's real, that's real. But basically, things got way out of control.
Matthew Amster-Burton 16:26
And presumably this is one of those situations where, yes, like, we can isolate this compound in something, but you would have to drink like, three quarts of this stuff that's 65% alcohol before the thujone has any effect, and you would be dead at that point. Anyway, that's right, okay?
Molly 16:41
And it's highly likely, too, that what was actually causing these toxic effects, or these, like, really troublesome effects, were caused by additives to the absence, okay, that came on to the scene when Absinthe began to be mass produced and people were using, like, cheaper sources of green coloration, all right, like toxic copper salt stuff, which I mean, very, very likely that that was indeed causing neurological effects, hallucinations, etc, all right, yeah, all this to say, Whatever the cause word spread and Absinthe was slowly banned in most of the places where it was most popular, okay,
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:22
I think I had the idea that Absinthe was only ever banned, like in the US, and it was like, related to prohibition, Okay, interesting,
Speaker 1 17:30
okay, no, it was actually first banned in Switzerland, okay, by popular referendum in 1908 because, because of those murders, that's right. Oh, wait, actually, hold on, sorry. It was banned in Belgium first Oh in 1906 Belgium, you know, the Belgians, they are on top of the news and then, and they're gonna, they're gonna act on
Matthew Amster-Burton 17:51
it, yeah? Like, the only, like, the only news I ever get these days is, like, what's going on in Belgium?
Speaker 1 17:55
Oh yeah, yeah. So, yeah, Belgium banned it in 1906 Switzerland, 1908 it was banned in the US in 1912 and then in France in 1914 I mean, by 1915 it was banned in most of Europe. Okay, there are notable places where it wasn't banned, either because it wasn't very popular, or, I don't know why. Like, it was never banned in the Czech Republic, never banned in Spain, never banned in the UK, yeah.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:20
But also, like, you have to kind of imagine, like, it was trendy, and so it was gonna become un trendy pretty soon. And so, like, even in places where it wasn't banned, like, probably people kind of forgot about it for
Speaker 1 18:31
a while. And you can imagine too that, I mean, of course, the timing of all of this does go with the timing of prohibition. And so, yeah, I mean, it was just Absinthe. Had a real soup of problems.
Matthew Amster-Burton 18:47
So what's theirs? If you know, liqueur, a spirit and a soup? Yeah, I gotta, I gotta imagine, like, you know, you see to lose Lautrec out there drinking Absinthe, having a great time. You're like, yeah, I want to try some of that stuff. But like, immediately after that, there's gonna be like, some bro. You're gonna overhear some bro being like, Hey, you want to go for Absinthe, bro. And then you're gonna be like, two gets with a green fairy, brah, brah. And then, and then you're like, Okay, I'm out.
Speaker 1 19:14
So anyway, basically, Absinthe has always been made and sold, even during the, like, near century that it was banned, but it was primarily made in like the Czech Republic and Spain and Portugal.
Matthew Amster-Burton 19:30
Notice when I was shopping for Absinthe that it's made all over. That's like, you know, if you're if you're going shopping for cognac, you're probably going to get something made in France or it's a knockoff, but absent. There didn't seem to be like one place that it comes from.
Speaker 1 19:42
There is only one place where, like, the definition of absinthe is regulated, and that is Switzerland. Oh, okay, and everywhere else. There is no set definition of it. But basically, during that time when Absinthe was prohibited in. In France and other places where it had been wildly popular. This was when pastiche really became hugely popular.
Matthew Amster-Burton 20:07
So like per node, I'm guessing here, and I know you're about to tell me, but I want to see if I can guess like per node went from being a brand of absinthe to a brand of something that tastes kind of like Absinthe but doesn't have Wormwood in it.
Speaker 1 20:18
Basically, yeah, if you liked the taste of an anise flavored liquor you were going to turn to another anise flavored liquor that didn't have Wormwood in it. So pasties, to a lesser extent, ouzo, I turned to soup. I turned to soup too. Find it really comforting when my favorite alcohol is a soup. Yeah, as everyone knows, it's not exactly true what was leveled at Absinthe in terms of its dangers, okay? And it has never been proven to be more dangerous than other spirits, right? Yeah? You
Speaker 1 21:03
in the 1990s it started to become popular again. And here's what I didn't understand, the reason that it kind of was able to, I don't know. I think of it almost as like sneaking through the cracks and becoming popular again, is because when the European Union was formed in 1993 apparently they sort of modernized and did a whole bunch of changing of food and beverage laws in Europe,
Matthew Amster-Burton 21:27
I feel like, I remember is, there's, there's something called herb saint, like, are you familiar with this that I think was, was, I don't even think it was a pastis, but it was like a liquor made in New Orleans or in Louisiana that it's supposed to Be like, it when you couldn't get Absinthe. You know, you use herb Saint instead. I don't really know what I assume it's still made like. I don't know what I'm trying to say here, because I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1 21:50
Well, it's so interesting to me that that people loved this anise flavored liquor so much that we found all these alternatives and turned to all these other places to get it when you couldn't get Absinthe, because a lot of people fucking hate this flavor.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:06
Okay, yeah, can we try some? Let's try it all. Right, try it like, we're gonna, like, drip some, some cold water into it.
Speaker 1 22:13
So let's skip ahead a little bit. I mean, I do want to talk about the resurgence, but let's skip ahead to talk about, like, how people drink this. Okay, great. Okay. So basically, they're, they're two different preparations. One is the French method, which basically involves you get this almost looks like this trowel with perforations in it. Fancy. Have one. Oh, you have one. Yes, Matthew, oh, my god, okay.
Matthew Amster-Burton 22:37
Have you ever been more shocked that I had a thing I know I mentioned earlier. Mentioned it?
Speaker 1 22:42
Okay, so Matthew has just brought out this stemmed glass. The bowl of it is roughly kind of V shaped, but it's taller and narrower than a martini glass. And on the top of it is this kind of flat spoon with perforations in it, and you lay it over the top. And so this is how the French method works. Basically, you put a little bit of absinthe in the bottom of the glass. Okay, hold on, I'm gonna do that.
Matthew Amster-Burton 23:13
So we begin. This is the French method. We begin by putting a little measure of absinthe into the bottom of the glass. Oh, that's so pretty. Should I do a tiny bit more? Just for looks? Okay, yeah, for because, because some people are watching us. That's right. Okay. There are so many podcasts that, like, now you can watch the video. Understand, like, I assume we're gonna do it at some point because, like, like, we're gonna say we're not, we'll never do it, and that means we're gonna do it. But I don't want to wait. Do you have a sugar cube? I don't have a, Oh, that's right, you don't have a sugar cube. But basically, some, like, when we did, when we when we did, like, absent for for a cots D's birthday, and then we had this, like, open thing of sugar cubes sitting around with like, 900 sugar cubes in it.
Speaker 1 23:55
Hold on, wait, yeah, okay, right. So if we were doing the French method, we would put a sugar cube on top of this Absinthe spoon, and we would pour or drip some ice water onto the sugar cube, and we would add enough so that we would have like, three to five parts water to one part. Oh, okay. Oh, that's a lot. It is, okay. It is. So as the water drips through the sugar cube, obviously it takes a little bit of the sugar into the Absinthe. But basically, what we're really going to notice is that the water turns the Absinthe cloudy.
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:26
Okay, let's Should we do it? Let's do it. You want to strip some.
Speaker 1 24:30
Let's see what happens. More. Matthew, don't stop. Yes, it's
Matthew Amster-Burton 24:36
getting cloudy. I think. Yes, yeah, ew, oh, that's cool. It looks like it looks just like scope mouthwash.
Speaker 1 24:45
So there's a word for this in French. It is La louche scope, which means opaque or murky. Should I keep going? You're supposed to keep going? Okay? Because basically, so what is happening here is that they're a component. In the Absinthe that have, like, really poor water solubility, right? So this is, like, because they're soluble in alcohol, but not very soluble in water. That's right. Okay. So those things come out of solution and they make this milky appearance, yeah? And if we were really going for it, we would like keep making going, Yeah, make
Matthew Amster-Burton 25:18
it milk. I just got tired of my spoon is too small. It's too small. Okay, wait, Matthew, so now I'm going to smell it and taste it, okay, and then I'll do the same. I can see how a sugar cube would be nice. Yeah, I think a sugar cube would be nice. I remember when I tried this before I liked it, and I still like it. It's much less sweet than I would have expected. Oh, that's because it's a it's a spirit, not a liqueur,
Speaker 1 25:39
that's right, yeah. Nice. So we didn't even take it all the way to the milkiness that you see. If you look at like a photo of absinthe, it's not going to that milkiness. That's really weird, though. Why isn't it doing that? Well, you know what I do notice, Matthew, even though it's more diluted now, because you added more water, do you feel like it's more aromatic? Yeah, I do. So apparently that is because those essences that are coming out of solution are also giving off, like, volatile aromas, okay, as they come out of the solution of the Absinthe. So anyway, the other way you can drink it is the way that I think you did with December,
Matthew Amster-Burton 26:21
yeah, there was fire. I don't remember exactly what we did, but I know there was fire involved.
Speaker 1 26:24
So basically, this would be called the Bohemian method. Yes, this is, however, not A, not a thing that dates back to, like the Bohemians. It dates back to like 1997 probably, okay, yeah, this is a more recent invention. It involves fire. The setup basically looks like the French method, but the sugar cube has been soaked in alcohol, right? And usually more Absinthe, and then the sugar cube is set ablaze. Yeah, that's what we did. It was great, yeah, and and then you drop the flaming sugar cube into the glass, igniting the Absinthe, and then you add water to douse the flames. Yes, yeah, that's what we did. So obviously this is stronger, a stronger drink, because it's probably gonna have more Absinthe relative to water.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:05
Yes, I don't know if I ever have tried to dilute it as much as I did, yeah,
Speaker 1 27:09
but I think, like people who really like Absinthe, would they look down upon that? Because, I mean, flames would destroy
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:16
the delicate, the delicate aromas. Yeah. Are you hallucinating yet? No, yeah, just a little bit. What do you see? A horse? Oh, it's me. Come in.
Matthew Amster-Burton 27:38
Mr. Entomology, you're here. I'm here and I'm hallucinating myself. Did you bring anyone? I sure did I brought, I brought my friend. Normal Pete, who, like, is just kind of a guy. Hey, normal. Pete, Hi, I'm normal. Pete, ask me anything? Normal. Pete, what did you have for breakfast?
Speaker 1 28:01
Toast. Okay, all right. Okay. So, hey, wait, yeah, wait, let's figure out where the part in the agenda, where Mr. Here, I got it. I've got it. Okay. So, yeah, Mr. Etymology, what is this?
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:20
Mr. Ology, What's up, bro? So the word bra comes from Absinthe. Word is derived from Latin absinthium, which comes from the Greek absintheon, absintheon, or wormwood. Wikipedia has a bunch more about this, but it's completely unintelligible and has little in the way of citations. Well, Pete and I have got a lot of normal things to do, so we'll see you later.
Unknown Speaker 28:46
Bye, Mr. Etymology,
Matthew Amster-Burton 28:47
I'm out. Goodbye. Here. Goodbye. I was me.
Speaker 1 28:56
Okay, okay. Well, anyway, that was useless, but it was fun, always fun to have.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:01
I have a feeling normal Pete is gonna be back often.
Speaker 1 29:05
He's great. I love him, okay, but so hold on. I just want to talk a little bit about like, choosing Absinthe, because the history of like, they're coming back into favor and the different types that are available is really interesting.
Matthew Amster-Burton 29:20
Yeah, no, because when I went to the liquor store, I was like, oh boy, this is, this is more expensive than I expected. And I don't know which one to pick, yeah, but I think I did well.
Speaker 1 29:28
So what probably, or at least according to Wikipedia, what touched off this resurgence in the 90s was that a British importer started bringing in Czech Absinthe. Okay, so these are both places where Absinthe was never banned. Okay, right. So for whatever reason, some British importer started bringing in this brand of absinthe from the Czech Republic. Flooded the market in the UK. The only Absinthe that you could get at that time was made from these countries where it had never been banned. So was it ever banned in the US? Yes, okay. Okay. The US, it was banned in 1912 Okay, got it, yeah. But in the UK, it never was so people who were like, Ooh, what's this Absinthe thing? I thought this was banned. Like, what they were able to access in the 90s was this pretty shitty stuff, sure, that was made in the Czech Republic and in Spain and Portugal. This type of absinthe tends to be called bohemian style. Oh, there's a long rabbit hole that you can fall down about this, but basically not this is the opposite of bohemian style in that this is not what those Bohemians were drinking, all right? Bohemian style, basically, it has no anise, and it is much closer to like a Wormwood
Matthew Amster-Burton 30:49
bitters, okay, but this is not what the Bohemians were drinking or not what the Bohemians
Speaker 1 30:53
were drinking. This is just like when the Absinthe distilleries in France and Switzerland, like, stopped production because of the bans, these other countries, you know, started making their own, or were making their own, but they weren't necessarily making what people knew as Absinthe prior to the Okay, like the traditional stuff that that you know that to lose low track, was drinking Exactly, okay, yes. Instead, they were making this stuff that they called Absinthe, but today known as like bohemian style, which is a myth, didn't get that. And of course, it was possible for this stuff called bohemian style Absinthe to come on the market, because there, again, is no regulation anywhere but Switzerland around what gets sold as Absinthe. Okay, got it. So people who really care about Absinthe. We're not pleased with this stuff from the Czech Republic. So people started slowly bringing back traditional Absinthe.
Matthew Amster-Burton 31:51
All right, yeah, no, the timeline checks out. Because, like, I remember, yeah, like, when I first heard about I was like, Oh, this stuff is banned. You can't get it. And then I remember at some point being like, oh, it's back. I'm back.
Speaker 1 32:01
And in a lot of places, it never went away. But what did go away was access to traditional Absinthe.
Matthew Amster-Burton 32:08
Yeah, it's like the Absinthe knocked at the door and said, I'm back. Come in.
Speaker 1 32:11
That's right. So anyway, if you want to know some brands that are making like traditional Absinthe, yeah, please.
Molly 32:20
The first one to make Absinthe and bottle it in France since the ban was the brand la Fay. Absent. So the fairy, okay, the absent. Now, of course, there are dozens of brands made and sold in France. In the States, the first brand of American made Absinthe produced since the ban was St George, okay, that was started to be made and marketed in 2007 all right. But basically, the way that the US in particular got on board with Absinthe coming back on the market is, Well, number one, you can you can probably figure this out, but companies lobbied for it, but also the US made a law saying that Absinthe sold in the US must be able to be labeled thujone free. Ah, okay, okay, so thujone being that like neurotoxic compound that's in wormwood.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:20
Now question, what if I got a Jones for that through Jones?
Speaker 1 33:23
Well, good news, Absinthe can be labeled through Joan free and sold in the US. Well, when it still has a little bit of through Jones.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:30
This is this, I believe, is still a true fact that is, like one of these things that like, if you tell some of this, they'll think, okay, you're you're a weirdo. And this is definitely not true, but I believe it is Coca Cola still has cocaine in it. Oh, really, yes, just not very much.
Speaker 1 33:45
Oh, it's just like thujone in Absinthe. Yeah. So yeah, when somebody wants to talk to you about coke and the cocaine in it, you should definitely start talking about Absinthe.
Matthew Amster-Burton 33:53
Yeah, this sounds like a great I already regret bringing this up. Great.
Speaker 1 33:56
Okay, so if you are interested in going out and buying Absinthe or learning more about it, it is worth taking the time to read up a little bit on brands that are making traditional Absinthe. It would be labeled distilled Absinthe, as opposed to maybe mixed Absinthe. So and I can tell you what that means. Yeah. So distilled absinthe is basically they start with like a white grape spirit, like an eau de vie, and they re distill that with Wormwood, anise and fennel and some other herbs, okay, and that's, and that is traditional Absinthe, okay, yeah, so basically, the flavors are in there during this distillation process. Got it? Okay, yes, okay. So on the other hand, cheap Absinthe, which might be labeled mixed Absinthe, basically it's like flavored vodka. So they start with like a grain alcohol or a potato alcohol, and add flavorings to it.
Matthew Amster-Burton 34:57
Okay, I just took another sip of the Absinthe. I think there is a class of beverages. And I like when you came over, I served you an ice cold mug of root beer. And I would put root beer in the same category. It is beverages that are delicious, as long as you don't think about how they taste like toothpaste. So I would put Absinthe in that category. Also, like it has more of a fennel than a mint flavor. But wait, what it reminds me of, like, and I was like, nope, nope. Make that go away. Is the the toms of Maine, fennel flavored toothpaste, oh, oh, my god, rat toothpaste, yes, yeah. Hold on, let me taste it again with TOMS of Maine and mind Toms of mind. Oh, yeah, right, but this is like when I think too hard about almost any herbal Oh, sure. It is shocking to me that we came to find these things to be palatable, yeah? Or, like, when I'm drinking a bottle of herbal essences, oh,
Unknown Speaker 35:50
yeah, I'm always like, why am I doing this? Like,
Matthew Amster-Burton 35:53
it makes me, it makes me feel like the people on the Herbal Essences commercial, that's why
Speaker 1 35:59
I would say, do a little research before you buy the stuff, expect to pay a nice chunk of change for it, and it should be distilled, not mixed. Or it might say that it's made, that it's traditional Absinthe.
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:11
Okay, it's, I'm sure we talked about, we did a shampoo episode, right? Did we? I'm pretty sure I think we did. But, like, I was just reminded again, thinking about herbal essences and Calgon take me away that. Like, I feel like there's, like, a long tradition of advertising for for, like, bath products, where they where the hook is, like, use this product and you'll come right.
Speaker 1 36:33
Yeah, totally, totally. I mean, Celeste pizza for one,
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:36
Celeste pizza for one is another.
Speaker 1 36:41
Okay, but anyway, hey, what about the Sazerac?
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:44
Matthew, oh, I have had it. I liked it. I don't know what's in it.
Speaker 1 36:49
Do you No, but look how much I learned about absent.
Matthew Amster-Burton 36:53
Okay, maybe we'll do a separate, like, I was gonna try and, like, make or purchase a Sazerac. Maybe we'll do a separate short Sazerac episode at some point that seems unnecessary. It seems unlikely, yeah? Like, it's a tasty cocktail that has Absinthe in it.
Speaker 1 37:05
And I would say that the Sazerac, for me, really plays on the fragrance of absinthe, yeah?
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:11
And like, it seems like kind of natural somehow, that, like that, that New Orleans has an association not just with the Sazerac, but but with Absinthe in general, because it's like, we're America's most bohemian city, like, you know, we also enjoy this bohemian liquor.
Speaker 1 37:26
That's right, you know what I really wish we had here is some pasties. Yeah, because I would, I would love to see pastis is definitely sweeter than Absinthe. But if Absinthe were made with the sugar cube, I wonder how different they are. Too bad we'll never find out.
Matthew Amster-Burton 37:43
Yeah, what if? What if it was made by the sugar cubes? Oh, Bjork. Bjork and that guy, yeah, yeah. I mean, one of my, one of my favorites, is birthday. So for my birthday, maybe you could get Bjork to sing birthday to me. No, I can get, but I can get the other guy to sing. Oh, okay. Can you get occasionally? I can come up with that guy's name off the top of my head, but not at the moment, nope, but a bottle of pesticides. Okay, I'll come over. I can do that, and we'll continue to make our way teaspoon at a time through your Absinthe. Okay, great. Hey, Molly, what you snacking? Oh, Matthew,
Speaker 2 38:19
hey, what you snacking? You gotta tell me what you're snacking, or I'll release the cracking. So what you snacking?
Speaker 1 38:31
So a while ago we had this company, BB go as an advertiser, yes, yeah. So makers of like, I think at that time, we were advertising their soup dumplings, which were really good, okay? Well, at h Mart, a couple H Mart visits ago, my kid and I picked up a pot sticker product they have that are labeled chap che pot stickers, okay? And they don't look like gyoza, they, they look almost like a sort of a slightly smashed egg roll. Yes, you, you know, you pan cook them and eat them like you would eat any other pot sticker. They've got, like, bean thread noodles inside pork and beef. Nice. They are
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:08
so good. Okay, I bet they sell these at the at the M to M market.
Speaker 1 39:13
Sure, they do. So, yeah, the brand is BB go, and it'll say chap che pot stickers.
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:18
Okay, yeah, you've been on fire with the dumpling recommendations lately, because the all purpose, like, do you remember the name the brand, is that one you recommend? Yeah, there you go. That, like, those have become, like, my standard house one, so good. They're so good, all right, yeah, that's, I wouldn't say I'm snacking it, but I'm sort of snacking. You can snack up dumpling, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a tasty snack. Matthew, do you have an Albert, wow, I do. It
Matthew Amster-Burton 39:51
is a book for young readers called a spoonful of time by Flora Ahn, say, a middle grade novel. And it is about Maya, whose grandma. Mother is fading into dementia. But Maya finds that when she and her grandmother eat certain foods together, they travel in time back to like, you know, early, earlier moments in her grandmother's life. It's definitely like a sweet book, and there's great Korean home cooking content, but also, like, it's some weird, some weird stuff happens. It's not, it's not just like, you know, pure like sentimentality by any means. Okay, okay, so that's a spoonful of time by Flora on a h, n, nice. Our producer is Absinthe circuit. Tell us, of course, and you can rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.
Unknown Speaker 40:35
And you can chat with other spilled milk listeners at reddit.com/r/everything,
Matthew Amster-Burton 40:41
spilled milk. And as a gift to you for listening this far in the Absinthe episode. Sorry, no, this was, this was great. We have a special treat for you. This was a produced by listener, Allison, and it is called the Molly Nevers. And this is from about our first 500 episodes. And is a super well. Just, just keep, keep listening to the till the end, after the theme music, you'll, you'll figure out exactly what it is very quickly. And it's one of the best things I've ever heard. So thank you. Listener, Allison,
Speaker 1 41:10
yeah, thank you. Listener, Allison, I truly, I had no idea.
Matthew Amster-Burton 41:17
Okay, I'm Molly Weisenberg And I'm Matthew Amster-Burton. I could we do a show where we've, like, generated a list of like, all the experience you have, experiences you haven't had before that most people your age have, and just jam the wall into one episode?
Speaker 1 41:36
Yes, I've actually never had peanut butter and honey. I've never had real butter on popcorn. I've never had a jelly donut. I've never had vanilla pudding. I have never had chicken marsala. I've really never had biscuits and gravy. I've never eaten jelly I've never eaten Pop Rocks. I'm kind of scared. I've never had a frozen burrito. I've never had ready whip in my whole life. Well, the first time I ever had an ice cream soda was right now. I never have eaten tater tots. I think even in the presence of my mother, I have never had a TV dinner. I don't know I really have never had stew, never had sugar, I've never had manicotti. I never had like blintzes. I've still never had a blitz. Once again, we are talking about a food that I've never eaten before. I've never been
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:17
to Hooters. Are you familiar with the with the Toaster Strudels, frozen product.
Speaker 1 42:21
No, I don't think I've ever cooked linguini. Wow. I've never cooked an omelet. Ever have you had a Jamaican I've not had a Jamaican patty. I didn't
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:28
want to go a little Rudy, Tooty, fresh and fruity. What?
Speaker 1 42:31
I've never been a Beatles fan, and I've never had a calzone. I've not had a hot pocket or a calzone. What's Old Town road. I have never bought pepperoni. Stripes is so cool that I've never even heard of it. I don't know if I've ever had a one sauce. I've never bought, like, a frozen fried food, like, like french fries, or whatever you bought tater tots, right? I've never bought tater tots, and I've never hold a sunflower seed with my teeth.
Matthew Amster-Burton 42:59
Have you ever eaten fajitas? No, I would, for sure get an original Orange Julius.
Speaker 1 43:05
I've never had one, the orange chicken at Panda Express, which I've never had, the hostess fruit pies that I did not eat and have never eaten. I don't like the smell of a hot sandwich. I don't think I've ever had pepper jack. Okay, so that was my first Philly Cheesesteak. Everybody. I have never had a White Russian Oh, I have. I don't think I've ever eaten at a Burger King in my life. I don't think I've ever had a hamantaschen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai