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Absinthe is an alcohol liqueur derived from herbs including the flowers and leaves of the medicinal plant Artemisia absinthium, also called wormwood.
Absinthe is known for its popularity in France—and especially its romantic associations with Parisian artists and writers—in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, until its prohibition in 1915. The most popular brand of absinthe known to the world was Pernod Fils.
Absinthe usually has a pale-green color (giving it its nickname "The Green Fairy") and tastes much like an anise-flavored liqueur, but with a more subtle flavor due to the many herbs used, and light bitter undertones. In addition to wormwood, it contains anise (often partially substituted with star anise), Florence fennel, hyssop, melissa, and Roman wormwood (Artemisia pontica). Various recipes also include angelica root, sweet flag, dittany leaves, coriander, and other mountain herbs.
The alcohol content is extremely high (45 percent - 85 percent, though there is no historical evidence that any commercial vintage absinthe was higher than 74 percent) given the low solubility of many of the herbal components in alcohol. It is usually not drunk "straight," but consumed after a fairly elaborate ritual in which a specially designed, slotted spoon with a sugar cube inside its bowl is placed over a glass, and water is poured over the sugar until the drink is diluted 3:1 to 5:1. During that ritual, the components that are not soluble in water come out of solution and cloud the drink; that milky opalescence has always been called the "louche".
It was thought that excessive absinthe-drinking led to effects which were specifically worse than those associated with over-indulgence in other forms of alcohol — which is bound to have been true for some of the less scrupulously adulterated products, creating the condition absinthisme. Undistilled wormwood essential oil contains a substance called thujone, which is an epileptic (and can cause renal failure) in extremely high doses, and the supposed ill effects of the drink were blamed on that substance in 19th century studies.
After publicity about several violent crimes supposedly committed under the direct influence of the drink, along with a general tendency toward hard liquor consumption due to the wine shortage in France during the 1880s and 1890s, the temperance leagues and winemaker's associations effectively targeted absinthe's popularity as social menace. They said that it makes people crazy and criminal, it turns men into brutes and threatens the future of our times. Edgar Degas' 1876 painting, L'absinthe (The Absinthe Drinkers) (now at the Musée d'Orsay) epitomized the popular view of absinthe "addicts" as sodden and benumbed and Emile Zola described their serious intoxication in his novel L'Assommoir. Absinthe was banned from sale and production in most countries by 1915.