Absinthe with wormwood?

Topic created by luckyK
on Fri, 28 Aug 2009 at 07:03

luckyK said on Fri, 28 Aug 2009 at 07:03...

hey guys, i wanna know which is the absinthe with wormwood? i read that some dont.

THEABSINTHEPROFESSOR said on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 at 07:26...

True enough, it is very confusing. Many brands do technically make absinthe with wormwood (artemisia absinthium is real deal) but the problem with the USA is that it must test "thujone free" and this means:

1. They use very little and the result is a licorice bomb from anise
2. They use a subsitute - like Absente
3. They use a genetic modified chemotype of wormwood with no thujone
4. They extract the thujone after distillation.

Thujone is a natural element and wormwood that is grown at high altitudes (the best) produces a lot of thujone, as it is a natural medicine for the plant because of the climate. Which is the absinthe with wormwood? Good question!

Old Nick said on Thu, 3 Sep 2009 at 07:55...

Wormwood in this sense means Artemisia absinthium. It can be bought in bulk from places like Turkey I think. The best real wormwood absinthe uses the mountain plant, like the prof says. You can think of it like this: there are many different grades ...... the trouble is the very best tends to be naturally rich in THUJONE and are expensive to cultivate,harvest and dry. After that the final product needs to be tampered with (more expense) if it is going to exported to the USA.