Absinthe: The American Remix

Having spent some time in the Czech Republic, I've had the opportunity to indulge in drinking Absinthe. Of course, absinthe is illegal here in the United States because it contains thujone, an ingredient from wormwood. Good news, however, in today's New York Times:

Intrepid drinkers have worked around the ban by ordering imported bottles off the Internet or smuggling them back from Eastern Europe. Now they have a third, less dodgy option: Lucid, which is being marketed as the first legal, genuine American absinthe in nearly a century.

According to the article, Lucid was made in conjunction with a French absinthe producer who helped remove wormwood from the process. There's no valid debate that thujone in absinthe has very little physical effect on the drinker. Moreover, it's now clear that the absinthe consumed in its Moulin Rouge prime contained only very small traces, since most never makes it through the distilling process.

It's a myth that absinthe will make you hallucinate. From my experience, it gives you a unique buzz - something akin to a lucid drunk (perhaps the reason for the new brand name).