Wormwood Society | Discover Absinthe, Wormwood Recipes, and Thujone Information (original) (raw)

Our criteria are based solidly on the known characteristics of properly made absinthe in the mid to late 19th century. These characteristics have been documented through modern scientific and organoleptic analysis, i.e. gas chromatograph/mass spectrometry and the tasting of many surviving examples.

Our reasoning is that when someone approaches absinthe, they are usually expecting the genuine and complete item of the Belle Époque, that imbibed by Van Gogh, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Satie and Toulouse-Lautrec, with the full flavors and characteristics of the most mysterious drink in history. What did the patrons of the Moulin Rouge and the Cabaret du Chat Noir smell, taste, and see when they drank absinthe? This is the standard against which we judge modern absinthes.