All About - History - Hitler Versus Stain

DrinkiNg
with the
DeviL
conjuring images of bohemian artists,
pale-faced poets and the long-lost glamour
of 19th-century cafe culture, discover
how absinthe fever intoxicated a nation
Written by Catherine Curzon
The clock strikes five on the left bank of the
Seine on a lazy Parisian afternoon in 1850.
Here, the artists and poets, the writers
and dreamers, gather in intimate bars and
pavement cafés as the shadows lengthen,
the famous rubbing shoulders with their followers,
models and muses. Here they begin nights that will
last until dawn and beyond, no care for the bustle
of those in the streets, the office workers who hurry
home with no time to think of anything other than
the here and now.
Yet at five o’clock a ritual begins not only in Paris,
but across the country and beyond. This is the time
to take a moment, to lazily mix a glass of absinthe
and drift away in the thrall of the Green Fairy.
This is l’heure verte. In time, Europe’s love for this
unique and infamous beverage will lead to scandal,
rumours of murder and insanity and, eventually, an
outright ban. For now though, the green hour holds
the country under its spell.
In fact, if not for a catastrophic aphid attack on
the vineyards of Europe, absinthe might never have
become popular at all. It began life in 1792 as a
medicinal tonic developed in Switzerland by Doctor
Pierre Ordinaire, a French physician. The doctor’s
potent blend of wormwood (a plant), fennel and
anise had an eye-wateringly high alcohol content,
but Ordinaire didn’t envision the future that lay
ahead for his concoction.
13 years later, Switzerland’s Henri-Louis Pernod,
who became famous for a liquor that bore his own
name, opened the first ever absinthe distillery. The
unusual drink found a market with soldiers, who
used it as a cure-all, though it proved particularly
effective in the fight against malaria.
Despite its popularity with the military, the
aniseed-flavoured drink with its vivid green
hue was a far from popular tipple. After all, in
19th-century France, wine was the drink of the
nation. All of that changed in the late 1860s when
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