Jacob, Jacob, Jacob….when did you become the kind of person that writes about the soul of an alcoholic beverage?

Great post. Jealous that you got to mix with the Lucid, I’ve only gotten to try a few tastes!

Flare bartending! Great one! Seriously, don’t ever call it that again

Just kidding. Glad you could break out the flamethrower!

Jeff

Gwydion Stone and the author of that “paper” that he quotes, are both involved in the manufacture and distribution of abinthe.

You are entitled to your opinion. I choose not to believe those that are selling absinthe in a “zero thujone” market like the USA. They use all kinds of tactics to vilify those that question them. None of them have any qualifications to comment on the subject whatsoever.

Gwydion Stone owns a webste and makes absinthe by proxy in Switzeralnd which he sells online.

David Nathan Maister is the leading online absinthe baron - nothing more.

Alan Moss? Don’t make me laugh.

I’ll stick with the academics on this:

“They are playing pretend,” study co-author Wilfred Arnold says of the liquor’s new cheerleaders. “It is nothing like the old stuff.

You can also play along if you wish, it’s a well organised and financed PR campaign. It’s your decision what you choose to believe. Do you also think the moon is made of cheese?

If I am mistaken, I welcome a correction. Anyone wanting to follow the debate further can read the comments here:
http://imbibemagazine.blogspot.com/2008/01/seeing-green.html

**”It will be like drinking decaffeinated coffee,” says Pierre-André Delachaux, a history professor. “I will keep on drinking illegal absinthe until the supply dries up, then I’ll switch to whisky.”**

Genuine Val de Travers expert speaking at the time the Swiss ban was lifted about thujone.

**But the biggest controversy surrounding the liquor–once dubbed “one of the worst enemies of man”–is about not its resurgence but rather its authenticity. Enthusiasts claim the thujone-free brands, which contain less than 10 parts per million (p.p.m.) of the chemical, are made with the same relatively small amounts of thujone as the old brews. But scientists wrote in the British Medical Journal that absinthe bottled before 1900 packed up to 260 p.p.m. of thujone–which may not sound like much, but consider that only 15 parts per billion of lead in drinking water is enough to scare regulators. “They are playing pretend,” study co-author Wilfred Arnold says of the liquor’s new cheerleaders. “It is nothing like the old stuff.”**

Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007 Time Magazine

That’s Professor Wilfred Arnold , Biochemist, University of Kansas.