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Trip the green fantastic: the truth about absinthe

Jessica Wright
Jessica Wright

Riding the Green Fairy. Toulouse-Lautrec’s lunatic tipple. A drink to trip on. Dancing with the Green Lady.

Melbourne bartender and expert mixologist Benjamin Luzz has heard it all when it comes to that most maligned and misunderstood of spirits – absinthe.

First distilled in Switzerland more than two centuries ago, and incredibly popular with the Parisian artists, poets and intellectuals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, absinthe gave the drinker a sense of elation and was thought to stimulate creativity over and above the normal giddy effects of alcohol.

It quickly gained a bad reputation when a nasty medical condition was linked to, and named after, the green tipple - absinthism. Reported symptoms included hallucinations, enfeeblement, epileptic attacks and insanity.

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Whether absinthe or alcohol itself was to blame is still debated among medical professionals, with most blaming absinthe’s extraordinarily high alcohol content – up to 90 per cent proof in some brands distilled in the 19th century.

Luzz is out to restore absinthe’s reputation and to educate the drinking public on this unique and unusual drink.

You know, I still have people say to me when I suggest having an absinthe, ‘does it make you crazy, won’t I hallucinate, and will I lose it and kill people?’ Short answer? No, no and definitely no.

Just as preparing the spirit for drinking is a lengthy and fiddly process, so too is his progress with the public.

“In a nutshell, I am just trying to break down all the preconceptions people have about absinthe,” he says.

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“You know, I still have people say to me when I suggest having an absinthe, ‘does it make you crazy, won’t I hallucinate, and will I lose it and kill people?’ Short answer? No, no and definitely no.

“These tales were started hundreds of years ago and even though they have been disproved they still remain.

“There is a very small basis to the stories I guess and it mainly comes from the inclusion of wormwood in the drink, a shrub related to the daisy family.’’

Wormwood has some medicinal properties, and was intensified by the distillation process.

“It gives you a sense of elation and, along with tequila, it is the only alcohol that acts as a stimulant rather than a depressant.”

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Head bartender at Bar Ampere, in Melbourne’s CBD, Luzz has curated an impressive list of more than 20 different absinthe brands.

Preparation of the spirit is ritualistic and follows a tradition dating back hundreds of years.

Laying out his equipment with surgical precision – a perforated silver spoon, a silver vintage water fountain filled with ice and H2O, a sugar cube and a bulbous crystal goblet – Luzz begins a ritual that is slow, sensual and a touch hypnotic. Much like the drink itself, he explains.

The sugar cube is placed on the spoon and suspended over the glass, into which a shot of the green spirit is poured. The iced water is slowly dripped over the sugar cube – which balances the bitter taste of the absinthe – in a time-honoured tradition that invokes the creativity and style of those Parisian ne’er do wells.

Luzz recommends drinking absinthe at the close of a meal or in the evening, rather than as an aperitif, and never to down more than three in a session.

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We will leave you to discover why … something about a ride on an emerald fairy, we suspect.

Luzz will share his absinthe expertise on November 7, 14, 21 and 28 as part of The Age Good Food Month instant expert series. Tickets: $65. Details: 9663 7557.

Jessica WrightJessica Wright is a breaking news reporter for The Age. Previously she was the national political correspondent for The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age and a breaking news reporter for the <i>National Times</i>.

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