absinthe

All this talk of Absinthe, and in particular, a local absinthe distillery brings to mind an interesting story (to me at least) about it.

Thirty years ago, my parents won a bottle of original Pernod Absinthe in a wine auction.



The bottle had been previously opened and apparently came from the cellars of the Crocker family. Rather than popping the cork immediately after geting it home and inducing a hallucinogenic painting spree, they saved it and put off its dramatic re-opening for an important occasion. The occasion kept being pushed back: first it was my graduation from high school, then Kenji's conversion to a U.S. citizen, then college graduation, and we finally ended up opening it when I got my Ph.D. at a little gathering of friends. Among those friends, coincidentally, was the well known UC Berkeley professor and good family friend John Casida. As it happens, John had done a lot of research on Thujone, the "active" ingredient in Absinthe (there is controversy over whether these new Absinthes are really Absinthes, since the Thujone has been mostly removed) and had worked with it himself. Thujone has a distinct odor, and as soon as we uncorked the bottle, he exclaimed that it was the most concentrated thujone solution he had ever smelled. Although John demurred when offered a glass of the green stuff, Kenji and I dove in. I'm disappointed to report that we didn't paint any masterpieces shortly thereafter. On the other hand, neither of us went mad (or madder in Kenji's case) or chopped off our ears.