I too am growing wormwood so I would love to hear from anyone that knows how long to soak the fresh leaves and how much fresh leaf should be used in place of...for example 1 once of dried leaf?

You can get wormwood from many Herb sellers on the internet. As for using it in Absinthe... check out this link: http://www.feeverte.net/recipes.html

They have a lot of 'historical' recipes but I wouldnt know about the saftey of them. My suggestion is start macerating short periods then build up the time with each subsequent batch. I have done this.... What happens is you get to a point where the Absinthe is to bitter to consume. Its probably too strong at that point. You cant be gaurnteed the same level of Thujone from each batch of wormwood so its kinda hit or miss. The thing is, if its too weak, you can macerate longer.. if its too strong, dilute it with more ethanol.... good luck.

<font size="-1">I don"t know if you are trying to get the flavor or the hallucinogenic effects of absinthe. I it is flavor essences you want the ones Rick referred to are the best. If you are looking to see the 'green Fairy' The amount of wormwood you put in determines its effect. Wormwood contains an alkaloid called Thujone. This ,combined with a high percentage alcohol base, is what is responsible for the wondrous effect of absinthe.

The best way to compare it is to think of Thujone as the THC of wormwood; its what does the trick so to say. However if using store bought wormwood you can not be sure as to the amount of the Thujone that will seep out of the wood into the liquor. Thus there is no standardization in the process. One day you could get a 100mg, which is THE BOMB. Another it could be 10mg, which delivers very little effect beyond the alcohol.

One important aspect is to have a very potent percentage of alcohol to aide in this process, at least 150 proof I say. If you want to water down you can do so later, but for now you need the alcohol because you will basically be making a tincture of wormwood. If you are not familiar with the tincture making process you can find directions online and I will try to post a good method later if someone is interested.

It is good to note you can make a tincture out of ANY herb and it is a lovely way to experience the herbs effects. I have had the most success in buying it due to the increased availability of the standardized amounts of Thujone listed on the bottles that are produced oversees. These were included in the link I previously posted. The king gold bottle has 100mg of TJ and it is OHH so strong. Like run through the streets naked to avoid the aliens strong!

Good Luck Let me know if you have any other questions!</font>

Most of the information here regarding absinthe is incorrect. I have been and absinthe maker, amateur historian, and collector of many fine abisinthes ,both pre-ban and modern, for about ten years. Absinthe cannot be made from prefabricated 'essences.' Those beverages made from them are a very, very poor aproximation of what absinthe is, and should be ,yes, I've tried the Strand essence,. Thujone is not present in absinthe in sufficient quantities to be psychoactive. Absinthe will not make one hallucinate. Virtually all absinthes ,or 'absinths', made in Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic are not absinthes, and in no way come close to what absinthe is. They are poorly rectified vodka containing low-quality wormwood extract and artificial colors. Also, the information in the Fine Living, Thirsty traveler segment is, for the most part, correct. The producers however took creative license with the scene of putting raw absinthe plants into the still. That is never really done in making absinthe. In absinthe making, all the herbs/spices are dried prior to adding to the alcohol maceration stage.
If you are interested in absinthe I would suggest that you go to:
www.feeverte.net
www.oxygenee.com
www.absintheonline.com
www.absinthedistribution.com

Well, I must heartily disagree with your statement about many of the 'top' brands using essential oils in their product at the height of absinthe's popularity. Pernod, E.Pernod, Oxygenee, and other houses made it an advertising point that they never used essences in their production. There were many low-class establishments that used a variety of essences for creating their absinthe, in addition to using chemicals and inferior alcohols in its production. As for modern Pernod ,the 'absinthe' not the pastis, I'll agree that it is a third tier product made from steam-distilled essential oils and bears no real resemblence to the product of old.

In Zman's defense, he and many others are pretty much on top of the 'absinthe scene' as it were"”it's a relatively small world.

A lot of us are intimately familiar with what is produced and how. We're also in personal communication with the producers. There are so very few 'top' brands of absinthe produced, it's pretty easy to keep up with.

Many of what are promoted and thought of as 'top brands' are actually pretty bad. Pernod 68 and La Fée come immediately to mind as substandard, 'oil-mix' absinthes which most people think of as top brands"”only because of marketing.

My friends and I want to drink absinthe this year to kick off our college years. I am wondering what kind of absinthe I should get, and where I should get it? Keeping in mind that my friend 'wants to see the green fairy', and that my friends and I are broke ass college students and dont want to pay 200 dollars a bottle. Any suggestions?

LOL, maybe you just haven't gotten any of the good stuff?

I'm amazed that everybody through the years has been snookered into thinking that absinthe is more psychoactive that straight alcohol...though I do know multiple people who have sold incense as opium so I know people are quite capable of being fooled.

Maybe that would explain some of the whack shit france has done. J/k, but seriously though, I take your point, but I've found many references to the psychoactive properties of thujone. Perhaps some absinthes have more 'effects' than others due to a higher thujone content?

just from googling around I'm pretty convinced thujone is psychoactive. I wish I could rely on my own experience but I don't remember anything of the night when I drank a lot of absinthe, so can't say what exactly it did:

'Rice and Wilson found that a-thujone had comparative antinociceptive effects to codeine when injected subcutaneously in rats using the hot plate test ,ED50= 6.5 mg/kg,,5,. '

'Other cultures have discovered thujoneÃŒs intoxicating effects. In West Bengal Artemisia nilagirica ,a thujone containing plant, is smoked for its psychoactive effect and the Zuni smoke Artemisia caruhii as an analgesic,1,.'

'For a while it was hypothesized that thujone and tetrahydrocannabinol had the same site of action. This was believed to be true because of the similarities in their structures and effects,6,. But in 1997, it was shown that neither thujone nor wormwood binds to the canabinoid receptor,7,. Until recently it wasnÃŒt known wh at the mode of action for a-thujone was but a recent study done by Hold et al. at Berkeley have found the toxinÃŒs mode of action,8,.

They discovered that a-thujone is a Ïmodulator of the g-aminobutyric acid ,GABA, type A receptor.,8,Ó They compared a-thujone toxic effects to that of picrotoxinin, a GABAA receptor antagonist. It was found that they both had similar toxic effect and the toxicity in both was suppressed by diazepam, phenobarbital and ethanol. They also found that drosophila that had a single point mutation in the GABA receptor that made them resistant to dieldrin were also resistant to a -thujone. a-Thujone was found to be Ïa competitive inhibitor of [3H]EBOB binding, i.e., of the noncompetitive blocker site of the GABA-gated chloride channel.,8,Ó a-Thujone was also found to be a reversible modulator of the GABAA receptor in the dorsal root ganglia neurons. '

5. Rice, K.C; Wilson, R.S. Ï,-,-3-Isothujone, a small nonnitrogenous molecule with antinociceptive activity in mice.Ó Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 19.8 ,1976,: 1054-7.

6. Del Castillo, J; Anderson, M; Rubottom, GM. ÏMarijuana, absinthe, and the central nervous system.Ó Nature 253 ,1975,: 365-6.

7. Meschler, J; Marsh, C; Land, B; Howlett. ÏFailure of the active component of absinthe ,Artmisia absinthium, to bind the cannabinoid receptor.Ó International Cannabinoid Research Society, 1997 Meeting.

8. Hold, K; Sirisoma, N; Ikeda, T; Narahashi, T; Casida, J: Ïa-Thujone ,the active component of absinthe,: g-Aminobutyric acid type A receptor modulation and metabolic detoxification.Ó PNAS 97.8 ,2000,: 3826-31.