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Absinthe experiment From: aseem@mit.edu Date: 1995/11/27 MessageID: 49bld4$1f8@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU#1/1 distribution: world organization: tdc newsgroups: rec.drugs.psychedelic Ok, I ordered a fluid ounce of wormwood extract from an ethnobotanical company. The bottle was marked with poison symbols, which made me a bit apprehensive. I read somewhere that the proper proportions to make the fabled Absinthe was 1 cup of Pernod to 1 teaspoon of wormwood. I didn't feel like buying Pernod, so I cracked open the wormwood bottle and added a teaspoon to a cup of Absolut vodka. The wormwood was very dark and had a very strong odor, kinda minty but with a distinctive edge to it. The oil was very hard to wash of the spoon, it stained it green, and the spoon smelled like wormwood for a while. This worried me, considering I planned to pour it down my esophagus. I mixed it vigorously, covered the cup in Saran wrap, and placed it in a refrigerator for two days. After the wait, I stirred it up and strained it through a rag, removing a resiny layer that had separated from the mixture. The resultant mixture was a cloudy green, it looked a little like bong water, and smelled even worse. The white plastic spoon I used to mix it was colored green, and wouldn't wash easily. I was getting apprehensive about the stuff, and the smell was making me queasy. I mixed a shot of the mixture with lots of water and sugar. It did not turn opaque white, as I read it should. Summing my courage, I started drinking the 16 oz concoction. It had a strong taste much like the smell of wormwood, and made my stomach very queasy. Every sip I took made me gag and make sour faces. I don't know if my reaction was psychological because I was afraid of the stuff, or if I just didn't like the taste, or if the stuff really was bad for me and my body was complaining. I put red Kool-Aid crystals in it to make it more palatable, but it didn't help. I gave up after a quarter of the cup. I think I got a buzz off it, there was a drone in my head and I felt like I was on painkillers, but I think I need to drink more. I ate alot of food and drank water afterwards, but the horrible taste was hard to get out of my mouth, I think it coated my alimentary canal like it did the spoon. This thought was not pleasant. I think I am going to just try and down a shot of the wormwood and vodka without diluting it, and hope I don't vomit it out. That will take some courage, though. Does anyone have any experience with this, did I do anything wrong? Any suggestions or dire warnings? If I don't get any negative feedback, I'm just gonna down the shot and hope for the best, and then post the results. I'm open to ideas and suggestions. Wish me luck! Aseem ========================================== Okay, the following is completely anecdotal information, but here goes. A college friend of mine (let's call him Bill) told the following story which was told to him by high school friend of his (let's call him Bob): Bob went wandering around Europe for a few months one summer while in college. He was in Lisbon, Portugal, where absinthe is still legally sold, and decided that he wanted to try an "absinthe cocktail," which is absinthe strained through a sugar cube into a glass with ice and Perrier (or something like that). He said he had two of them, and reported a psychedelic experience, "similar to, but not quite the same as tripping with mushrooms [psilocybin (sp?)]." He described the trip as being more auditory than visual, and much less intense than a "'shroom" trip. He said that he went to the beach shortly after this, and "the ocean sounded like Sonic Youth." He also said the landscape looked like it had been painted by Monet. Anyway, assuming that what Bob told Bill was true, and what Bill told me was not exaggerated, (this could very well not be the case, knowing the two of them), it seems to me that there was something more to the potency of this drink than simply alcohol. Maybe it was the absinthe, maybe it was Bob experiencing an acid flashback, or maybe the bartender dropped a small dose of something else (LSD?) into the drink. Come to think of it, I guess there really is no point to this, since neither of them are homebrewers or have a recipie. I thought it would be something to keep in mind, though, before experimentation with the stuff. Sorry for the waste of bandwidth. -- Mike Ferdinando msf2@cornell.edu Cornell University Office of the Bursar Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this posting are my own, and do not represent the views of Cornell University or the Office of the Bursar. My boss made me say this.