No effect on Lucid Absinthe?

Question

Okay, so being the typical idiots we are, my friend and I went out and bought a bottle of Lucid brand absinthe. She heard that it made you trip out. Kay, I was game. So we poured ourselves some shots and began tipping them back. I had about 3 total and got quite drunk. I felt BARELY different from being drunk, normally, and a lot more sick. She didn't feel anything different. So we sat and waited and waited. Finally, I puked off the side of my bed and about 15 minutes later she was hugging my toilet.

Have any of you experienced the weird sort of "high" you are supposed to get from absinthe or is it just all a myth?

Some guy in one of my classes said it made him "trip balls". Did we just not have enough?

Answer 1

"Some guy in one of my classes said it made him "trip balls"."

He is full of sh#t.

"Did we just not have enough?"

Absinthe doesn't, nor has it ever caused you to trip. You could drink the whole bottle and it would never make you hallucinate.

The hallucinogenic effects of "real" absinthe are myth. During the late 1800's the French wine industry almost went out of business. Many vineyards had closed do to a draught and an infestation of the crops. Absinthe surging popularity at the time did little to help. So they all got together and decided to spread a rumor about absinthe being dangerous and causing you to see things. This was later picked up on by the Temperance movement here in the US and has stuck with us ever since, because rather than actually looking up something the average person would rather have it handed to them...true or false doesn't matter as long as they don't have to work for it.

Scientist at the time theorized that absinthe must have contains in excess of 50-60ppm (parts per million) of thujene and that was what was causing the visions. Interestingly enough even 60ppm isn't enough to trip on.

Scientists today know the truth...absinthe never contained more than 10ppm and actually averaged around 5. Chemical testing has been done on unopened vintage bottles of absinthe from turn of the century France to prove this.

In order to hallucinate on absinthe ("real" or modern) you would have to drink enough to kill you from alcohol poisoning. Let me tell you, you see enough **** when you've got alcohol poisoning...you don't need thujene.

http://www.absintheonline.com/acatalog/a...

Interestingly enough...wormwood (the souce of thujene in absinthe) is also a primary ingriedent in Vermouth...and vermouth has never been banned.

PS. You puked because Lucid is 70% alcohol...compaired to your average liquor at 40% it is damned near double the strength.

Answer 2

I've had European Absinthe and the new legal import absinthe, straight, with the whole water over a sugar cube and on fire and I've never felt one tiny bit different than when I've had vodka or whisky. I don't know if there's some Thujone-packed absinthe out there that fits the Green Fairy Tale, but at this point I pretty much doubt it.

I think absinthe got a reputation for being hallucinogenic and everyone is so caught up in it that they either focus on the normal drunk feelings and conclude its different or they make stuff up to get people to drink stuff that, to me, tasted pretty awful.

Answer 3

Absinthe used to be totally trippy stuff, then it was banned for many, many years - and now you're buying stuff just called "Absinthe", it's not the real deal that inspired writers and poets.  You can't buy Mezcal with worms in it any more either for the same reason (at least not in Oz) - they were great!

Answer 4

It is "thujone free" and therefore you will not have any effects. Here is the science if you are interested:

"Alcohol and thujone are opposites - as alcohol is a GABA agonist and thujone is an antagonist. Alcohol stimulates the production of this GABA neurotransmitter and causes drowsiness and sleep. Thujone on the other hand prevents alcohol from performing that function. Real absinthe is actually a 'speedball', it's constituents promote the production of GABA and open its receptors, while at the same time closing those receptors off. This is why the lucidity of an absinthe drinker contrasts to the state of normal drunkness and the experience has been described using the metaphor of the green fairy"

BTW: You should mix absinthe with water at a ratio of 1:4 - 1:5. I am sorry to hear that it made you sick :-( but if you drink it neat that can happen. You can also add sugar if you find the resulting liquid too bitter. The water will release the herbal oils in real absinthe which has wormwood and create a clouding called the louche.