VAIL, Colo.-
The plant that produces absinthe, the subject of a painting by Edgar Degas and a favorite of Mark Twain and Bohemians during the Belle Epoque, grows like a weed in this mountain resort.
Traditional absinthe is banned in the U.S. because of the presence of the chemical thujone.
“We sure do have it in the town of Vail, and we have a lot of it,” said Gregg Barrie, who directs the town’s weed program.
Nicknamed the “Green Fairy,” it was banned for a time in Europe because of fears that it was an hallucinogen. Some producers marketed it as having the effects of a drug to increase sales. Vincent Van Gogh was rumored to have sliced off his ear under the influence of the drink.
Recent European studies indicate the modern-day liquor contains very small amounts of thujone, and the hallucinogenic effects of thujone remain in dispute. With a high alcoholic content, absinthe’s biggest health threat appears to be alcoholism.
The town only discovered its presence last year.
“It looks a lot like sage,” said Stephen Elzinga, the county’s weed coordinator. “Up until about three or four years ago, I didn’t even know what it was.”
The licorice-flavored drink is made up several herbs, including green anise, florence fennel and grande wormwood. The latter plant grows along bike paths and frontage roads in Vail.
Elzinga told the Vail Daily that hard-drinking miners may have brought the plant to the area in the 19th century.
Whatever the case, a legal, refined version of the liquor remains popular, says Mickey Werner, managing partner of Alpine Wine and Spirits.
“We sell quite a bit of it,” Werner said. “We happen to have some locals—I don’t know if they’re seasonals or locals—who just have a taste for it.”
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Information from: Vail Daily,
