How is Absinthe Made?

July 5th, 2007 - erowid.org

There were two general ways in which absinthe was made. The first method, which was more traditional, is described in some detail below. This was the method used by more established and larger absinthe producers. The second method involved flavouring industrially produced (and often impure) ethanol with essential oils extracted from the plants listed below. This second method probably came into practice later and seems to have been used mainly by smaller manufacturers.

Simon and Schulter's Guide to Herbs and Spices tells us that Henri-Louis Pernod used aniseed, fennel, hyssop, and lemonbalm along with lesser amounts of angelica, star anise, dittany, juniper, nutmeg, and veronica. These ingredients were mascerated together with wormwood plants. After leaving the mixture to sit, water was added and the mixture was distilled. Dried herbs, including more wormwood, were added to the distillate, which was then diluted with alcohol to give a concentration of about 75% alcohol by volume (Simonetti 1990). Different absinthe manufacturers used slightly different ingredients, sometimes using nutmeg and calamus, both of which have been purported to have psychoactive effects.

A more detailed recipe for the first method can be found in Arnold's Scientific American article:
An 1855 recipe from Pontarlier, France, gives the following instructions for making absinthe: Macerate 2.5 kilograms of dried wormwood, 5 kilograms of anise and 5 kilograms of fennel in 95 liters of 85 percent ethanol by volume. Let the mixture steep for at least 12 hours in the pot of a double boiler. Add 45 liters of water and apply heat; collect 95 liters of distillate. To 40 liters of the distillate, add 1 kilogram of Roman wormwood, 1 kilogram of hyssop and 500 grams of lemon balm, all of which have been dried and finely divided. Extract at a moderate temperature, then siphon off the liquor, filter, and reunite it with the remaining 55 liters of distillate. Dilute with water to produce approximately 100 liters of absinthe with a final alcohol concentration of 74 percent by volume (Arnold 1989).

In addition to these ingredients, manufacturers sometimes added other ingredients to produce the drink's emerald green color. Normally, this color was due to the presence of chlorophyll from the plants. However, in the event that the product was not properly colored, absinthe makers were known to add things like copper sulfate, cupric acetate indigo, turmeric, and aniline green. Antimony trichloride was also used to help the drink become cloudy when added to water (Arnold 1989, 1988). Undoubtedly, some of the toxic effects attributed to absinthe were due to these adulterants.