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Banned Liquor Making Comeback In Mexico And Online



Last Updated:
07-17-06 at 6:49PM

It's a forbidden drink banned in the United States for more than 90 years. Now, absinthe is making a comeback on the internet and south of the border.

Some say the potent combination of herbal extracts and alcohol in absinthe can make you hallucinate. It's illegal to sell it in the United States, but that's not stopping people from ordering over the internet, or traveling to Mexico to partake.

Take a walk down Avenida Revolucion in Tijuana, and you see it advertised everywhere -- absinthe, a green liquor also known as "The Green Fairy."

Inside Tijuana's El Torito Pub, bartenders serve the popular drink mainly to young Americans.

Mexican absinthe is 55 percent alcohol -- that's 110 proof. European absinthe is even stronger. Part of the lure of drinking absinthe is the ritual of preparing it.

"Well, he poured it over a sugar cube and lit it on fire, dissolved the sugar into the drink over ice, and then I took it all with a straw," one patron said.

Absinthe can be mixed with cold water, or taken straight in a shot glass.

"It tastes like Yeagermeister, or licorice," a bar worker said.

Lighting a sugar cube on fire and stirring it in makes the bitter liquor smoother to drink.

In the late 1800s, absinthe was all the rage in Europe, especially among impressionist artists. Vincent van Gogh is said to have cut off his ear while on an absinthe binge. Several of Pablo Picasso's paintings depict absinthe use, and author Earnest Hemingway wrote about his own absinthe experiences.

Aside from alcohol, the active ingredient in absinthe is thujone, a chemical extracted from the wormwood plant. Thujone is a stimulant that may cause hallucinations and artistic clarity. Extremely high doses of thujone have been linked to stomach problems, convulsions and even death.

As a result, absinthe was banned in the U.S. and Europe in the early 1900s. Today, absinthe is perfectly legal in most of Europe and Mexico, with restrictions on the thujone content. It remains illegal to import or sell in this country, but not to possess or drink, so Americans are ordering it over the internet and traveling to Tijuana to partake in The Green Fairy.

Tijuana liquor stores report selling as many as 50 bottles a day, and customs agents are confiscating bottles of absinthe at the border, where smugglers can be fined 10 times the value of the liquor.

Ordering absinthe over the internet can be risky, because the Web sites are based in foreign countries, and shipments are subject to seizure by U.S. Customs. Still, business is booming, and many customers say they have no problem getting it online.
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