Oscar Wilde wrote odes to it. Vincent van Gogh was addicted to it. Pablo Picasso was so impressed that he painted it. Now, 85 years after the favorite beverage of the belle epoque was banned across Europe for health reasons, Czech absinthe is gaining converts and adversaries in Britain. A media frenzy heralded the launch of the emerald-green concoction in Britain in December. Much of the event focused on the drink's past notoriety. The ban in continental Europe was prompted by information that long-term use brought on symptoms ranging from extreme excitability to madness. George Howarth, the British undersecretary of state, called the reappearance of absinthe in Britain a "cause for deep concern," according to the British weekly The Sunday Telegraph Dec. 27. Howarth said he would consider referring the issue to the government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. "We shall be keeping a very close eye on this to see if sales take off," he added. Billed in Britain as the epitome of glamorous excess - with chic London bars such as Groucho's promoting absinthe-based cocktails before Christmas - the drink is being guzzled down faster than its U.K. importers can ship it in. Czech absinthe (spelled "absinth" on the label) is not quite the mind-blowing beverage that drinkers in Britain are keen to believe, but a watered-down version that has been green-lighted by the authorities here. "Nobody is producing the real absinthe here," insisted Milos Kavka, a specialist in alcohol at the Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Office (CZPI). He said any business selling the legendary version of absinthe risks a fine of up to 3 million Kc ($100,000). The first batch of absinthe, also known as "la fee verte [the green fairy]," was whipped up as a medicine in 1792 by Dr. Pierre Ordinaire using the herb wormwood, which is abundant in the Swiss Alps. By 1805, the recipe was sold to the Pernod family. During the early 20th century, the green liqueur was the favorite drink of painters and writers, along with the French working class who found it cheaper and more potent than wine. In the 1850s, however, adverse health effects of "the green fairy" bubbled to the surface. Health officials became concerned that long-term use of the concoction produced a syndrome called absinthism, which was characterized by addiction, extreme excitability, and hallucinations. French wine producers joined the lobby to have absinthe banned, and it was banned in several countries including the United States, the Netherlands, Belgium and France between 1912 and 1915. Absinthe's current importers discovered recently that England was not among the countries that originally imposed the ban. Absinthe is made with an extract of wormwood, which contains the alkaloid thujone. Some experts believe that when consumed in large amounts, thujone degenerates the central nervous system. Structural similarities between thujone and tetrahydrocannabinol, (THC) the active component in marijuana, have led others to hypothesize that absinthe has a similar effect on the brain as marijuana. One possible contributor to the Czech absinthe's power is that it contains 70 percent alcohol. The CZPI's Kavka explained that the absinthe made in the Czech Republic contains much less thujone than did the original beverage. "The technology used in the production of absinthe here involves soaking the essential oils from the wormwood in warm water and not in spirit, as opposed to French production techniques from the beginning of the 20th century," said Kavka. "This means that the necessary ingredients for the taste are obtained, but not the harmful igredients." Radomil Hill, the distiller of Hill's Absinth, is loath to give away the secrets of his beverage. However, he admitted in an interview with The Prague Post in 1994 that his absinthe is not too mind-bending. "I crank out my absinthe somewhere between the Swiss recipe and the French recipe, so we would not go completely batty but still like it," he said. Hill also said then that he did not give a hoot about the fact that the drink is considered by many to be a drug. "Look, absinthe became famous during the Napoleonic era. As long as he was victorious no one cared about it. At Waterloo, when he got his ass kicked, the Frenchmen, in order to justify the loss, said it was thujone in his blood that caused it." - Jana Pinterova assisted in this report

By Michele Legge,  The Prague Post