standard choices for many modern chefs. The popularity of the tonic grew steadily in the mid- 1800s as it was given as a malaria treatment to French troops, who returned home along with a healthy appetite for the licorice- flavored remedy. Absinthe is far more potent than most other liquors, with an alcohol content of as much as 70% versus the 40% found in typical scotch or vodka.

By the early 1900s, the French were consuming more than 35 million liters of absinthe annually, its popularity also having spread to other countries – including the United States and particularly New Orleans, where notable figures such as Mark Twain frequented the Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street. But as its reputation and consumption grew, so did tales of its ill effects and claims of its links to hallucinations and certain insanity – with laboratory experiments of the day revealing that the chemical thujone, found in pure wormwood oil, was largely to blame. The behavior of many artists who had become synonymous with the image of the absinthe-drinker did very little to dispel the myths, and in 1905 when a Swiss laborer named Jean Lanfray killed his pregnant wife and two children in a drunken rage, the excessive amount of alcohol he had consumed was distilled in public’s mind down to two ounces of absinthe. Fueled by the growing temperance movement (and winemakers), absinthe was banned in France, the U.S., and many other countries by the beginning of World War I – a ban that was not lifted for almost 100 years.

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