Absinthe. Originated from Switzerland, the notorious psychoactive spirit is made from botanicals, with the essential ingredient of the flowers and leaves of the Artemisia Absinthium or more commonly called wormwood, together with anise and sweet fennel. Highly alcoholic, with its alcohol percentage ranging from 47% to 74%, it is dilluted over an absinthe fountain and sweetened with a sugar cube before being consumed.The sugar cube and water added not only improved its flavour, but also causes a colour change, turning the drink to a shade of foggy pale green. Popular belief has it that this drink caused hallucinations and illegitly caused artists and writers to succumb to madness. New European laws only permit newly produced absinthe and the old bottles remain illegal.
Drank mostly by writers and artists, absinthe became extremely popular and found its place in the Bohemian culture. At on point of time it became so popular that the time after lunch where most parisians drank aperitif became know as the "green hour". Today Absinthe is made into a variety of drinks and cocktails.
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