Absinthe History

Las Vegas Green Fairy Tales: The Absinthe Bar at Sage, CityCenter

Filed under: Spirits

Of all inevitable places to have an Absinthe Bar, it's Las Vegas. And there it was, at the Sage Restaurant in Aria, part of the CityCenter enclave of exceptional architecture, retail, dining, and now, Absinthe. With that said, Sage is not the only place in Las Vegas to drink Absinthe -- Liquidity at Luxor, and the bars at Wynn have it also, but Sage's Absinthe service has a wide variety of type, education and drinking experience.. You leave there really knowing about the evolution and mystery of this unusual liqueur.

Absinthe's history is tied to heightened creativity, murder, dementia, and criminality. For 95 years, it was illegal to bring it into the United States. Absinthe is a 140-proof green liqueur made from fennel, anise, and the exceptionally bitter leaves of Artemisia Absinthium. That last ingredient, also known as wormwood, gives the drink its name, as well as its complex, sinister, yet creative reputation. Wormwood has in it an ingredient -- Thujone-- considered for years to be hallucinogenic. For a century, Absinthe was demonized and outlawed, based on the belief that it leads to Absinthism - a disease that supposedly caused epilepsy, dementia, hallucinations, and murder.

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