Thujone is an essential ingredient of grande wormwood (also known as Artemisia absinthium) and the main ingredient of absinthe is wormwood. This means that one of the most potent parts of absinthe is thujone. Now, there has been a lot of talk with the FDA about wormwood and how it contains thujone. The funny thing is that sage (primarily used with turkey stuffing) has thujone in it yet is allowed based on the FDA.
The reason that the FDA does not believe that absinthe is allowed to contain thujone right now is because they rarely update their regulations. The ruling on thujone is still back to the movement in the early 20th century. It’s pretty sad that the FDA has still not followed up on absinthe and made it all legal. An error in judgment almost a century ago is controlling people’s choices to this date.
For companies that make absinthe to legally provide it for the United States, they had to genetically modify the drink. In short, the companies were forced to remove the thujone to meet the requirements provided by the FDA. Thujone is one of the most important ingredients in absinthe and is one of the main reasons for the buzz that absinthe gives you. You won’t get that good feel from the alcoholic beverage without it. So the absinthe that is legalized in the United States right now is not all that great. This means that if you want to have some truly genuine absinthe that you have to import it from across the world because absynthe in the United States does not contain thujone. |
