The Perfect Market Opportunity — If Only It Was Legal | BNET

Chemistry, law, and marketing do not often appear together in a business article. We have it here, though, in this very interesting BNET article.

Thujone is the chemical found in absinthe that, allegedly, makes absinthe a mind-altering and hallucinogenic  beverage. Stories abound of artists, say for example, cutting of their ears. Or, many people claim.  Over the past few years I have read many articles providing evidence that this is not quite the truth. According to Mr. Joseph Conway’s article, the culprit is actually a marketing campaign fought by the wine industry a hundred years ago.

Overturning a perception that is a hundred years old should be a difficult thing to do. Especially if federal regulators are a part of that perception. However, through solid scientific data and business savvy, Viridian Spirits have managed to do this very thing.

Kudos to them!

As an aside, a few years back I had the fortunate opportunity to try absinthe in Prague. The Czechs drink absinthe differently than the more popular (at least in the U.S.) French style. The French method involves placing a special sugar spoon over the absinthe and dripping cold water over the sugar and down into the absinthe. The Czechs, as far as I could tell, just pour a healthy serving of it over a couple of ice cubes. My initially reaction to sipping the Green Fairy was that it did, indeed, have mind-altering properties.

I later picked up the bottle and found that it was 65% alcohol.

Drinking enough 65% alcohol anything will alter the state of your mind.