Drinking Lore And Legends, Part 1

This is going to be a multipart project where the staff at Inky Glow uncovers old school myths, legends, and lore about booze. Think of it as education for the party-minded.

The History Of "Cheers!"

"I don't want to kill you!"

Normally, when people think of clinking glasses together, it's a sign of celebration. We normally think along the lines of, "Yay! I'm gonna make clinky noises to celebrate!" Believe it or not, this wasn't always the case...

Way back when, people used to be a lot more violent. (This has actually been proven since an increase in exposure to lead has been linked with violent tendencies. Many, if not most, plates and drinking utensils were made of lead in these times.) So, since violence was de rigeur, it became pretty normal to want to kill people. If you were part of the royal class, or even just not part of the randomly psychotic class, you didn't want people to know that you needed/wanted to kill your fellow man. Since CSI didn't really exist in those days, the easiest way to dispose of an adversary was to slip something in their drinks and let them get poisoned to death. 

Of course, there was a way to prevent death from poisoned drinks, and that was to make sure that whoever is drinking with you would have a little sip of your beer as well. The way this was accomplished was hitting the mugs together hard enough to make the beer slosh from one cup to another. If the guy wouldn't drink after he gave you a big "Cheers!", you knew he was trying to kill you. So, that means that every time you clink your drinks, you aren't actually congratulating your friend. 

You're just saying you don't want him dead.

Is Absinthe Really A Hallucinogen?

"It's Green!"

Absinthe is the stuff of legend, simply because of its reputation. This light green liquid has been the stuff of rumors and myth for a number of reasons. Artist Vincent Van Gogh was known for partaking in it, people mention that it may cause hallucinations, and others even say that it was the absinthe that caused some of the world's most talented artists to kill themselves. With the reintroduction of Absinthe on the shelves of US stores, many rumors have abated, but some still stay strong. One of the most common debates is over the hallucinogenic qualities of absinthe (also known as "Seeing the Green Fairy"), and this is what Inky Glow will be covering today. 

There is not a single person who would not say that absinthe is a strong liquor. Modern absinthe typically is 45% to 75% alcohol by volume, meaning that it can definitely get you drunk. However, the alcohol itself is not what is supposedly psychoactive. In the 1910's and 1920's, thujone, a compound found in absinthe, was being fingered as the ingredient that made so many people behave strangely on the subject. This caused a huge uproar, and the trace amounts of thujone ended up causing absinthe to be banned in the United States from 1915 until 2007.

A double-blind study was conducted and it proved (once again) that Prohibitionists will do and say anything to stop people from having fun with the Green Fairy. Thujone was found to be non-hallucinogenic, which means that the only reason people were seeing things while drinking absinthe was because they were blitzed out of their minds. 

It should be noted that the absinthe that you see on store shelves does NOT contain thujone/wormwood, so it really isn't the absinthe of Oscar Wilde's days. However, you can rest assured it will still taste good and get people talking.