What is the history of absinthe? Who invented it?
Banned for almost a century until its recent revival, absinthe is something of a “living fossil”, a coelacanth amongst drinks, able to magically transport us back to the glittering world of Paris and the Belle Epoque, a world of bohemian musicians and writers, of the Moulin Rouge and the cafes of Montmartre, a world of starving struggling artists and glittering courtesans. But the origins of the drink lie far from the bright lights of Paris – absinthe was first produced near Couvet in Switzerland, and nearby Pontarlier in the Doubs region of France. This largely forgotten part of rural France, nestled in the wooded foothills of the Jura mountains, is still regarded as the true home of absinthe. Legend has it, that the inventor of the drink was Dr. Pierre Ordinaire, who in 1792, shortly after the French revolution, travelled around the Val de Travers on his faithfull horse Rocket, and produced the first commercial absinthe, initially as an all-purpose remedy or cure-all. It was nickname
