A bottle of the absinthe with its characteristic green colour is displayed at a bar during a party in Prague
© AFP/File Michal Cizek

PRAGUE (AFP) - "The tradition of Czech absinthe goes back to the last century, when it was served diluted or set on fire," the waitress tells a group of young drinkers. "After five glasses, the sixth is free." They hesitate between the 70-proof Starorezna Devil or the La Boheme Bitter Spirit, which promises 35 mg/l of thujone -- one of the drink's distinctive ingredients.

Absinthe's growing popularity has local firms such as Starorezna, the country's second largest distillery, laughing all the way to the bank. "Sales are going up by 15 percent each year," says Starorezna director Oldrich Medek.

His firm produces some 35,000 bottles of the plant-based drink annually, most of it for export.

"Absinthe is in fashion now among young people, because of its mythical reputation and its underground image," says Benoit Noel, a French writer specialising in the drink.

Absinthe, known as the "green fairy", reached the height of its popularity in France in the late 19th and early 20th century. It was there that it acquired a reputation both for its hallucinogenic properties -- and for sending people either blind or mad.

James Bairnfather stands next to bottles of his own original recipe absinthe
© AFP/File Michal Cizek

It was nevertheless beloved of artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, Edgar Degas and Pablo Picasso, as well as the writer Ernest Hemingway.

Building on this rather exotic history, Czech distilleries have taken to advertising the levels of alcohol and thujone on the bottles and even dying the drink red or flourescent blue. All this in a bid to attract more young drinkers seeking its famously strong effects.

The drink's makers also recommend it be set on fire before being drunk, a more glamorous alternative to diluting it with water.

For many absinthe fans, however, this kind of marketing is almost sacrilegious.

"Absinthe is neither blue nor red: it should be green and drunk diluted," says James Bairnfather, a 39-year-old American who claims to be the only producer of Czech absinthe using only natural herbs.

He dismisses the idea of setting fire to it as a marketing plot designed to increase sales.

Traditionally, the light green drink is made by steeping dried herbs, including some wormwood in ethyl alcohol and then distilling the steep.

According to experts, that distillation process is essential as wormwood contains extraordinary bitter compounds called absinthins which must be excluded from the distillate).

A young man sets fire to a mouthful of absinthe during a party
© AFP/File Michal Cizek

For Theodore Breaux, a American chemist who recently began producing absinthe in Pontarlier, eastern France, said a strong concentration of thujone does increase the bitterness. But he adds: "That's it -- comparing its effect to that of a drug is a scientific untruth".

The terrible reputation of absinthe had led France and Switzerland to ban the drink entirely by the beginning of the 20th century.

But according to French writer Noel, recent studies have shown that its hallucinatory effects were caused by artificial colourings used at the time. It had nothing to do with the natural extract Artemisia absinthium, or wormwood, on which the drink is based.

In eastern Europe, the drink's links with the intellectual elite led to it being banned during the communist era.

But after the Czech Republic's Velvet Revolution in 1989, absinthe started being legally manufactured again.

British importers started to secure contracts with Czech producers and the trend spread to London.

Absinthe was also re-legalised a few years later in France and Switzerland after the European Union lifted a ban on the drink.

The revival has set the tills ringing for the Czech distillers, who are exporting their products to countries as far afield as Canada, Australia, Japan, Mexico and South Africa.

Internet sales have also enabled them to penetrate the US market, despite an import ban dating from the Prohibition era that was never lifted, according to various sources.

Some absinthe connoisseurs are however bemused by the success enjoyed by the Czech distillers: they say their product is often of inferior quality.

"European legislation doesn't set composition levels other than on the level of alcohol and thujone -- so basically you can do anything you want," says James Bairnfather.

©AFP