The History of Absinthe

Doctor Ordinaire – The Father of Absinthe….

The creator of Absinthe was a French physician by the name of Dr. Pierre Ordinaire practicing in Switzerland. Dr. Ordinaire invented absinthe in the late eighteenth century as a way to make wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) and other homeopathic herbs more palatable. Europeans have long known of the medicinal properties of wormwood and it was common to make a tea from the wormwood leaves to ease stomach aches. Wormwood tea is extremely bitter and upon drinking it the patient would quickly wonder if the cure is worse than the ailment. 

Dr. Ordinaire was able to overcome the bitter taste of wormwood by distilling it with other regional herbs like anise, Florence fennel, hyssop and melissa. The result was absinthe and the new drink was tasty and delivered the homeopathic qualities of the herbs without the bitter taste. The good doctor would prescribe this elixir to his patients with digestive troubles and Dr. Ordinaire's absinthe was received with rave reviews.

The Absinthe recipe is passed on…

Doctor Odinaire's absinthe recipe was then passed along to two sisters by the name of Henriod living in Couvet, Switzerland. The Henriod sisters continued the doctor's tradition of selling absinthe as a digestive aid. This continues up to 1797 when a man by the name of Major Dubied purchased the formula from the Henriod sisters with the intention of commercial production of absinthe. Soon after the purchase of the absinthe recipe, Major Dubied along with his son and a gentleman named Henri-Luis Pernod opened a distillery called Dubied Père et Fils in Couvet, Switzerland. A second distillery followed eight years later across the border in Pontarlier, France under the banner of Maison Pernod Fils.