Absinthe lollipops

Lollyphile, makers of unusual suckers, offers absinthe lollipops. They're around $2 each. No information on the thujone content, if any.
Absinthe Lollipops (thanks, Eric Paulos!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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ikigeg

I bought some of these not so long ago, mighty tasty! You get the satisfying tang of absinthe as soon as your tongue connects :) Didn’t leave me seeing little pixies running around, but fun nonetheless! I had them sent to the UK, so the lolly shape was pretty much lost by the time they got to me, but thanks to the handy little bag they survive just dandy!
Transmission3000

Lollyphile sounds like something horrible that it isn’t.
JRendon

I bought their maple/bacon lollipops (which seemed awesome in concept–breakfast on a stick!) but they were a little disappointing. Not nearly enough bacon bits or maple flavor.
Anonymous

lemme just say cause im drunk…

boing boing…

absinthe lolipops?!
pumpkin helmets?!

boing boing people
cory mark xeni david…

you guys are a treasure :p ^^

:D
technogeek

Give these to your loved ones — after all, absinthe maketh their hearth grow fonder…
daemonsquire

I picked up some of these recently, at Miette Confiserie in San Francisco, and as ikigeg reports, they were mighty tasty, yet pixie free. I think the thujone content in an actual glass of absinthe is pretty low, so I’m not sure how many licks it’d take here to get to the center of my subconscious.

I do remember they tasted especially good as a chaser to the bacon and maple lollipops. Oh, shit! Jrendon just beat me to the mention!
Jason Rizos

Amazing what profits can be had for a product when inebriation is implied. Back in my day the kids smoked banana peels to get high and we never had smoked banana peel lollipops to make it easy, daggnabit!
Anonymous

Lol…… can we get some absinthe ice cream pops?
Anonymous

Thujone is not hallucinogenic. Google it.
seyo

“No information on the thujone content, if any.”

Probably none. Why would they bother with the additional expense of using real absinthe when anise flavor and green food color are all that’s needed?
sbarnes2

You just now heard about these? They have been around for awhile now, at least in terms of internet stuff. You can’t get wasted on them, and they really do contain absinthe.
comedyman21

i think im going to make my own home made Le Tourment Vert popsicles. :)
The Lizardman

Who cares if they have thujone as long as the flavor is good? If it’s your thing (and it is one of mine) you drink absinthe for the taste, not for a thujone trip – there are far better ways to get high (off thujone and/or other chemicals) My experience with absinthe has been that most alleged trips are severe drunkeness (moonshine or enough beer funnels would have gotten you the same) and/or placebo effect (like kids acting high after smoking lawn clippings).
franko

#17 — i’m with caroline. real absinthe really does have a delicate complexity to it. the anise flavor thing is amped up in more cheaply-made versions because that’s what people who haven’t had some of the real stuff expect it to taste like.
cjp

The Lollyphile website says that their absinthe lollypops follow the US legal requirements for thujone, which is less than 10 ppm. Not sure how much fun they would be in that case…this is the definition of thujone free in Europe.
Clayton

I think absinthe taste horrible. I happen to dislike anise, though, so my nightmare is when someone tries to cover something that taste like crap with something else that tastes like crap (anise). Also, hasn’t research shown that the most thujone can do besides pass through your body is cause mild spasms and convulsions? Didn’t that debunk its psychoactive roperties, like in the 70′s?
bjacques

I think some shops in town carry these.

In some circles, thujone is called “porkchop,” to make fun of people who fetishize thujone content.

Absinthe works as a gentle speedball. It’s base is a white liquor (like gin or vodka, as opposed to brown liquors like whisky and rum) so yuo can drink a lot of it and not feel drunk. Anise, one of the ingredients, is a slight stimulant, while the thujone provides an oddly pleasant feeling. So you feel relatively clear-headed while yer getting plowed.

The only hallucinations you’re likely to see are pink elephants, if you drink enough of it. The amount of thujone allowed within the EU is more than that found in even the best absinthes back in the day, but before you consumed enough of it to do any harm, you’d be dead of alcohol poisoning.
rexy

Will the absinthe lollipops get me wasted ?
Our absinthe lollipops will get you as wasted as will beer-battered chicken, bourbon-infused BBQ sauce, or lasagna alla vodka- which is to say, no: they do not contain alcohol. Furthermore, the myth of thujone is just that. If you’re interested, MSNBC wrote a really good article on the realities of absinthe’s bohemian legends (spoiler alert: the bohemians were really, really drunk).
Noelegy

What a lovely shade of green they are!
Anonymous

Ordered a bunch of these pops from Lollyphile nearly three months ago and have yet to receive my order! When I email them, they don’t respond! I’ve found other people having the same problem, some waiting for even longer than me, and we’ve tried to contact Lollyphile through their Facebook page since they still held our money. When we did this, they deactivated their Facebook page! Terrible customer service!
SeeChao

Thujone isn’t really active… as an avid drinker of absinthe, I have never noticed much difference between an absinthe drinking experience and plain ol’ alcohol. It’s really strong, and sneaks up on you, but so does 151. I have noticed a bit more mental clarity and stimulation, but along the lines of red wine, nothing that couldn’t be explained as psychosomatic… I’ve even tried Absent with a huge vial of wormwood extract added… tasted like hell, made me poop funny, but nothing more than a bit more talky than normal.
This whole hallucination thing is pretty much a myth…
Clayton

BJACQUES: I’ve been drunk (and i mean, drunk) on absinthe a number of times and I can say that the only thing I ever felt was just that, drunk. I honestly feel more of what you’re describing after drinking too much wine.
Takuan

which brands were you drinking?
AirPillo

These things are great for playing “Want some candy, little girl?” with cute goth chicks.

… that went in an unsettling direction >.>
Clayton

No idea. Crap friends brought back from Europe in college.
Caroline

Peer reviewed papers (click on each word there) show that pre-1915 absinthe didn’t really have much thujone.

You’re not going to hallucinate from absinthe, unless you chug the whole bottle and get really drunk, or drink it heavily every day and then quit so you get the DTs.

It’s a drink with an interesting, delicate flavor, and should be enjoyed for that rather than chasing some imaginary high. If you want to hallucinate, drop acid or take up ecstatic religious visions.
Banksynergy

“Today it is known that absinthe does not cause hallucinations, especially ones similar to those described in 19th century studies. Thujone, the supposed active chemical in absinthe, is a GABA antagonist and, while it can produce muscle spasms in large doses, there is no evidence that it causes hallucinations. It has been speculated that reports of hallucinogenic effects of absinthe may have been due to poisonous chemicals being added to cheaper versions of the drink in the 19th century, to give it a more vivid color.”

Admittedly, this is from Wiki and many people argue it is a poor source. Furthermore, it does go on to say “The debate over whether absinthe produces effects on the human mind additional to those of alcohol has not been conclusively resolved… Some modern specialists, such as chemist, historian and absinthe distiller Ted Breaux, claim that alleged secondary effects of absinthe may be caused by the fact that some of the herbal compounds in the drink act as stimulants, while others act as sedatives, creating an overall lucid effect of awakening.”
Chris L

“… that went in an unsettling direction >.>”

It always does with anonymous…
krissy

those look pretty bomb!
Clayton

Caroline, delicate is the last word I would use to describe the taste of absinthe.
The Lizardman

Most of perceived reality is hallucination, I have hallucinated after eating fries. Absinthe doesn’t make you hallucinate any more or less than is usual for you on alcohol – it just tastes really good.
bay bay

Where can I get Le Tourment Vert popsicles?? or lollipops..
bay bay

Cant wait to see fairies
dculberson

My wife (well, girlfriend at the time) and I brewed our own Absinthe once; or at least tried to. It turned out tasting terrible, but it got us righteously drunk off of very little of it. So perhaps it worked. No hallucinations, though.

And “delicate” is subjective, but several photos of us immediately after ingestion would dispel anyone’s ideas of it being delicate. (Not that what we made was remotely comparable to a commercial product!)
Anonymous

I’ve recently read that on the Lollyphile website,they says that their absinthe lollypops follow the US legal requirements for thujone.For me I find it really tasty.Post by Mutuelle santÃ©
Anonymous

The lollypops seem to be quite tasty ant it attracts our attention!why not buying some..the colour also rocks..Im eager to taste these absinthe lollypops.I am pretty sure that my money will not be wasted.
lollyphile

Thanks, BoingBoing! We finally feel like we’ve made our internet bones. xo.
SeeChao

Mostly Czech(sp?) and Czech strong, altho I tried a french/belgian brand too… and absent with wormwood extract(icky)
lollyphile

PS as per thujone & getting wasted on candy:

1) thujone is basically bupkus, and you should never try to get high from something you’ve paid less than $5 for, and

2) when we first started out, I was selling them at a party at DNA and a guy ate one and came back 15 minutes later asking how long they lasted because he was freaking out. So there’s that.
Marcel

How utterly dissapointing! The only drink that has this mysterious psychedelic quality attached to its name turns out to be just plain old liquour.

I say if a trip-inducing, potentialy maddening alcoholic beverage does not exist as such, we should invent one.
SeeChao

Mostly Czech(sp?) and Czech strong, altho I tried a french/belgian brand too… and absent with wormwood extract(icky)
AirPillo

(True/False): The herbal constituents of absinthe have been empirically assayed and considered non-psychoactive.
The Lizardman

@22 Just take acid and sip your favorite cocktail
Anonymous

These things are great for playing “Want some candy, little girl?” with cute goth chicks.
Takuan

gruit flavoured?
David Pescovitz

MARCEL @22, Ayahuasca? ; )
CHIARAS DAD

These are very tasty (well, if you like that sort of thing). I first tried some last spring, and later ordered a big batch which we handed out (in place of the traditional cigars or whatever) when our daughter was born on Friday the 13th.

The maple/bacon flavor was interesting, but IMO much less successful.