There are countless examples of “waters” that are in fact the absinthe that some falsely claim was born in the Val de Travers. These waters were prescribed during The Plague as well.

Of course wormwood was also used in another more effective context during The Plague. One curative recipe in the canon of Plague quackery even calls for the consumption of the patient’s own water, did you ever try this?

For the information of the author, there are several recipes for plague waters and they do not look like absinthe at all:

“To make Plague-water.

Take a pound of Rue, of Rosemary, Sage, Sorrel, Celandine, Mugwort, of the tops of red Brambles, of Pimpernel, Wild-draggons, Arimony, Balm, Angelica, of each a pound. Put these Compounds in a pot, fill it with White-wine above the herbs, so let it stand four days. Then still it for your use in a Limbeck.”

or here, in a hand-written form:

http://www.eatmedaily.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/plague-water.jpg

Some of the recipes call for infusion in wine only, some call for distillation, nevertheless none of these recipes one can find easily has a herb bill that would resemble even the earliest extrait d’absinthe.

Then why does Couvet claim to be the birthplace? I tend to agree that absinthe was not invented by the Swiss.

I hope someone does a write up on this session it will be more interesting than the usual absinthe “history” which often refers to fiction.