A Polish friend recently told me about a party he went to where some of the people were vaporizing absinthe and inhaling it through a straw. I've heard of the Czech flaming ritual with the flaming sugar, but this definately sounded different. Unfortunately my friend didn't participate and so couldn't report on what (if any...) the effects were. Anyone heard of this? I imagine the purpose to be to turn the small amounts of thujone, that you would normally ingest orally, into a vapor thereby increasing the reactivity. I don't know what kind of Absinthe it was, it was brought by someone that lived in Poland.
ive heard of vaporizing alochol befor so i guess it would work for absinthe though i wouldnt want to do it must be killer on the lungs try looking up vaporizin alochol on google or www.ask.com
you can vapourise alchohol.. you jsut heat it to 80 degrees celcius for pure alchohol and 100 degrees celcius for pure water, somewhere in between will be the boiling point of your alchohol drink. though doing that with absinth.. youd get pissed off your nut very quickly and dangerously
i woulnt recomend vaporizing absinth or any other alcohol, it would be a much better idea to drink some alcohol and smoke some worm wood.
I did this at a bar in Prague. I'm not sure of the name. It was run by Scottish people. I think it was called Bloody Mary's (or that could have been the drink special when I went). When you ordered the drink, they brought a large glass, sugar, a spoon, a shot glass, the absinthe, and a small straw. The straw was as big around as a swizzel stick, but it was a bendy straw. They unwrapped the straw and set it before you. "Be ready" they would say, "When I tell you to, you are going to smoke the absinthe." Then they set the empty shot glass in front of you, too. Instead of burning the asbinsthe soaked sugar in a small spoon like many of the other bars in that area did, they put a spoonful of sugar and a shot of absinth in the large glass. They swirled it around and burned it in the glass. The swirling was continous so the fire never scorched the glass. After about thrity second of showmanship, they poured the burning liquid into a shot glass . Now the large glass was empty but still hot and the shot glass had burning absinthe in it. They set the large glass upside down over the shot glass and blocked any more oxygen from the flame. As soon as the flame went out, they would quickly grab the straw, tilt the large glass back a crack and slip the end of the straw in. The elbow of the straw rested on the table. The short end stuck straight up into the glass, and the long end stuck up outside of the glass. You put the long end of the straw in your mouth and inhaled. Alcohol boils at 80 C, but it doesn't have to be that hot for strong fumes or vapors. I would guess it was more like 50 C. Still very hot. The temperature along with the strong herbal feelings really gets your attention. The liquorish flavor from the anise is really strong when the fumes are burning their way into your lungs. It was like a Vic's vaporub but much stronger. I think the practice is motivated more by machisimo than an attempt to get a thujone high. I really didn't feel any different after doing it twice.
i saw a news report on this! not absinthe, jus alcohol... sounds gravy. can you 'burn' the alcohol by heating it too much/too quickly?
Pure alcohol is nearly as flammable as gasoline. You just need to hold a lighter near it and it will flare up. Mixing it with water reduces the flammability. Most commerciallly available liquor is 40% alcohol (80 proof). At that concentration it's no longer flammable. If you want to try it, get Bacardi 151 (151 proof or 75%) or Everclear (190 proof or 95%). Be careful, though. Absinthe has to be at least 65% alcohol. Some of the oils it contains will separate out at lower concentations since they mix with alcohol but not with water. That also means that real Absinthe is always flammable. Just in case there are kids out there who have access to Bacardi 151 or everclear, let me add this standard disclaimer: Always ask an adult for help with experiments that involve fire. It probably would not be a bad idea to work outside and have a fire estinguisher handy the first time you play with burning alcohol.
La Fee' Absinthe is definitely flammable (without the aid of sugar); alcohol is an EXTREMELY dangerous material when an open flame is concerned, and this is coming from an ex-pyromaniac... BTW, anyone have any news on the HCl alcohol powder?
im sure you could probably vaporize the active chemical in wormwood to produce a psychoactive effect, but i wouldnt know what tempurature is necessary to reach that chemicals boiling point...do some searching online
