I've fallen behind on my blogging lately because of a lack of time and energy but here's something else I got up to recently. Sorry for the long post!
A few weeks back we spent the weekend in the canton of Neuchâtel in the so-called region called the Val-de-Travers which is also located close to the Jura mountains. After arriving in Neuchâtel we made our way straight to the village of Fleurier where we would be spending the night in a small scout's hut by the river. The hut had a kitchen with pots and pans and all sorts of cutlery, two small toilets and a large room with big tables and chairs to eat in. There were plenty of mattresses and we had our sleeping bags with us since there were no beds. Nevertheless, I didn't mind this at all as it was not the first time I had slept in similar huts back home and I also consider it part of the experience and the adventure!
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| Our lodging for the night |
We left our things in the hut and left immediately as we had to pay a visit to an Absinthe distillery, which produces Absinthe under the brand Clandestine Absinthe. Absinthe is a strong alcoholic beverage (45-75 %) made from aniseed which has an interesting past and story behind it. I was already a bit uncomfortably familiar with the drink and its effects as we had passed through an Absinthe phase back in our hard partying days in Malta but I was curious to learn more about its production right here at the very birthplace of the drink, the canton of Neuchâtel.
We were welcomed by a middle-aged man who started babbling away in French before switching to English so that we could all understand him. He introduced himself and started telling us a bit about the history of the drink throughout the ages. He then went on to show us the different ingredients which make up Absinthe which comes in two forms, the colourless spirit and the Green version, also nicknamed the 'Green Fairy.' The base ingredient of Absinthe is wormwood, which has good digestive properties but is very bitter - in fact in the past, people used to drink wormwood tea but the taste was too bitter to be enjoyable. Thanks to a little experimentation here and there it was discovered that the addition of aniseed and fennel enhanced the medicinal properties and also made it more enjoyable to drink, and this resulted in the birth of Absinthe in the late 18th century.
Absinthe suddenly became really popular among the Parisian artists between the 19th and early 20th century because it was believed that Absinthe could free your mind enhance your creativity, and it became strongly associated with a Bohemian lifestyle. This is not completely untrue because wormwood (and thus Absinthe) does indeed contain trace amounts of Thujone which is a hallucinogen. Notable drinkers of Absinthe included Vincent van Gogh, Ernest Hemmingway and Oscar Wilde. Our man then went on to say that popularity of Absinthe at the time seriously irked the many wine makers who found themselves losing business, and they started a conspiracy to get Absinthe banned due to its psychoactive effects. They succeeded and as a result, Absinthe was banned for most of the 20th century, only becoming legalised once more in the European Union in the 1990s and as recently as 2005 in Switzerland! There was no justifiable basis for the ban, as the amount of Thujone present in Absinthe is so low that it does not make it any more dangerous than other forms of alcohol ("The alcohol will kill you first", joked our distiller).
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| The herbal constituents of Absinthe |
Absinthe suddenly became really popular among the Parisian artists between the 19th and early 20th century because it was believed that Absinthe could free your mind enhance your creativity, and it became strongly associated with a Bohemian lifestyle. This is not completely untrue because wormwood (and thus Absinthe) does indeed contain trace amounts of Thujone which is a hallucinogen. Notable drinkers of Absinthe included Vincent van Gogh, Ernest Hemmingway and Oscar Wilde. Our man then went on to say that popularity of Absinthe at the time seriously irked the many wine makers who found themselves losing business, and they started a conspiracy to get Absinthe banned due to its psychoactive effects. They succeeded and as a result, Absinthe was banned for most of the 20th century, only becoming legalised once more in the European Union in the 1990s and as recently as 2005 in Switzerland! There was no justifiable basis for the ban, as the amount of Thujone present in Absinthe is so low that it does not make it any more dangerous than other forms of alcohol ("The alcohol will kill you first", joked our distiller).
As a result, the ban led to the distilling of Absinthe illegally and leading to many variants of the spirit since the brand was not protected, mostly in the Czech Republic (our man made sure to let us know just what he thought about the Czechs and their Czech "Absinthe"). At this point I asked him about Black Absinthe, since this was one of the popular drinks back home and he immediately dismissed my question with a "fake Czech crap". The production of Absinthe involved the refluxing of the herbs together with pure alcohol and its subsequent distillation. This gives a distillate which of around 72 % alcohol content which can be diluted to 56 %. Green Absinthe is then produced by mixing green extract from the wormwood into the colourless spirit, and this also makes Green Absinthe more bitter and stronger.
Our own distillerer bragged about having started distilling Absinthe illegally in Switzerland in 2004 (hence the Clandestine nature of it), but since pure alcohol is heavily taxed, the authorities would often close an eye to this activity (typical Swiss mentality, if it generates revenue it can be tolerated). He also showed around his small distillery and then then tasting began.
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| Dissolving a sugar cube when consuming Green Absinthe thanks to a fancy contraption and a special spoon (both sold separately) |
It was then time for us to visit the La Presta Asphalt mines where we were shown about by a lady who spoke English in a really strong French accent and was saying all sorts of random things whilst we barely understood anything she said, but she made us laugh quite a lot with her mannerisms. Back at the hostel we then cooked a traditional Swiss meal called Älplermagronen which is a dish consisting of pasta with potatoes and cream and served also with apple puree.
Next day we off early as we were going to hike up to the Creux du Van which is a sharp natural rocky cliff in the form of a crescent found in the Val-de-Travers at around an altitude of 700 m, that was formed by water erosion due to a large glacier. As soon as we began our ascent, I immediately started regretting bringing such a heavy rucksack with me as the climb was quite steep. The rain made it bearable to hike but also rather tricky to navigate the rocks without slipping or stepping in a deep puddle of mud, but at least it eased up closer to the top and after one final steep ascent we were on top. The view was spectacular despite the rain and the bad weather.
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| Going up |
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| An Ibex! |
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| The Creux du Van (photobombed by a cloud) |
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| The Gorges de l'Areuse |
Hiking back down was even more interesting as it started raining heavily, and despite a lousy idea I had of taking a shortcut which resulted in me sliding down a hill and getting my bum and rucksack covered in mud we got back down in one piece! The hike took us around five hours from start to finish, however as we got back to the train station and people began to leave a few of us had other ideas. After a short break and a cup of tea at Noiraigue train station, four of us decided to hike back towards the direction of Neuchâtel through the beautful Gorges de l'Areuse which took around a further three hours. Going through the gorge we saw waterfalls, raging rivers and plenty of greenery and the rainy weather somehow made everything more magical; I actually found this second hike more beautiful than the hike up the Creux du Van which was meant to be the highlight! We would have taken our time walking, but we had to change course a bit and hurry to avoid missing our train back home. Tired and exhausted, we finally reached the train station at Bôle just in time to catch the train and ended another great weekend in style.
P.S. My friend Somil was with me for this trip so as you can see all these beautiful pictures (excluding the first and penultimate picture) belong to him!
Keep reading!
Edit: The distillery we visited just tweeted my blogpost on their official twitter page (@LaClandestine)! Win!
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| Living life on the edge! |
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