A thought I got while reading reviews of absinthe, did the people "back in the days" drink absinthe like we drink beer now?
Or did they drink like we drink wine? (with the endless experts and "semi-made up" flavours?), or like beer (bartender, hit me!) ?

By this I mean, did they thought about nose, color, aroma and so on?

Or was it just something to drink, and the categories was just bad/good?

Of course it's different nowadays considering the prices, but still, did van Gogh care about the taste?

Yes, most of that. Some did, most didn't.

Ok!
I thought it might be like that!

It struck my mind that my question might offend someone, but that was absolutely not my point!

But I think its an intresting idea that when we have something thats right under our nose (in this case literarily) we tend to oversee it, but when it becomes rare and/or expencive we analyze it in to pieces.

Not very original of me to think about it maybe but since absinthe was so popular years ago, disappeared and now increased in popularity its fun to analyze (!) the difference.

I'm not so bewandered in the world of wine, but it might be the same thing there.

And now, we have the ability to compare things from around the world, whitout beeing a sailor or traveler of any kind. I guess most people didn't have that opportunity back then.

Van Gogh ate paint.

I've seen nothing in the literature to suggest that absinthe was evaluated like wines are today, they were most likely just imbibed casually. A part of the reason we've begun to evaluate and review absinthes is specifically as an aid to less experienced absintheurs in making good choices.

And surely taste wasn't a major factor for people like Alfred Jarry, who reportedly drank it straight, believing that water was actually corrosive and poisonous. But then, he was a bit eccentric...

Everyone knows about the communist conspiracy to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids through the evil fluoridation of tap water. Best to drink rain water and pure grain alcohol, or absinthe.

and above all, retain your purity of essence!

Actually, I have the same feelings about water. It IS our most important fluid, so its a sensitive matter.
I don't know how it is in the rest of the world, but here in Sweden we have community water (? "kommunalt vatten", for those who can translate:) )
In this "kommunala vatten" there is a bit of chlorine and flourine in it. I feel that those chemicals takes away the "soul" in the water, ie kills all the bacterias and even the minerals in it.
My parents live on the country and have their own well. I usually visit them and bring some of that water home.
And I prefer to buy water , no matter how expensive or environment unfriendly it is.

I'm not that excentric , but I don't like the "messing" with our waters.

But maybe I'm just stupid.

My grandparents had harsh well water and a set of coloured aluminum cups... I'm probably nuts, but when I was a kid (and perhaps older too...) I thought the extra metallic taste was a unique treat! I loved it. That's probably partly down to it not tasting like "city water".

Yeah city water is not that great

On/Off topic, I wonder if people judged the water in 19th century?

<----- The Evil Clown Movie Nazi says, "No Dr. Strangelove for you!"

"Ice-cream, Mandrake? Children's ice cream?!"

I thought part of the popularity was due to the problems experienced with the French wine industry having it's difficulties back then, and when there began to be a recovery in the wine industry they had to do something to eliminate their competition.

Everything that has an artisanal component will have self-proclaimed connoisseurs sooner or later. Like were seeing with indie soda pop, beer, wine, sake, absinthe, honey, coffee, tea, jam, pickles, etc. I'm sure a few people were as interested in absinthe back then as we are now.

It became more popular due to the phylloxera (sp?) infestation of French grape vines, but before that it still had a good number of fans across the globe.

I get what you're saying, but I disagree with your "beer is like this, and wine is like that" dichotomy. Drinking beer isn't an intrinsically less thought-provoking exercise than drinking wine (or absinthe).

Damn straight!