60 free Absinthe trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This absinthe trivia quiz covers the green fairy from its birth as a Swiss patent remedy to its 21st-century revival. The easy questions are the ones any cocktail fan should get: what colour it traditionally is, the plant that defines it, its French nickname, and the milky cloud that forms when you add water. Then it gets more demanding: Dr Ordinaire and the Henriod sisters of Couvet, the Pernod distillery at Pontarlier, the French troops in Algeria, the green hour of Paris cafés, the 36 million litres France drank in 1910, the Lanfray murders and the Swiss referendum, the countries that banned it and the ones that never did, the copper salts and antimony that made cheap absinthe genuinely poisonous, thujone and the THC myth, the EU limit, the Bohemian fire ritual, Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon, Degas and Manet, and the year France finally repealed its ban. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on absinthe, thujone, wormwood and Pernod Ricard before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our cocktails, beverages and Paris quizzes next.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Absinthe is derived from the flowers and leaves of which plant, known as grand wormwood?
Artemisia absinthium
Green anise and sweet fennel complete the 'holy trinity' of botanicals.
Q 02What is absinthe's famous French nickname?
La fée verte
Despite being casually called a liqueur, it is not traditionally bottled with sugar.
Q 03What is the typical alcohol strength of absinthe?
45-74% ABV
It is normally diluted with water before drinking; some modern bottlings reach 83-90%.
Q 04Absinthe was created in the late 18th century in which Swiss canton?
Neuchâtel
French physician Pierre Ordinaire in Couvet is traditionally credited with the recipe around 1792.
Q 05Which sisters of Couvet sold the early recipe as a medicinal elixir?
The Henriods
Some accounts say they were making it before Dr Ordinaire even arrived.
Q 06In which French town did Henry-Louis Pernod and Major Dubied open a second absinthe distillery in 1805?
Pontarlier
Maison Pernod Fils stayed among the top brands until France's 1914 ban.
Q 07Absinthe surged in the 1840s after French troops in which colony got it as a malaria preventive?
Algeria
The soldiers brought their taste for it home to France.
Q 08By the 1860s, 5 pm in French cafés had acquired what nickname?
L'heure verte
Absinthe was drunk by every class from the bourgeoisie to poor artists and workers.
Q 09How many litres of absinthe were the French drinking per year by 1910?
36 million
Mass production in the 1880s had made the price drop sharply.
Q 10Which US city is credited as the birthplace of the Sazerac, perhaps the earliest absinthe cocktail?
New Orleans
The Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street was frequented by Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde and Frank Sinatra.
Q 11Which 1905 crime by a Swiss farmer became the tipping point for banning absinthe?
Jean Lanfray murdered his wife and children
He had drunk quantities of wine and brandy too, but blame fell on his two glasses of absinthe; 82,000 signed a petition.
Q 12How was the 1908 Swiss prohibition of absinthe enacted?
By referendum, written into the constitution
The constitutional ban was repealed in 2000 and absinthe became legal again on 1 March 2005.
Q 13Which territory banned absinthe as early as 1898, before any European country?
Q 21In which year did France finally repeal its absinthe ban?
2011
The Senate voted in April after petitions from the Fédération Française des Spiritueux.
Q 22Which Swiss village in the Val-de-Travers is home to the national Maison de l'Absinthe museum?
Môtiers
It occupies the former courthouse where absinthe distillers were once prosecuted.
Q 23Which is the only country with a legal definition of absinthe, permitting distillation alone?
Switzerland
Elsewhere, anyone may label a product 'absinthe' with no quality standard.
Traditional absinthe gets its green colour from what?
The Congo Free State
Belgium and Brazil followed in 1906, the Netherlands in 1909, the US in 1912 and France in 1914.
Q 14In which year did the United States ban absinthe?
1912
France followed in 1914; the UK never formally banned it.
Q 15The French ban on absinthe led directly to the popularity of which anise-flavoured substitute?
Pastis
Ouzo also benefited; pastis contains no wormwood.
Q 16Which two Iberian countries never banned absinthe, so production there never ceased?
Spain and Portugal
Pernod Fils resumed production at Banus in Catalonia after the First World War until the 1960s.
Q 17What did clandestine Swiss distillers call the colourless absinthe they made to hide it from authorities?
La Bleue
The name is now used for post-ban Swiss-style absinthe in general.
Q 18Hill's Absinth, imported by BBH Spirits in the 1990s to spark the modern revival, came from where?
The Czech Republic
The UK had never formally banned absinthe, so it could be sold there legally.
Q 19Which brand in 2000 became the first commercial spirit of its kind distilled in France since the 1914 ban?
La Fée
Dozens of French brands are now produced.
Q 20Which French brand in 2007 became the first genuine absinthe approved for import into the US since 1912?
Lucid
St. George Spirits of California made the first US-produced absinthe since the ban that December.
Chlorophyll from a second herb maceration
Petite wormwood, hyssop and melissa are steeped in the clear distillate.
Q 25Unscrupulous 19th-century makers tinted cheap absinthe green with what toxic substance?
Copper salts
Some also added antimony trichloride to boost the louche - possibly explaining much of absinthe's toxic reputation.
Q 26What is the milky opalescence that forms when water is added to absinthe called?
The louche
Anise, fennel and star anise oils come out of solution as the spirit is diluted.
Q 27In the traditional French preparation, what sits on the slotted spoon over the glass?
A sugar cube
Iced water is dripped over it to reach 1 part absinthe to 3-5 parts water.
Q 28In the French method, roughly how much iced water is dripped in?
3-5 parts to 1 of spirit
Café patrons in Paris mixed their own; sugar was a personal choice.
Q 29The 'Bohemian method' of serving absinthe involves what?
Setting a sugar cube alight
Invented by the Czechs in the 1990s, it is dismissed by connoisseurs as a fire-hazard gimmick.
Q 30What was an absinthe fountain?
An iced-water jar with spigots for several drinks
It allowed hands-free louching so patrons could socialise.