everyone wants something from their friendly neighborhood medic opiates
tourniquets a quick peek at that rash on their junk and/or lady bits but French
Foreign Legion troops could get an additional bit of medicine from their
quartermaster or Doc absent they got absent for free from the military it's
amazing they could also get quinine laced wine do you even know what that is
well you're gonna quinine is a medication used to treat malaria as far
back as the 1600s when it was successfully administered to king
charles ii the problem is that it tasted strange so it was often added to
alcoholic beverages to make it palatable sight note that's a big reason that gin
and tonic became so popular in the British military god save the queen
but gin and tonics are for chumps sophisticated folk drink wine French
people drink wine even people who are trying to be French people drink wine
which is why the French Foreign Legion laced their military wine rations with
quinine oh sure quinine is known to cause headaches
flushing unusual sweating nausea ringing in the ears decreased hearing dizziness
blurred vision and low blood sugar but hey malaria can be fatal so drink up
but the absinthe though where'd the absinthe come into the picture was it
just that the French knew how to party better than any other army or maybe the
Legion just give zero listen did do whatever it wanted well it turns out
absinthe can help treat malaria too absinthe is
named for its iconic ingredient wormwood which has the Latin name Artemisia
absinthium the Artemisia genus of plants of which wormwood is a member has long
been a traditional medicine in China for the treatment of parasites dysentery and
malaria the French Foreign Legion started infusing wormwood into wine and
Legionnaires who developed a taste for it found they could get a similar fix
back in Cape with a new drink known as absinthe
absinthe was invented in 1792 and mass production began in 1797 90 to 148 proof
elixir absinthe is a mixture of the grand wormwood as well as green a nice
sweet fennel and other herbs and botanicals I'll drink anything with
botanicals in it anything in the 1800s a bug infestation nearly wiped out French
vineyards so absinthe filled the void left behind by wine and once absinthe
became popular it made as much sense to give that to the troops directly as it
did to infuse issued wine with quinine although the higher costs of absinthe
likely limited how much troops got an article in the drinks business cited the
cost of drinks in the barracks as five cent times for the cheapest wine 15
sometimes for a more popular one and ascending 40 sometimes for true absinthe
I tried to do the conversion on that one for you but like what the gives us send
time also is that send time or send team I don't know you guys yell at me when I
mispronounce things if you know please comment below suffice to say ballers on
a budget we're only sucking down absinthe when
they received it in their ration that is if they didn't sell it instead still it
must have made the quartermaster pretty popular now the modern military might
have a drinking culture check out our new video series drink like a sailor
starring Argos Annelle a sailor who drinks but it's not like alcohol is
officially rationed out to troops or even sanctioned for that matter
not really so what was the Legion thinking pouring rounds of absinthe a
drink known as the Green Fairy because of its legendary hallucinogenic effects
well I hate to burst your bubble Moulin Rouge fans but the idea of absinthe
induced psychosis has been disproven no scientific study has been able to
demonstrate that absinthe possesses anymore hallucinogenic properties than
say alcohol does it'll alter you yes but you won't see Tinkerbell Kylie Minogue
as a result unfortunately I would so party with her
it's theorized that the rumors of hallucinogenic absinthe trips were
caused by additives like copper salts oil of wormwood or cheap alcohol true
absinthe won't have those toxins there are however those who claim that some of
its herbal components may in do some more dreamlike states than traditional
spirits do so I guess the moral of the story here is that the French Foreign
Legion knows best and that it's totally safe to try absinthe again who's ready
to get weird if you want to know more about the French Foreign Legion we have
two videos about them actually if we already have two videos about them why'd
we make this one so that we could drink
in your keys corbeil everyone wants something from their friendly
neighborhood medic opiates tourniquets a quick peek at that rash on their junk
yeah junk