Wired 13.11: The Mystery of the Green Menace: “One of the ingredients is thujone, a compound in wormwood that is toxic if it’s ingested, capable of causing violent seizures and kidney failure. Breaux hands me a bottle of pure liquid thujone. ‘Take a whiff,’ he says with an evil grin. I recoil at the odor – it’s like menthol laced with napalm. This is the noxious chemical compound responsible for absinthe’s bad reputation. The question that’s been debated for years is, Just how much thujone is there in absinthe?”

Apparently, many absinthe’s have just 5 parts per million – that’s close to homeopathic levels. I really do worry about my kidneys after that new cocktail we made at the weekend. I think it was absinthe, chocolate liquer, cointreau, chilli vodka and ice, accompanied by Terence’s Special Cigarettes.

No wonder I feel like shite today.