slimvictor
Bluelight Crew
THANKS TO ITS ubiquity in eggnog and other holiday concoctions, nutmeg is one of the spices most commonly associated with drinking. But even now that the last ladleful of the season has been poured, nutmeg refuses to leave the party. In fact, the spice is enjoying something of a revival in the craft-cocktail world, with small nutmeg graters now fairly common in better bars. More and more drinks—especially vintage punches and their offshoots—call for a dusting of nutmeg the way others call for a lemon twist.
This is welcome news, and not only because nutmeg brings a pleasant intricacy to many drinks (in particular, it lends an earthiness to frivolous citrus). The rediscovery of nutmeg also brings a touch of history with it, including one rather unexpected detour.
Peruse accounts of European drinking in the 18th and 19th centuries, and before long you’ll envision barkeeps standing with nutmeg graters at hand, eager to enliven some potion. The tale of how nutmeg got from the East Indies to Europe has been told well and often: the wars for the Spice Islands, the domination of the nutmeg trade by the Dutch, and later, the rise of a competing industry in the West Indies.
But in doing some research recently, I learned something new: nutmeg will fuck you up.
As it turns out, nutmeg contains a psychoactive element called myristicin, whose chemical structure shares similarities with mescaline, amphetamine, and ecstasy. A Dictionary of Hallucinations—let us pause for a moment to give thanks that we live in a world where such a reference exists—notes that nutmeg has been “reported to mediate visual, auditory, tactile, and kinaesthetic hallucinations (notably the sensation of floating).” This is not breaking news: the Benedictine abbess Hildegard of Bingen noted the mind-altering effects of nutmeg all the way back in the 12th century.
cont at
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/01/my-nutmeg-bender/8863/
This is welcome news, and not only because nutmeg brings a pleasant intricacy to many drinks (in particular, it lends an earthiness to frivolous citrus). The rediscovery of nutmeg also brings a touch of history with it, including one rather unexpected detour.
Peruse accounts of European drinking in the 18th and 19th centuries, and before long you’ll envision barkeeps standing with nutmeg graters at hand, eager to enliven some potion. The tale of how nutmeg got from the East Indies to Europe has been told well and often: the wars for the Spice Islands, the domination of the nutmeg trade by the Dutch, and later, the rise of a competing industry in the West Indies.
But in doing some research recently, I learned something new: nutmeg will fuck you up.
As it turns out, nutmeg contains a psychoactive element called myristicin, whose chemical structure shares similarities with mescaline, amphetamine, and ecstasy. A Dictionary of Hallucinations—let us pause for a moment to give thanks that we live in a world where such a reference exists—notes that nutmeg has been “reported to mediate visual, auditory, tactile, and kinaesthetic hallucinations (notably the sensation of floating).” This is not breaking news: the Benedictine abbess Hildegard of Bingen noted the mind-altering effects of nutmeg all the way back in the 12th century.
cont at
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/01/my-nutmeg-bender/8863/
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
