Not many people can say they were born in a Highland castle but Lorien Cameron-Ross began her life in the baroque Aldourie Castle on the southern shore of Loch Ness. Generations of her family had lived in the area since 1510. The castle is now owned by Danish millionaire, Anders Poulsen, but Lorien lives only a stone’s throw away on Aldourie Estate which the family still own, and Lorien works as a GP in Inverness.
It was the fond memories of her grandparents enjoying a relaxed aperitif in the castle sitting room, catching up with the day before moving into the dining room for dinner, that led Lorien to create an aperitif of her own. She was intrigued by the murky history of absinthe, which originated in Switzerland in the eighteenth century and became popular in France in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly amongst artists and writers, like Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Hemingway, Picasso, Van Gogh and Oscar Wilde. Absinthe became characterised as an addictive, psychoactive and hallucinogenic spirit – perhaps the cause of Van Gogh’s madness when he cut off his own ear! – so it was banned in many countries across the world for nearly 100 years. Legend has it, however, that absinthe was invented by a doctor, also a GP, so Lorien was drawn to the story of its medicinal qualities – it was used to treat stomach ailments in France and Switzerland and in the French military campaign in Algiers. The traditional absinthe recipe is made with aniseed, fennel and wormwood (Artemesia absinthium) – fennel, in particular has been used for a long time to treat stomach ailments, indigestion and colic in babies. Lorien was interested in the meaningful connections with wellbeing, botany and history.
