Absinthe Butterfly Boston
Posted on July 28th, 2010 by Absinthe.FM
A new Absinthe is coming to Absinthe.FM! By the beginning of august we will sell the reproduction Absinthe Butterfly. Butterfly was produced in the USA in the early 1900´s. Now the legend has returned. Here is some info about Butterfly´s history:
Butterfly Absinthe was first produced in Boston, MA starting in 1902 by P. Dempsey & Co. The company was founded by an Irish immigrant named Patrick Dempsey who was born at the home farm in County Wicklow, Ireland, March 17, 1822, and died at his home in the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, December 12 or 13, 1902.
He spent the first sixteen years of his life on the home farm as his father’s assistant, and passed the four following years at the provision trade in Dublin, where he received the business training that proved so useful after his arrival in the United States. He and his brother James came to this country in the same ship in 1842, and he spent the first year of his American residence at Fall River, Massachusetts, an employee of the Hope Mills. He continued as a textile mill worker in Cranston, Rhode Island, and in Somerville, Massachusetts, but in the lastnamed city his health failed and he was obliged to seek out-of-door employment. Not finding anything suitable in Somerville, he went to Albany, New York, and there found a position with one of the contractors of a section of the Erie Canal, then being built across New York State to connect the Great Lakes with the Hudson River. He remained in that employ for some time, later went further west, not returning East until 1846, when he located in Lowell, and the same year rented the basement at No. 381-83 Market Street, in a small way beginning the making and bottling of root beer. He devoted himself to the building of this business with all the energy and strength he possessed, making the root beer at night and spending his days selling it. He prospered, of course, for this combination of youth and energy could not be denied. Soon he added other beverages to his list and rented the store above his business as a salesroom, retaining the basement for manufacturing purposes. Later he opened a wholesale store for the sale of liquors under the firm name, P. Dempsey & Company, occupying the double stores at 381-83 Market Street, Lowell, MA and continuing the active head of that firm for 53 years, 1846-99.
In 1900 he retired and was succeeded by his son, George C. Dempsey, and Patrick Keyes, who continued at the same location and in Boston. Once in Boston, the company began production of a number of liquor brands including Patts Malt Whiskey, Mayfair Whiskey, Puritan Gin and Butterfly Absinthe.
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