Saturday, April 27, 2013

L. E. Jung GREENOPAL




One of the many chapters in the shared history of New Orleans, and Absinthe was an old New Orleans distiller L. E. Jung. (Later to be known as L. E. Jung & Wulff)
L. E Jung distilled absinthe, among their many types of bitters, liquers, and liquors during their roughly sixty year history. From the surviving information, it appears that L.E. Jung produced a copy of C.F. Berger's absinthe , both as a verte, and a blanche.





When the USA banned absinthe in 1912, L.E Jung would reformulate their Absinthe in 1913 and produce what may well have been the first American Absinthe substitute, called GREENOPAL.









This extremely rare surviving example of GREENOPAL, now resides in our collection



During the long dry spell of prohibition, L.E. Jung would produce a non-alcoholic absinthe cordial, until repeal, then L.E. Jung & Wulff (renamed following the death of Louis Jung in 1926, when business partner Fred Wulff became head of the company) would resume production of absinthe in December 1933, until ordered to cease absinthe production by the FACA in early 1934

During this period Jung & Wulff would use a rotating group of names for their absinthe substitute, trying to gain market traction for their product. Greenopal would resurface under the house brand of Solari’s market in the mid-1930s.