Boveresse 2007: dixième fête...

I wonder-- how does one participate in tastings at a fête de l'absinthe? The official site still doesn't list the programme...

Absinthiades '06 Tasting

Louisa Chu posted a report with some great photos about her experience as a jurist tasting ten different absinthes at the 2006 Absinthiades in Pontarlier. Via Chow.com's "The Grinder".

LiquorSnob Absinthe Reviews

The folks over at Liquor Snob have posted astute reviews of two Artemisias (La Clandestine and La Capricieuse) and three Duplais' (Blanche, Balance, and Verte). They preferred La Clandestine over La Capricieuse (as do I-- coriander?), and the Blanche was their favorite of the Duplais' for "day to day" drinking.

Curious how they'd compare the Duplais Verte to La Clandestine, but I'm psyched that that they picked the Duplais Blanche over the vertes for, well, political reasons: I think absinthe can only enter the U.S. market if people grow to think of it as more related to gin (martini==cool) than to Everclear (purple punch==ambulance). In addition to colored absinthes being more strongly flavored, demanding green absinthe makes the market too susceptible to the new horrible Czech "absinth tradition" since the concentrations needed for properly colored absinthe to enter the U.S. market (~68%?) won't fly, so to be green, it would have to be artificially colored. Tough pickle...

Absinthe Party Bust: No Charges!?!

Wow! From Paul himself, here's the latest on the legal proceedings after the busted absinthe party on December 29, 2006. From Paul's blog entry:

We were never actually charged with anything. The police confiscated my absinthe and wrote tickets to several of my servers and to myself. The tickets where notices to appear in court. We showed up in court this morning and no charges had been filed. The DA decided not to pursue the matter at all. So we have not been charged with anything. We didn't even walk into a court room.

Via Alan's Real Absinthe Blog

The USB Absinthe Spoon?

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Why a USB absinthe spoon? To keep recipes, designs, photos, translations, etc., (encrypted, of course)! There are a few replies along those lines. Not sure why this is newsworthy, and it sure doesn't look like a real product, but people sent it to me, so here you go!