The New York Times Rates Absinthes

Today's New York Times article rating absinthes manages to break through the hype and bad rep and actually do a tasting. While not completely moronic like The Wall Street Journal's attempt published Saturday (seriously? Mata Hari?!), they omit a few-- both good and bad-- and I generally disagree with their ratings. Still, it's good to see people trying to take it seriously.

La Clandestine, Nouvelle-Orléans, and Emile Pernot (should be listed as Vieux Pontarlier) should be at the top. Surprising that they chose not to rate four American-made absinthes (though they may have tasted them, and they did rate St. George)-- Vieux Carré, Absinthe Marteau, and Absinthe Pacifique are delicious and authentic, and while I have only tried an early batch of Leopold Brothers, which I didn't care for, I hear newer batches are much improved.

Update: I forgot to mention two other American-made absinthes (of which I have no opinion-- I've tasted neither) by Delaware Phoenix. All of the American-made absinthes are available at DrinkUpNY.com-- a vendor that has satisfied the itch very nicely lately...:)

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...

Artemis reviews 1914 Pernod Fils

Fantastic review by Artemis of a taste of "the cache" of 76 bottles of 1914 Pernod Fils absinthe recovered "from the cellar of a descendant of a once substantial liquor distributor."

The cache appears to be depleted at this point [sniffle], but the glowing review leads one to wonder about so many points of technique... the coloring is pale-- are modern "correct" absinthes too colored/seasoned? So many questions, and a thrill to read.