More absinthes coming to the USA soon!

In December 2007, I predicted that there would be at least 8 - 10 absinthes freely available in the USA by December 2008. While the word "freely" was a bit careless and open to misinterpretation, the words "at least" were chosen very deliberately. I also predicted, "One or two unlikely alliances between some of the main players will start to be seen." More of the second prediction later, but, firstly, I'll review the number of absinthes coming to the USA this year.

Bevlaw, a firm concentrating on the federal regulation of alcohol beverages. has been keeping track of the product and label permissions given to absinthes, and recorded 12 by May 2008, and subsequently updated. These include the early launches such as Lucid, Kübler and St. George, the more recent launches such as Grande Absente Originale, Le Tourment Vert, and La Fée Parisienne, and some that have yet to reach the market. The latter includes Mythe Absinthe Traditional, Libertine, and Mata Hari Absinthe Bohemian.

However there are a few more brands that Bevlaw didn't record by June 23, 2008 (but most of which have now been added to the site since the publication of this blog). These include some interesting developments such as the first absinthe cream liqueur: La Crème Kübler,



the first "big company" entrant,Vincent van Gogh Klasiek Absinthe from Luctor (of Vincent van Gogh Vodka)


Artemisia, from Fat Dog Spirits, Florida (which has nothing at all to do with the Artemisia Distillery of Claude-Alain Bugnon, the home of La Clandestine), and La Muse Verte.

Add the two Sirène labels from Chicago's North Shore Distillery, Denver's Leopold (all these shown on BevLaw), as well as Trillium and that makes the tally 17 launched or about to be launched absinthes.

I am also aware through contacts and forums of 5 other absinthes that are going through the US permissions process at the moment, with approved products and pending label applications with the TTB. These include Gwydion Stone's Marteau and Delaware Phoenix Absinthes.

Tempus Fugit Spirits, which states that they are "dedicated to importing the finest spirits from around the globe," also features Mansinthe, Vieux Pontarlier and Duplais, bringing the total of approved or apparently in process absinthes to 25! Pacific Distillery seems to be progressing an absinthe too, while the Seattle Times hints at more to come! 26, 27 ...

Of course, a good investigative blogger can go a lot further and it's interesting to do more research on US trademark registrations. A search for "absinthe" reveals some interesting issues of potential future launches, trademark clashes (putting it mildly!) and brand name ownership. Luctor International (of Van Gogh ) has registered several absinthe trademarks in the USA, while Emile Pernot seems to be registering every name they have!

And what is more surprising is the absence from the TTB and label registries of some of the really big names. Where is Pernod (apparently working on it, but nothing seems imminent)? And where are some of the Czech products that I have taken issue with previously, either here or on other blogs?

UPDATE: July 7th, 2008. The US launch of Pernod Absinthe announced. Reviews of this product at Fée Verte were fairly damning.

Did I say 17 absinthes launched or about to be launched? Did I say a total of 26, 27 ... including those "in process?" Well, that's not all ...



Today, after several months work in the USA and Switzerland, I am happy to announce a major initiative between two of the major forces in modern absinthe: Viridian (of Lucid fame) and La Clandestine (and that is the new approved label above).

In fact we have been talking for some while, starting in June 2007 when I emailed Jared Gurfein, President of Viridian to query some of the copy on the Lucid Absinthe website. In the space of a few emails, the tone went from formal to friendly, and it was evident that we had a lot in common: a love of real absinthe and a resolve to get the best absinthes into the USA.

So in late-summer 2007, Jared and Ted Breaux, the creator of Jade and Lucid absinthes, came to meet Claude-Alain Bugnon, the distiller of La Clandestine, and myself in Couvet, the birthplace of absinthe and the home of La Clandestine.



Firstly, we all tasted both Lucid and La Clandestine. Cheers, Jared!



Then as day turned into evening, we started to look into the long-term.



Within a day, we had the basis of an agreement that worked for both parties. More importantly, we could now begin the process of gaining US approval for the prize-winning La Clandestine, probably one of the most-loved of all absinthes.

Of course, that process was not 100% straightforward, and we had to make some very minor changes to the proposed US label. But following in the footsteps of Viridian, who had already launched the first absinthe in the USA for nearly 100 years, meant that the process was almost as smooth as we could have hoped and final label approval came through on June 16th, 2008.

Of course since we started this journey, several other companies have won permission from the USA authorities to launch their absinthes and absinthe lovers at the Wormwood Society have greeted some of them with less than total enthusiasm.

So we are delighted that one of the long-term favourites of absinthe lovers at the Wormwood Society, more generally (e.g. on MySpace) and of absinthe industry professionals will shortly be available in the USA.

Update (Summer 2012): La Clandestine Absinthe is now imported by Artemisia's new partners, DC Craft Spirits. They have been building on the start made by Viridian and have already extended distribution into new States such as Massachusetts and into new retailers such as BevMo!

Real Absinthe in Canada

UPDATE FEBRUARY 2013: The LCBO has been upgrading its absinthes. It is now possible to find Lucid, Vieux Pontarlier and, most recently, La Clandestine within the LCBO, or Vintages or, in the case of La Clandestine, Vintages Online! And the Absinthe Café in Ottawa (shown above) is probably the best stocked absinthe bar/restaurant anywhere in Canada!

Now back to the original post ...


Can this picture be true? Real absinthe? Available in Canada? Yes, but it's a long story and there is hopefully much more to come. To find out more, read on ...

I first went to check out the absinthe market in Canada in Spring 2006, visiting Nova Scotia and Ontario. I was very grateful to spend time with two absinthe lovers and artists/art lovers in Toronto, Scott and Lannie, who both took me round some bars. I saw there was obviousy a demand for real absinthe, but there was very little real absinthe in the market. Later I met with the LCBO, apparently the largest liquor customer in the world, and they told me that:

a) There was little demand for high quality absinthe (to this day, I don't know how they assess that since up to then and for some time afterwards they didn't stock what absinthe connoisseurs would consider to be real, high quality absinthe).

b) Any absinthe that they were to consider had to have less than 1 part per million of thujone in line with Health Canada "guidelines." Other Liquor Boards seem to have different interpretations of these "guidelines," ranging from no limit (BC) to the 1 ppm then quoted by LCBO, but now increased.

The highlight of my trip was when Scott and I had a private tasting of 10 or so different absinthes that I had brought in with me and I recall he loved the absinthes of the Clandestine distillery, a distillery I also knew and admired. At the time, however, I was not working directly with them.

Fast forward three years. I work on La Clandestine (and on other premium drinks) and we've just started to have our first real breakthroughs in Canada. Typically since I went to Nova Scotia and Ontario and have had talks with people in BC, our first success was in none of those provinces. It was in Montreal (that's in Quebec for any Americans!) and it's at the famous microbrewery pub, Dieu du Ciel. For me, it's perfect that a bar priding itself on hand-crafted smallscale beers should have been the first outlet in North America selling La Clandestine, hand-crafted in the birthplace of absinthe (Couvet, Switzerland). Many other bars in the USA are now also doing so, including the famous Please Don't Tell and L'Absinthe in New York. But that is another story ..

Stéphane Ostiguy, Président, Microbrasserie Dieu du ciel, reports excellent sales of La Clandestine, and has already re-ordered twice (bear with us, Stéphane!). Of course, his customers can only drink on the premises and cannot buy to take bottles home ... so hopefully this helps Stéphane keep his customers there for longer! Stéphane's story about absinthe is very interesting!

Montreal is just a few miles/kilometers away from the USA, so to all our friends in the USA, you now have one more good reason to vacation in Montreal this year. In fact, looking at the list of Stéphane's beers, including Aphrodisiac, Coal Woman and Hemp Smoke, I'd say you have many more reasons to go there!

IMPORTANT UPDATE: AUGUST 2009

More real absinthe is coming to Canada!

1. Frank Deiter's Taboo is now being sold on test in Quebec Liquor Board outlets. Ironically, Frank is probably going to find it easier to sell his popular Canadian absinthe in the USA, where he has just got label approval.

2. There is a very active group on Facebook, Canadians for Real Absinthe, that is leading the lobbying of the Liquor Boards .. and swapping a few horror stories on the way (Update: Facebook's changes to how Groups are set up removed more than 200 members recently).

3. Health Canada have now confirmed that they are reviewing their guidelines for thujone levels in absinthe. It may take a year to see the results of their review, but it does seem that they recognise that the rest of the world has a totally different perspective. Keep your fingers crossed!

4. And now back to explain the picture at the start of this article. The selection of absinthes stocked by Premier, Halifax, Nova Scotia. La Clandestine arrived in Nova Scotia end-November 2008. Just in time for a White Christmas! Since then Premier has expanded their portfolio and now has an interesting range of absinthes, including La Clandestine in two sizes (700 and 250 ml), Taboo 500 ml, and La Fée Parisian and Bohemian. Premier also stock a range of absinthe accessories, including


a fountain, spoons and glasses. With all that available, it's the nearest that Canadians have yet come to Absinthe Heaven. Not as good as the range available in many US stores, but better than that at any other Canadian liquor store currently.

5. And most exciting of all? The Quebec Liquor Board (S.A.Q.) is now stocking two Swiss absinthes, La Clandestine and Kübler, and La Clandestine can be found in more than 120 stores in Quebec NOW! I am told that they considered 11 different absinthes from France, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, but eventually decided that high quality absinthes from the very birthplace of absinthe were the most appropriate for their consumers. The Facebook group (linked to in 2 above) tells a bit more of this interesting story!

Cheers ... et santé, Canada!

Imbibe Magazine Article on Absinthe

Imbibe is a great consumer magazine focused on beverages. It's on its 11th issue in the USA.

The January/February edition of the USA magazine has a great article on absinthe, written by Paul Clarke of Cocktail Chronicles. I ordered my copy from Amazon US which got to me in the UK in two weeks in a big well-packed box which provided great protection for my precious magazine (what will it be worth in 100 years?).

For copyright reasons, I cannot post the article directly here, but I am glad to see that the magazine has now put it online.

Thanks, Paul. Everyone can read the full article here.

And to correct an earlier mistake, I understand that the UK Imbibe magazine is not related to the USA magazine ... Sorry for the mistake.

Real Absinthe: 2007 Review & 2008 forecast

To say that 2007 has been an interesting year for real absinthe would be something of an understatement.

2007 was the year that real absinthe returned to USA bars and shops for the first time in nearly a century. First Lucid from France, and then Kübler from Switzerland.

And more followed. The month before Christmas saw American-made absinthe arrive in San Francisco and locally-distilled absinthe hitting the Canadian market too!

St. George Spirits Absinthe Verte hit the headlines at the end of the year with the press featuring pictures outside the San Francisco distillery.



This photo shows the "St. George Tactical Alcohol Consumption Squad" hard at work!

And yet when 2006 moved over to allow 2007 in, there was no sign that absinthe would become as freely available in the USA as it is now.

Absinthe lovers at the main absinthe forums had enjoyed long debates about La Fée X.S.; they had complained about the £/$ exchange rate, the San Francisco Absinthe Party was raided, and then on January 3rd, the New York Times prophetically ran an article entitled Trying to clear absinthe's reputation.

The Real Absinthe Blog started operations on January 14th, 2007, followed 12 days later by the Czech Absinthe blog. A growing number of bloggers chronicled developments throughout 2007: by December 2007 there were well over 20 regular absinthe blogs offering their writers' perspective on the absinthe business, absinthe events on several continents, with the occasional foray into absinthe's cloudy - one could call it louched - history.

February saw the story of the USB Absinthe Spoon.


Unfortunately this seems to have been a hoax, but we all enjoyed reading about it.

On March 1st, the second anniversary of absinthe going legal in Switzerland, the San Francisco absinthe party organiser heard that no charges were to be made against him (he eventually got his absinthe back!).

And on April 29th, the New York Times broke the Lucid story. The men behind Lucid, Ted Breaux and Jared Gurfein, did not reveal too many details at that stage about Lucid, and this may have been responsible for some of the more ridiculous speculation as to whether it was real absinthe, what the thujone content was, etc. Ultimately the creators of Lucid had the last laugh as it became clear to most neutrals that Lucid was very real with a thujone level that may have counted as zero as far as the US authorities are concerned, BUT that this allows a level of up to 10 ppm of thujone ... exactly the same as any real absinthe in Europe.

In May, the forums and blogs were busy debating Lucid, with the Czech "absinthe" blog beginning its long misinformation campaign on the brand and on Ted Breaux.

June saw the Boveresse absinthe festival in Switzerland.



Two of absinthe's most famous distillers (Ted Breaux and Claude-Alain Bugnon) are shown at the event where the latter's Angélique was launched.

I enjoyed July but not for England's terrible weather! This was the month where I published my interviews with Hiram of the Wormwood Society and Louched Liver of the Louched Lounge. More significantly it was the month of Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, an event which saw many of America's absinthe lovers get together for work and for play.

August and September were superficially much quieter, but behind the scenes absinthe distillers were preparing for new events in the USA, and absinthe consumers - especially in the USA - could hardly begin to believe what was happening with news of more launches starting to spread.

The October Absinthiades saw Claude-Alain Bugnon winning his third consecutive Golden Spoon, with La Fée X.S. also winning gold and silver.

November saw the launch of Kübler in the USA after a lengthy legal process in which the product itself was cleared long before Lucid, but in which the Swiss decided to launch only when they had full agreement for the label they wanted with its clear "absinthe" nomenclature.

And so to December, with the St. George launch, rumours of more absinthes coming to the USA, and, in two events that saw the news come full circle, the revelation of La Fée's new 38% NV, and Paul Nathan's latest, legal (?) absinthe party.

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Before coming onto my forecasts for 2008, I want to make some awards to those people who made their mark on the absinthe world in 2007.

The Lion's Den Award

This award is for utmost bravery in going to meet the enemy and there are three potential candidates in 2007: Ted Breaux for braving the censorious Czechs, Elliot Novak for coming to discuss the new Oliva (Czech) Absinthe at Fée Verte, and finally to Tom Hill for coming to defend his family's absinth at the Wormwood Society. Personally I feel that Tom's initial willingness to discuss the issues in a relatively alien language should win this award.

The Kofi Annan award for diplomacy (or should that now be the Ban Ki-moon award)

This award goes to Oxygénée for trying to engage with those writing on L'Absinthe Rend Fou, and for his proposal that non-French/Swiss styles of absinthe could use the Bohemian designation.

The Absinthe Writer of the Year

Ultimately there can only be one winner of this: for sheer volume of materials, all written by a person/people who professes/profess no commercial link to absinth(e), but who nevertheless has time to participate on countless blogs (including his/her own), on Wikipedia, Tribe, etc etc. The winner is .... Anonymous, otherwise known as Absintheur, DrAbsinthe, Dr. Sam, Dogtanian, RedSalmon etc. All that is publicly known about this person is that he accesses the internet in the Czech Republic ....

Absinthe Launch of the Year

There are many candidates including Belle Amie from Vert d'Absinthe, Roquette 1797 from Archive Spirits, and Claude-Alain Bugnon's Angélique.

While opinions on the tastes of these - and others - may be quite subjective, the sheer historical significance of Lucid Absinthe Supérieure makes this the clear winner in this category.

Absinthe Photo of the Year

And so we return to the defining theme of the year in which real absinthe finally returned to the USA. This is best illustrated by the queue of those waiting to buy the new absinthe from St. George Spirits:-



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Reviewing the past is relatively easy; predicting the future (even with a little inside knowledge) is a lot more difficult.

My main predictions for absinthe in 2008 are as follows:-

1. By December 2008, there will be at least 8 - 10 absinthes freely available in the USA. They will include more absinthes from France, Switzerland, the USA and the first Czech absinth to launch officially in the USA.

2. At least one of the big multi-national companies, probably Pernod-Ricard, will start to show more significant interest in absinthe. Pernod Absinthe is becoming slightly more prominent within Pernod's portfolio in some countries and the US interest in absinthe will have been noted. And if a second multi-national starts to get interested, then anything could happen!

3. One or two unlikely alliances between some of the main players will start to be seen. Consolidation is happening throughout the drinks business and absinthe will follow this trend.

4. Prices will fall, whether on the internet or in the retailers selling absinthe around the world. Some of this will come from greater production efficiency in the business and from greater competition; some will come from specification changes with suppliers reducing the alcohol strength as has been observed in at least one key market (the UK) in recent months.

5. More absinthe blogs will start (and many will wither); membership of the absinthe forums will continue to grow, and many of the longer-established members will tire of the inability of newcomers to read the FAQ's (that's an easy prediction)! However at the Louched Lounge, change will be less obvious!

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To those readers who stumbled across me while searching "real absinthe" in 2007, I hope you have found what you were looking for. To those readers who stumbled across me while searching for "absinthe effects" and "absinthe hallucinations," I hope you have found something better than you were looking for.

Santé et bonne année!

Censorship is still alive in the Czech Republic

I don't like to give them a link, but I have to refer today to the Czech "absinth" blog.

Having written eight negative articles about Lucid absinthe in the last few months, the blog authors finally persuaded Ted Breaux, the distiller of Jade Absinthes and of Lucid, to join a debate on the blog.

Now frequent visitors to the Czech blog are well aware that posts disappear, which the blog admin blames on the system. I have had responses edited.

This time, the blog admin posted one of Ted Breaux's answers, and soon afterwards it disappeared. I had saved a copy of Ted's answer, so it was clear to me that this was blatant censorship. I had thought that censorship had died in the Czech Republic, but absintheur, our "host" at the Czech "absinth" blog, seems to be doing his best to keep it going!

Ted Breaux's deleted post follows below. The first part is shown on the screen grab: click on it to see the details.



"AbsintheMan:

I appreciate your professionalism and candor.

The comments I made 7+ years ago concerning thujone and vintage absinthe were based upon *assumptions*. Unfortuntately, I *assumed* those who published such figures did so from actual analysis. When the results of my first actual analyses proved to be in complete disagreement with what had been published up to that time, I contacted the researchers (Arnold, etc.) to discuss. Upon doing so, it became clear that their figures were dependent upon essential oil studies and not actual analyses of finished spirits, old or new. At that time, I realized that I was the first to analyze actual spirit samples, and I realized that everything I had assumed, AND everything they had published prior to that point was without actual proof. At first, I was hesitant to contradict myself without further investigation. When other researchers followed suit and demonstrated results similar to mine, I became more convinced that the old estimations did not consider many details that were not apparent from paper research. These details would eventually clarify themselves to me, but not until I actually had a hand on real-world distillation, from cultivation of herbs through a finished distilled product – something the prior research has never considered nor conducted.

Again, no 'shop' was ever mobilized in Thailand. An associate there offered a quick, low-cost, low risk solution toward getting production initiated in a country where there was no public perception of absinthe, good or bad. This remained a possibility during a time when it was unclear how absinthe would be received by regulators and the public in France.

I created Lucid for the purpose of introducing the U.S. to something that was handcrafted, made true to antique methods, using correct materials and original equipment, free of industrial adulterants, artificial dyes, etc. It had to be possible to produce it in sufficient quantity to secure nationwide distribution (a real challenge), and the price point requirements determined that it should be a mid-level offering. It remains an ongoing challenge, and the unfavorable exchange rate makes things even more difficult.

John Q. Epoch:

Like any genuine absinthe, Lucid contains a trace of thujone. Some absinthes contain a little more, some a little less. I can't give you an exact figure for Lucid, as it varies a little from batch to batch. It tests consistently <10 mg/l, which satisfies the 'thujone-free' requirement of the U.S. government. Nevertheless, we employ as much absinthium in its crafting as one finds in any of the best protocols in the old treatises. Lucid's construction involves NO alteration of the details of the traditional methods, and no reduction in the quantity of materials used.

absintheur:

Either I wasn't entirely clear in my previous account, or you misread it. Allow me to clarify.

I happened to have a telephone conversation with Dr. Arnold just before I was notified of the Time blurb. It became clear to both of us in our conversation that he had been under the impression that we were not using traditional absinthe distillation methods (e.g. Duplais, Brevans, Fritsch, etc.), primarily because a journalistic account of my distillation activities in an older article omitted certain details. Upon his expressing the nature of his impressions from that article, I corrected and clarified them. We discussed other points of misunderstanding as well, which I went to great lengths to correct and clarify. I sought nothing else from the conversation. It isn't the first conversation we've shared over the years, and it won't be the last.

Let's refer to the BMJ article reference by the TIME journalist. In that article, we find the following statement:

"The thujone content of old absinthe was about 0.26 g/l (260 ppm)8 and 350 ppm when the thujyl alcohol from the wormwoods is included.3"

8 – References Duplais – a 19th century treatise.
3 – Arnold references himself

If we apply simple logic:
This statement doesn't say, "our best estimates imply that . . . ", and it doesn't say, "we have reason to believe that . . . ", and it doesn't say, "barring any unforeseen details that may influence our estimations . . . " It says, "the thujone content of old absinthe WAS . . . "

This statement was made as an absolute, without any 'safety valve', and was not based upon actual testing of the very substance to which it referred (old absinthe). Clearly one can see the potential precariousness of this statement. We ALL assumed it to be correct (as did I for many years), but actual testing revealed something very different, and continues to do so.

As for Jad Adams, AFAIK, he is a journalist, not a scientific researcher. I know of no scientific research/analysis undertaken on his part. I don't recall seeing anything in his writings that reflect the revelations of new research, possibly because much of what he wrote (IIRC) was done *before* the latest research.

I cannot stress how important it is to realize that anyone who has pubished writings and theories that are heavily dependent upon thujone for sensationalism would have reason to NOT WANT to accept all the latest revelations, and some will undoubtedly refute that which contradicts their beliefs beyond a reasonable point. This is simply human nature. As for the rest of us, we had our beliefs, we tested our beliefs, we admitted our beliefs were wrong, we attempted to resolve the facts that make the truth what it is, we adapted our thinking to accommodate the truth and moved on.

And on that note, I can tell you there is more coming . . .

Absinthist

(1) I checked two original samples of B-65 for glycyrrhizinic residues some years ago, with interesting results The analytical data from my original samples concurs precisely with the written protocol (from an original distiller's notes) that came to me from Switzerland some time later.

(2) The wine spirits I use are indeed expensive and in short supply, but I wanted something distilled using the appropriate varietals and to my exacting standards in the interest of being as historically correct as possible. You can take comfort in the fact that the spirits I use exhibit a methanol content that is well within the contemporary health standards."

Why would this post be censored? Maybe because it shows the blog's eight attacks on Lucid were misfounded?

I doubt that the debate at the Czech blog will progress now, so for further information, read the coverage on the Wormwood Society.

Absinthe Distillery Webcam!

In what is believed to be a world first, an absinthe distillery has gone fully public by installing a webcam at the entrance to the distillery.



The picture, which is refreshed automatically every 15 seconds, allows the fast-growing numbers of absinthe consumers to see for themselves how absinthe is made.



The pictures come from the Artemisia Distillerie Artisanale in Couvet, Switzerland: the birthplace of absinthe and the home of La Clandestine. In fact, prior to March 2005, the production of La Clandestine was as hidden as its name suggests. So it is ironic and a sign of the times that a clandestine absinthe distillery is now the first to go so public. How things have changed in just two years!

Tales of the Cocktail - Absinthe in NOLA

Tales of the Cocktail hit New Orleans from July 18th to 22nd and seems to have hit some of the participants as powerfully as any hurricane!

Five days of sipping cocktails in seminars, catching up with old friends and making new ones, great food all followed by one or two bar visits: it sounds tough and very exciting. Try as I did, however, I couldn't justify flying there from London this year. But I have certainly been experiencing the whole event vicariously through the numerous blogs, press articles and forum threads about the event. And from a distance it is clear that absinthe played a major part in the festivities, or should I say "work load," of the participants.

First stop in my reading was the Wormwood Society: you have to be a registered member to read their accounts and see their pictures. Without giving away too many secrets, I can reveal that the highlights of the event for the dozen or so Wormwood Society members who attended were:-

1. Dinners and drinks together with great friends, many of whom were meeting each other for the first time. This gave many of them their first opportunity to sample Marteau, which will be launched later this year.

2. The Sunday 10:00 am absinthe seminar led by Ted Breaux and presented by the Maison d'Absinthe.


10:00 am Sunday? After a heavy Saturday night? Well, a drinks purist would probably say that provided those who attended had breakfast a couple of hours before the event, their taste buds would have been perfectly ready for Ted's creations, namely the Jade and Lucid absinthes.

3. Finding absinthe openly on sale in several of the bars in New Orleans.


Thanks for the photo, Larspeart!

4. For some, the opportunity to meet up with some of the team behind La Fée, although it is clear that several people were shocked to see that La Fée were offering all their absinthes (and not just the Bohemian) by burning the absinthe unless one insisted on drinking the right way. It seems they may not have studied the Wormwood Society guideline, or "mantra:"


which may explain why Hiram/Gwydion of the Wormwood Society does not seem to have met up with them!

5. And I wouldn't be a good blogger if I didn't also refer to the long discussion between Ted Breaux of Jade and George Rowley of La Fée, seen by several observers. Were they just discussing the New Orleans weather?!

Next up in my reading was the press, with several regional newspapers covering the Absinthe seminar. I also enjoyed the report in Zagat (where La Fée say that "Van Gogh .. was drinking loads of other alcohol, and smoking all kinds of weed," and the Washington Post coverage of the event including references to the presentations given by Dr. Cocktail, who talked about the "holy trinity" of lost spirits, including absinthe, and Drinkboy. I was privileged to meet them both in London in June for Bar Show 2006.


However most of the best coverage of TOTC 2007 is to be found in blogs with Kaiser Penguin having the best summary of the entire event. Absinthe is covered in detail by Cocktail Chronicles (who also covered the Wormwood Society dinner), The Art of the Drink, and Looka!

To sum up, I'm more than a little annoyed I didn't get to make it to NOLA for this event. To make things even worse, I understand that there are plans to have a separate absinthe event in New Orleans in the fall of 2008, meaning that there are two events that I should attend in NOLA next year. Well I can only hope that by then there are a few more bottles of La Clandestine in the USA. In 2007, I spotted just one among the photos of metodd1 (thanks!) from the Wormwood Society. I suspect that Dan (who appears to have made an impact with at least one lady in 2007) or whoever attends from La Fée will be much busier with their camera next year!

Vert d'Absinthe - my favourite absinthe shop

Are you going to Paris this year? For many travellers, Paris is their favourite city, with all its restaurants, bars, and shops. It's easy to imagine oneself back in the Belle Epoque days when absinthe flowed freely, and the Moulin Rouge dispensed absinthe WITHOUT burning it as they do in the film! I had a girlfriend in Paris a few years ago, so it has special memories for me too. If you are visiting Paris, my favourite city, soon, then you must visit Luc-Santiago Rodriguez at my favourite "bricks and mortar" absinthe shop.

Vert d'Absinthe
11 rue d'Ormesson
Paris
France
75004
Phone Number: + 33 (0)142716973

Luc's shop is an oasis, a hidden treasure in the historic Marais area of Paris and once inside you'll forget the bustle of the Parisian streets as you discover all the secrets of absinthe with the help of a wonderful tour guide (no tipping, please!). Luc has one of the finest ranges of absinthes - and absinthe accessories - available anywhere with almost all the French absinthes preferred by real absinthe lovers and some of the favourite Swiss absinthes too (unfortunately the French legislation on fenchone content in drinks limits the number of Swiss absinthes on sale).

Luc's shop is probably the only "bricks and mortar" retailer where you can buy both the distilled absinthes which won Golden Spoon awards at the 2006 Absinthiades in Pontarlier (Recette Marianne from Claude-Alain Bugnon's Couvet distillery, and the Jade La Blanchette from Combier, Saumur).

I've been visiting Luc since he first opened his shop in 2005 and have enjoyed a few glasses with him over that time. Bad salesman that I am (or good salesman that he is!), I have probably bought as much from him as I have sold to him. But with his Gallic charm, his amazing selection of absinthe, and, above all, his knowledge of and passion for his subject, it is all too hard to resist.

Santé, Luc!



PS If sampling absinthe with Luc has whetted your appetite, then in the square next to his shop there are some great restaurants. My favourite is Le Bistrot de Diane, at 2 Place du Marché Saint Catherine. And if you arrive at Luc's before he opens, the restaurant looks straight onto the shop, so you can enjoy lunch and a drink or two while you wait!

Absinthe for Sale

Absinthe is not a cheap drink to make or to buy. A good absinthe could be made with around a dozen different plants. The artisanale methods used to make many of today's absinthes are themselves very labour intensive.

However this absinthe is more expensive than any ever sold before. Even more expensive than the pre-ban absinthe samples sold once in a while by Oxygénée.

This absinthe will cost you $16,900,000, the equivalent of 291,379 bottles of La Clandestine swiss absinthe ...



Originally built in 1973 and then re-fitted in 2005, M/Y Absinthe is currently located at Ensanada, Mexico, so there may be a small delivery charge too. Fraser Yachts, who are selling it, report that its maximum speed is 17 knots, so delivery may not be as fast as the couriers who deliver absinthe!

Want to know more. Well here's the plan ...



The Dining Room ...



and the Master Suite ...



Finally if you lead a very busy life, and are concerned you may not be able to get to your yacht very easily, note that it comes with a helipad ..

The Louched Lounge

MAKING THE ABSINTHE WORLD STUPIDER. POST BY POST.

The things a blogger has to do nowadays. Having conducted an interview with the founder of one absinthe forum, I thought it important to look at a different side of absinthe on the Internet. And so it was with some trepidation that I approached one of the members of the famous Louched Lounge. The Louched Lounge is different and greets you with the following messages:

Not just for insufferable pricks anymore.

Being a drunk asshole isn't a requirement but it helps.

Making the absinthe world stupider. Post by post.

I've posted on the Lounge a few times, and been flamed most times. I've even had my own thread. Since I'm commercially involved in the business, flaming is only to be expected, so nowadays I lurk more than I post. To many, first impressions of the Lounge to an outsider must be ... interesting, to put it mildly. It's anarchic, with little apparent respect for feelings, and only at times seems to stray into discussion of absinthe. But dig deeper, much deeper, and a very different picture emerges. In the last few weeks, there have been some very intense - and very important - discussions, including one on a "secret place" which sadly led to another sub-forum being closed down, one about L'Artisanale, and a critique of my last blog article.

The discussion with my first contact there (a Crosby who may be named after a famous American absinthe lover of the 1920's) went a bit like this:

Tell me a bit about the history of Louched Lounge. No.

Later that day ...

"Good afternoon," says Crosby. "I think you should talk to Louched Liver. He's the best person for this."

So 3,000 miles later, here I am looking for Louched Liver. Sometimes known, at least by himself, as "The Mayor of Absinthetown", also known as Allentown, PA. That may be his photo at the top of this article but he also uses these avatars ...






Hi Liver. Or maybe we can use your real first name:

Sure, you can use my whole name - Mike Marvin. I’ve had it out on the Internet for years.

Can you provide a bit of personal background? How long you've been drinking absinthe?

Drinking for 6 years. If you ask my liver - 60 years.

Your first absinthe?

Good ol’ Deva, from Spirits Corner. If I could get that xit here as cheap as it is in the House of Spain, I’d always have it on hand. For an oil mix, it ain’t bad at all. And the sexy heft of that full liter bottle? Gives me a hardon. And actually lasts 3 days instead of 2.

What have been your favourite absinthes?

All were hogsmack. The time, care, love, and huge effort the cookers put into their stuff jumps it into a league commercial cannot touch. The old saying still holds - “If you really want it, you can’t buy it. If can buy it, you don’t really want it.”

What else do you drink?

Cheap beer and cheap wine, on a ‘cuz that’s all my broke ass can afford. Plus, living in the Deep South, I thought it’d be a good idea to not try to fight the (lack of) culture.

What do you do in your private life that you can talk about?

I do basically nothing. I’m your classic underachiever - 50 years old and waiting tables 4 days a week. A real fuckin’ role model for the striving youth of today. Beyond that, I read (fuck you, no I don’t move my lips and the books don’t have pictures that take up ¾ of the page) and watch movies. Mostly foreign, independent or documentaries. That way I can remember there really is a world out there w/culture and a nonconservative outlook.

Liver and I discover we have a shared interest in foreign movies - we both like Fellini.

(And he also does a fine job at self-deprecation. Talking to his friends, I discover later that Liver is a lawn mowing machine. "Drink with him until the wee hours and the fucker still gets up at 6AM to mow the lawn."

"You’ll never meet a more gracious, generous host. He also has the ability to walk for miles while drinking. We walked to 13 bars in one day, having at least one beer in each one, more in the better ones. Only problem with this being the drunker you get, the further you have to walk to get back home."

"The most important thing to remember is never offer him a Wheat Thin. That and don't let him call your wife and tell her he needs your bail money sent out, on-a-'cuz he ain't gonna pay it. Grate guy.")

Can you tell me a bit more about your personal life ... your partner?

The Lounge’s own Greeneyes, aka Peeps.



She’s the reason I moved to Tallahassee. We actually met in the Lounge. 3,000 miles apart, both in relationxips. A whole story in and of itself, full of heartbreak, longing, phone sex and ultimately, redemption, love and a shared postal code.

A short history of the Lounge. When did it get started?

Woulda been ’02. Some of us at FV (Fee Verte) got mysterious emails to check out a new site. A lame fuckin’ site. I went in one night, drunk (surprise!) and figgered out the whole site was a sham. Populated by puppets. Poorly disguised puppets at that. The whole fuckin’ thing was basically set up sell sketchy absinthe by someone w/the tag Optimal Smarts. Who came to be known as OP, and ultimately Opie. I kicked the furniture around, slung xit on the walls, pissed in the ‘fridge. And forgot about it. Next day, someone posted @ FV that Louched Liver pitched a bitch @ the Louche (no “d” then) Lounge and someone called me an ENORMUS dick (sic).

So some of us from FV started hangin’ around over @ the Lounge because we could do/say anything, as opposed to the civility of Fee Verte. And more and more fucks piled in until we had our own little Internet bar w/a small but fiercely loyal crowd. There’s a whole ‘nother story involving the Lounge being given, then taken back, by Opie, then burnt to the ground by Jack Batemaster and the new Lounge, with a “d” rising from the virtual ashes. (More about this in the 5th comment added at the end of this article).

How can I describe your role on the Lounge?

God would be a description only slightly off the mark. Since I was 1st in, and despite frequent absences and deleting myself entirely at one point, in aggregate I’m still top poster overall, I set the motherfuckin’ TONE, and always have. As someone just said, we let ‘em all in, we always have, and the Liver sorts ‘em out. The whole mob sorts ‘em out, really, but I like to get the initial bitchslaps in. I hate poor grammar and sloppy spelling, and the fuckin’ idiocy of quoting the post above yours to answer it has always gotten me pissed off.

Officially it says "Moderator." Any more to add?

Used to be one of the Three Stooges ...




Cros, Dinky, and me. The Admins. Quit. Came back, got my admin keys back, got pissed (another side story), deleted a bunch of xitty porn and other stuff and turned the Lounge into a beer forum, got busted down to Horse’s Ass.

I see you are also one of the very first members of Fee Verte too.

I was there right before/after a retooling. Hence my low member #, but I was there back starting in about 2000. Head I consider a personal friend. We are both from Michigan and we would amuse ourselves at Fee Verte w/out any care at all if anyone else got what the fuck we were on about.

So why did you see the need to use the Lounge too?

See above. Fee Verte is what it is, and part of what it is is civil. People complain if threads go off topic. At the Lounge, it’s hard to catch a thread more than 12 posts long and figger out what the fuck the original topic may have been. I used to do it as a kind of game, see the last couple posts and try to figger out how the fuck it got to that point from where the thread started.

What makes it different from other absinthe forums.

No censorship, we admit everyone, we are brutally frank, and sometimes cruel, well, usually cruel, especially amongst our core membership. We don’t talk much about absinthe at all. We’re pretty fuckin’ unstructured. If fucks would look at the Lounge as a virtual incarnation of a real life dive bar, they’d get what we’re about pretty quick. Xit’s gonna happen, just not the xit you may expect. Bullxit and hucksterism get sniffed out and pissed on real, real quick.

Information on current Lounge members: numbers total, number active.

A bunch. Not many.

Describe the range of your users: ages, locations, experience.

We’ve had as young as 18 and a few are older than me. Mostly US, but we’ve picked up some You Row fucks lately. Fun to make of their language problems. They all seem to have no trouble w/profanity, though. God bless ‘em. Most Newbians either hang on the periphery until they feel they’ve got a grip on the TONE well enough to not get their asses kicked, or they dumbly wade in and get their asses kicked.



Few stick around after that. Some do. Not many. Hence, the experience level is high by dint of the fact if you aren’t already knowledgeable, you aren’t gonna really find anything out in the Lounge, anyway. If yer funny and have a tough hide, well xit, c’mon in and join the party.

How many of your members have you met?

Dozens and dozens and dozens. My last Louche Fest in Allentown, Pa had about 2 dozen+ plus attendees, from 10 states, and lasted 8 days. I am the motherfuckin’ party master. It’s part of my mystique. If you go to the Louche Fest Scrapbook sub forum, and set it to All, you can see the 3 Louche Fests. Lots of pics too ...



(above a T-shirt design from Louche Fest 2003 and below some of the damage done at the event)




Part of the glue of the Lounge is the high percentage of regulars who’ve actually stepped up and looked each other in the eye. And crotch punched each other. Just a little thing we like to do.

The future of absinthe in the USA. How do you see the absinthe market developing?

Really fuckin’ slowly. It’s a niche drink. It’s unknown. And, in the main, those who know of it only know the stupidass side of it. The fucktard mythology. Not exactly a repeat buy clientele. And the fuckin’ price is pretty crazy, too. Especially when you consider the 1st offering that’s legal stateside, Lucid. Weak ass, low quality and still 60 damn bucks. High price, lack of knowledge the xit even exists=slow row to fuckin’ hoe, Joe.

Why is there so much ... ill-will between the forums, ... the rivalries between some people, the animosity, the jilted lovers etc? Or are the forums just a reflection of life?

Thazzit. Different bars for differing barflies. And as most of the forums have a small, but loyal member base, fuckers get testy when they think their xit’s gettin’ stepped on. Each of the forums draws a different base crowd, although there is much interspecies mating. The actual online community is pretty fuckin’ small. You see the same fucks poppin’ up everywhere. There’s been some actual sex involved, and as always, that’ll get xit really percolatin’.

Personally (yeah, I'm supposed to be interviewing, but ...), I think it's because there is so much passion about absinthe.

Um, no. At the Lounge, we really don’t discuss absinthe much at all. It’s gotta be 90% crap yap. Until the last couple years, w/ever expanding legalization and more decent commercial products coming out, there wasn’t a hell of a lot to be passionate about. There just wasn’t that much fairy squeezin’s around worth talkin’ about. Even now you can’t really sustain talk about absinthe very much. Get some motherfuckers in an online pissing contest, that’ll bring out the passion! Seems like it erupts in the Lounge more than at the other forums. Since we don’t censor, and our TONE is pretty snitty, it’s the place for xit to get aired out pretty frequently.

So do you think we can all ever be friends again? (A bad question to ask, immediately seized on by Liver ...)

Again? Who the hell were you buds w/? I’ve seen pix of you, they must have been blind. I think eye to fuckin’ eye we’d all pretty much be palsy-walsy anyway. The mess that is communicating over an Internet board causes mucho miscommunications, to put it very mildly. Nuance, irony (fuck emoticons), shrugged shoulders, a touch, a smile, all missing. Of all the Loungers and Fee Vertians I’ve met over the years, only 1 managed to be a big enough dickhead for me to actually dislike. I’m not sayin’ I’d suck everyone else’s cock, but at least they weren’t assholes, just people.

Here's a possible theory about absinthe forums and the future. They have done so well simply because absinthe is illegal. Now it's becoming legal, the forums won't attract new people. What do you think?

Sure they will. People will wanna see what they should be buying. Like going to Amazon to check out an espresso maker’s reviews. Fucks wanna have some idea what end of the pool to dive into. Hopefully there will be enough choice on the newly legal side at some point to make it worth continued investigating in the future. It’ll be like now, where at most forums the majority peekin’ in aren’t members, they are guests, sniffin’ around to find out what’s what. Most never join. Those who do usually stay for a bit then fuck off to some lawn care forum or who knows where.

And how about the current members? Isn't there a danger they will lose interest?

How much interest can actually be sustained anyway? As I said, at the Lounge we rarely talk about absinthe - that was merely the web that caught us flies. Which is an apt analogy, as we not only regurgitate on our food, we puke all over the place. Forums are good places to plan Fests, check in on your b’day for that lame ass xit where everyone puts together a string of emoticons and wishes “Merry! Happy!” even they don’t have a clue who the fuck the person is.

Some people are obsessed w/absinthe and everything about it, but how many actually? And who the hell wants to hear them prattle on about egg glasses vs. Pontarlier forever, anyway? Not me, amigo! Let’s yammer about sex, music, the weird shape of that guy’s head. How does he buy hats to fit that thing? Had to be born Caesarian or his mother’d look like a wishbone.

What would you like the Lounge to do in future that it can't do now? An even better online bar/pub .. where we can all see each other and talk to each other in real time?



Inexpensive, and working Webcam feeds from Fests would be good, until about 4am when it would be only be good for those who like to watch slow motion train wrecks. As it is, drunk dials are a blast for those screaming into the celly “YOU SUCK AND I LOVE YOU AND YOU’RE A CUNT FOR NOT BEING HERE BECAUSE YOU SUCK AND YOU SHOULD BE HERE AND HERE’S xxxx-----“ who promptly screams "YOU SUCK AND I LOVE YOU AND YOU’RE A CUNT FOR NOT BEING HERE BECAUSE YOU SUCK…” And you can only imagine how much more fun that’ll be when you can see someone’s melon right up against the camera, steaming the lens. I’m waiting w/masturbated breath. Yeah, right.

What does Peeps thinks about your absinthe interest/obsession?

I can’t even afford to pay for absinthe. Generous fuckers send me some from time to time. A real treat when it’s from a hogsmacker. Last Louche Fest I went to, in Seattle in September, flown out through contributions and staying for free as well, that’s how we do xit @ the Lounge, I drank beer during the party. She shares my interest - that is, after all, how we met, but neither of us is obsessed by absinthe. I’m pretty much a self-obsessed drama queen, which is quite evident if you read the crap I post. Me! Me! Me!

Why does Jack Batemaster use your photo as his avatar?!

Um, on a ‘cuz he’s got good taste and we were lovers @ summer camp. Man, can that boy ever kiss!!

Which seemed a suitable way to conclude my interview with Liver.

...............................................................................

I watched Capote last night. In it, Truman Capote decides to get close to a murderer to help him write his book, "In Cold Blood." He finds himself getting closer to the murderer than he expected and is drawn into his world in a way he had not expected at the outset. I felt a bit like that during this process, although any comparisons between Capote and myself, or between the murderer and Liver would be ludicrous. Well, maybe the Liver/murderer thing isn’t so off the mark. What I found is that this apparent world of anarchy that deigns to discuss absinthe only from time to time is in fact 100% about absinthe as the glue or - as Liver might put it - the "shit" that binds the forum members together. It is a crucially important absinthe forum which charts (if you can dig to find it there) much of the history of absinthe over the last few years, but also contains much of the ... soul of the 21st century absinthe drinker. Some might say that it goes beyond that: that as social history it is an important Internet phenomenon the way it gathers people with nothing in common initially beyond absinthe and turns it into a 24 hour pub. Some of them may be drunk as they write, but they post with passion for their subject (whatever it is) and with loads of mutual respect.

And a few hours after their last posts at night, they resume their daily tasks like Liver (did he just mention "lawn care forum?")...



As normal as any of us, apparently, but running a great bar and a great meeting place. Judging by some of the comments made by friends, it should perhaps be renamed The Loved Lounge.

Yes, tacky, I know, but for those who know and use the Lounge daily it describes it well. They have a real passion for the place. For those yet to discover the Lounge, it reflects the possibilities it offers. If you've not tried it yet, do so. Once the members start shouting at you, you'll know you've made a good start. Bon voyage!