On Wednesday night, I had the pleasure of attending an absinthe tasting hosted by Silverlake Wine. What an experience. Almost as exciting a one as stumbling upon Paris’s first post-ban absinthe shop and wandering the cobblestone streets on the night of my birthday to sip absinthe at Paris’s absinthe bar, La Fée Verte. Oh, the dreams I had that night…
For those of you who have never tried absinthe, it’s a liquor made from the distillation of three herbs: anise, fennel, and grand wormwood (the Latin of which is Artemisia absinthium. Guess where absinthe gets its name?). Depending on the distiller’s method, the forward flavor is often either minty (wormwood) or heavy on licorice (anise). Personally, I prefer the anise forward bottles and until that night, my favorite was Lucid.
Photo Credit: Adrienne Borgstom
Now, any tasting involving six different kinds of absinthe would be cool, but as luck would have it, Ted Breaux was in town. Breaux, a former research scientist, is not only the maker of Lucid, but also the man responsible for getting absinthe legalized in the United States.
But, today’s absinthe isn’t “real” absinthe, right? Wrong. Breaux explained that to create Lucid, he reverse engineered the liquor from a bottle of 100 year old absinthe that he found. In the Combier Distillery in France’s Loire valley that was designed by none other than Gustav Eiffel, the architect for the Eiffel Tower. Check out this video of Breaux making the green stuff.
So, if it’s real, does that mean it’ll make you crazy? Nope. What used to make people insane wasn’t the absinthe itself. The culprit of absinthium were the ingredients that some companies – those that wanted to make absinthe cheaply and forgo distilling actual herbs – used to make their absinthe green or make it turn cloudy when water was added. Compounds like copper sulfate and antimony trichloride. Cheaper isn’t always better. Sometimes, it’ll kill you.
But, of course, in addition to Breaux filling our minds with lots of absinthe information, there was some drinking. The six different absinthes included Vieux Pontarlier, Obsello, Kubler, Vieux Carre, Marteau, and Breaux’s newest, Jade Nouvelle Orleans. My favorites of the night: Kubler and Jade. I bought a bottle of the latter as it’s very limited edition and Silverlake Wines had the last seven bottles left in Los Angeles.
If you’re interested in going deep into the rabbit hole, some of Breaux’s scientific musings on the subject can be found here and here.