Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - Why oh WHY does Absinthe have to taste so bad?

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Why oh WHY does Absinthe have to taste so bad?

So I'm sipping on a glass of Absinthe at 2:45 in the morning, asking myself why subject myself to this kind of torture? It's so bad that I've contemplated puking multiple times, but considering the fucking bottle cost me 70 bucks, that's not going to happen. The taste is really not that pleasing, even with sugar, etc.

Oh well, I guess I have no choice but to man-up and down this green shit.. Bleh.

Why not buy something nicer?

I totally would have, but it was kind of one of those, my friends were buying it and the shipping was 90 bucks no matter if you bought 1 bottle or 100. Origionally we were supposed to try it together to see how the different kinds were, but I'm the only one with any left.. oh well.

Go make a bums day or something like that and buy yourself something nicer.

Why does it taste horrible? It says why, right there on the bottle - "89%"

What exactly does it taste like. I've heard it has a licorice/peppermint flavor mixed with a woody flavor from the wormwood. Dunno. Anyone able to describe it?

I love Absinthe and its lovely anise flavour. Send you bottle here and I will finish it for you.

I have about 1/8th of a bottle left myself. I can't stand the taste either.........somewhat of a licorice taste as mentioned, but very bitter at the same time. It's hard to descibe, but I can't get it to taste good with sugar, adding ice, nothing. :o

Never drink something you don't like.

Life's too short to drink drek! There are so many better, nicer tastier adult beverages out there that are fabu for $70 or less. But then, I live in the Napa Valley. :)

You know, if someone made a drink and named it Dreck, then charged $6 for it, people would buy it?

Absinthe would look good on my shelf, where it would stay. ;)

FYI-

Absinthe that cheap (not that $70 is cheap, per se) is NOT going to be good. Chances are it has a low thujole content (the stuff that makes ppl WANT to drink it), and probably a lot of filler chemicals to make up for it (often bitter and NOT good for you). A DECENT bottle of real absinthe will cost upwards of $150. A GOOD bottle will go for $225 or so (yes, US Dollars).

searched around for Absinthe on here, so I'm bringing this thread back up. I had a bottle sent to me from the Czech Republic. It's REALLY good.

REALLY strong, but REALLY good.

I haven't even had 1/2 of my glass yet and I'm pretty comfortable.

Goodness gracious.

I've since done a bit of reading about Absinthe and the vast majority of stuff that gets passed off as Absinthe is garbage. The OPs tastes bad because it is a good example of garbage.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sue

Er....... OP's?

<u>O</u>riginal <u>P</u>oster

ie: Chingal0

ah ok. sorry, I'm a lightweight with this stuff (absinthe that is) :D

Wanted to bring this back up because of a decent article in Wired:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.11/absinthe.html

Quote:

So Breaux decided to make some himself. He found a French-language history book with "pre-ban protocols," a vague description of how absinthe was made back before it was outlawed. Armed with the protocols, he prepared a batch in the lab. The result? "Not very good," he concedes. "I couldn't imagine that being the most popular liqueur in France."

He got his chance to taste the real thing in 1996, when a friend spotted a bottle marked "old French liquor" at an estate sale. They were asking $300, and Breaux, seeing it was a vintage Spanish Pernod Tarragona absinthe, immediately wrote a check. When he got it to his lab, he plunged a syringe through the cork, extracted one precious sip, and downed it. "It had a honeyed texture, distinct herbal and floral notes, and a gentle roundness uncharacteristic of such a strong liquor," he says. "Those protocols were crap."

Quote:

Nouvelle-Orléans is just one absinthe formulation Breaux has mastered. He also makes re-creations of pre-ban bottles. He shows me one that he just distilled, based on an Edouard Pernod absinthe, and I'm dying to taste it. Breaux begins to prepare it in the traditional French manner, a process as intricate as a tea ceremony. First he decants a couple of ounces into two widemouthed glasses specially made for the drink. A strong licorice aroma wafts across the table. Then he adds 5 or 6 ounces of ice-cold water, letting it trickle through a silver dripper into the glass. "Pour it slowly," he says. "That's the secret to making it taste good. If the water's too warm, it will taste like donkey piss."

Quote:

Breaux's conclusions were vindicated in early 2005, when a food-safety group working for the German government tested pre-ban absinthe. Dirk Lachenmeier, who ran the study (called "Thujone - Cause of Absinthism?") concluded that absinthe is not any more harmful than other spirit drinks. But the biggest vindication came at the Absinth des Jahres contest in 2004, for which expert judges sampled newly distilled absinthes from all over the world. A little-known candidate, Nouvelle-Orléans, garnered perfect scores and won a gold medal. "Without doubt, the release of Nouvelle-Orléans was a milestone in the history of modern absinthe," says Arthur Frayn, one of the judges. The distiller? Ted Breaux.

I'd also venture that what you have is ban-friendly 'absinthe'. ie: it isn't really absinthe due to restrictions on it in the US, just labelled that way to separate you from your money.

Yeah, I read that Wired article too.

Piqued my curiosity.

As I was reading this thread, I was thinking "I must link that story". Oh well.

The only absinth you can get here (NZ) is horrible stuff, only good for getting drunk quick. I'd like to get hold of some real stuff, as I have begun to drink for the drink, rather than the drunkeness (not that that isn't also fun), tequilla being my current drink of choice.

It's interesting to note (from that article) that there's almost no thujole (the chemical, to which the madness absinth is thought cause, is atributed) in good absinth.