I've been quite curious about absinthe lately, but I've also read about a lot of shitty absinthe going around since it became legal in the US. Does anyone here know which brands are the best?
if you really want good absinthe, i suggest you brew it yourself. Most brands that are legal are false absinthe.
look for a brand called Lucid, black bottle with cat eyes that is real absinthe, same recipe that you would have found in the old days it's expensive though
DONT EVER buy absinthe from the Czech Republic, it's all essential oil mix SHIT you should never drink. was writing an absinthe tek, but life is hard and it didnt work out, try this recipe.... per liter of good pure grain alcohol 52 grams green anise 26 grams star anise 52 grams florence fennel 20 grams grand wormwood 1 gram corriander 2 grams angelica root 2 grams mint run through a wok still.... finish with 3 grams mint 7 grams hyssop 5 grams lemon balm 7 grams liqorice root 3 grams lemon zest just finished a run of this and it kicks fucking ass beyond ALL.
^Dont ever buy buy absinth from the Czech republic?.. thats a bit of a malicious comment. Its true that most absinth's avaliable today are not true absinth because of international restricions on the oil of wormwood, also low quality absnthe is artificially coloured and often contains little or no anise and/or fennel. There are genuine absinth's avialiabe on the market, they are just harder to find and are probably much more expensive. A good absinthe would not be artificially couloured. Sometimes good absinthe, that is properly aged can turn a slightly orangey colour due to the clorophyls (chemical that makes plants green) reaction to sunlight. A good absinthe should also produce a significant louche -turn an opaque white'ish colour when mixed with water (this is produced by fennel and anise)
Costs depend on how much your gonna make and how cheap your materials are, for a liter the herbs usually set me back around 6 bucks, and I usually make my own base alcohol, but in a pinch you can use vodka, the cheapest of cheap big plastic bar-handle is what you want, which run about 10 bucks. Made another batch except used half as much anise (ran out) still louches fine, I also ran out of wormwood, the absinthe ended up tasting very candy like but still gave the brain connection and weird focus of vision. If you are going to make some make a lot, more that you think you will need, it isn't hard to binge this stuff and it doesn't take long to wake up in a daze wondering where all that absinthe went.
I noticed that Hip Forums is advertising absinthe right now in a banner ad at the top of this page. Has anybody tried this brand?
Are you doing it for the hell or it or for the "effects". If the latter, the effects are placebo (and in the olden days, were due to chemical additives for coloring).
nah man in the olden days if you felt anything from the colorants the cheap shit pre-ban absinthe producers put in you'd either go blind or puke your face off. the effects as we understand them were spun up by the the wine industry to push clean wholesome wine. the difference between good absinthe and bad absinthe is on the same level as say bottom verse top shelf booze of any kind. good absinthe is either uncolored or colored from plant material can be green or red, has a nice thick louche, tastes nice anisey but not too much so, sweet anise balanced by bitter wormwood, when drank correctly it should have a creamy slightly tingly mouth feel without too much alcohol bite, shouldn't leave your mouth either dry or oily, more refreshed with no bitter back of the mouth taste, it should smell nice durring the drip, should smell like different herbs as the drip goes on.
as an avid absintheur, i say you order some online. a good german, swiss or french one. personally i prefer the green and blue ones, and the higher the proof the better. look for Fruko-Schulz or La Fee absinthes if you wanna try some plain nice ones.
La fee is nasty dude, any mofo that labels themselves an absintheur should know that la fee is just another example of cheaply manufactured artificialy colored shit, the louche is absolutely terrible, I dont get it, if you are gonna try selling such terrible stuff you would at least dump some badanine in the batch. if you are going to order online be careful there is a lot of shit, as a general rule of it, stay the fuck away from czech, be careful of german, mostly bad but some decent, there is good shit and terrible stuff from france, the best purchased absinthe I've had was an ami brewing in an original absinthe distillery, its called jade, its very expensive but is very very nice. the absinthes that come out of spain aren't bad, though the correct name is absenthe the booze brand labeled as absenthe available in america here is crap. there are a lot of folks out there tht home brew the stuff, most dont distill, if you want a pleasurable drinking experiance a steam distillation is best.
there are many many many many varieties of La Fee and about 90% of them are SHIT. but trust me, there's some worthwhile.
I ordered Absinthe from Europe back in 2003 (before the dollar went to shit) and received a crate of 6 bottles from http://www.spiritscorner.com/. I searched out the ones with the most wormwood and got some Austrian, French, and Spanish absinthe. The best of all of these by far was Serpis 65, a red colored Spanish absinthe. Drink 1/4 of a litre in the traditional way and you will feel the positive affects. That was 6 years ago and since then the website has many new absinthe that could be really good. I guarantee you can't go wrong with Serpis..next time I get absinthe it will be Serpis 65.