National Absinthe Day 2025 is on Wednesday, March 5, 2025: Where can I get some Absinthe?

Wednesday, March 5, 2025 is National Absinthe Day 2025. Buzzings” from Cocktail Buzz: Celebrate National Absinthe Day with ... Celebrate National Absinthe

If you live in the US you can order a good absinthe bottle online, it's not illegal.

But, what's a good bottle of absinthe?

The net and people's minds (especially americans) are filled with misconceptions, myths and ridiculous stories about absinthe.

First and foremost, absinthe is not, never was and it's not suppose to be anywhere near hallucinogenic, it's a lie, a myth, perpetuated today by unscrupulous "absinth" vendors, especially those who sell czech "absinth".

There were made extensive and scientific tests on surviving XIX century absinthe bottles and no hallucinogenic substance was found. But, you may ask, what's the story on thujone? Yes, absinthe, more exactly the plant wormwood, has the moelcule thujone in it, but, although it's similar to thc it's not the same. But thujone is indeed hallucinogenic, yes, but maybe for an elephant: you had to ingest so many pounds of wormwood that you would die first from it's toxicity or your stomach would blow up, literally. Anyway, the thujone almost disappears completely with the distillation process so it's meaningless.

And this leads me to the following disclosure,

What (really) is absinthe?

Absinthe is quality grape spirit distilled together with up to 9 different herbs, acoording to the various recipes, mainly french and swiss. It's main herb it's not wormwood but green anis, followed by wormwood, fennel, hyssop, star anis, angelica of the alps, melissa and sometimes coriander seeds. All these herbs must be distilled in a very slow process, of up to 18 straight hours, so that all these subtle flavours can be kept in the final product, a very, very hard task impossible to mimic by an amateur. And this leads me to the next statement,

What isn't absinthe?

Absinthe is not cheap grain alcohol with wormwood leaves soaked in it, it tastes horrible and it's probably the origin of the myth that absinthe doesn't taste good and needs sugar.

Absinthe is not cheap vodka with artificial colourings and flavourings=czech "absinth", a waste of money and a gigantic rip off, there are bottles of this swill being sold to the US for more than 100 dolars...

But, you may also ask, why was absinthe banned in so many countries?

Well, it was banned because in the 1910's the wine producers of France were facing many difficulties because, incredibly, absinthe had taken over the preferences among the french, they no longer drank as much wine as they used to, absinthe was now the national drink. This lead to a major lobbying process, in which the french wine producers joined forces with conservative catholic anti.alcohol associations and finally managed to get absinthe banned under many false pretexts and absurd stories about mental illness. It was banned almost everywhere, except on the UK, Spain and Portugal. In these two last countries it was not only legal but also produced and to this very day.

Today the US are the only country in the world where it is forbidden, quite sadly.

What absinthes to order/try?

Mainly french and especially swiss, you can't go wrong with a swiss absinthe, like Kubler or La Clandestine. You can also go to the french, like the Jades, Verte de Fougerolles, Un Émile.

And please, please, always drink it dilluted in water, at least two parts of water to one small part of absinthe, pour the absinthe and then very, very slowsly pour ice cold water, you notice the translucid absinthe becomes cloudy, opaque, a sign of it's quality, it's the plants essential oils freeing themselves form the alcohol.

As for the sugar, NEVER burn it, it's a stupid commercial gimmick invented by the czechs in the 1990's, it RUINS the absinthe flavours. They did dilluted a sugar cube with ice water in the XIX century, but not because absinthe was bitter, on the contrary, due to it's content in anis most were quite sweet. Sugar was added as a sign of status, a luxury extra, up untill the early XX century sugar was not as common as today and it was expensive.

So please, enjoy absinthe for what it is, just THE most complex tasting alcoholic drink in the world, it's subtle aromas are superior to the very best red wines and that, it's flavour it's the main characteristic of absinthe and the reason why it's so good (if it's real).

Cheers

What is the best Absinthe to buy in hong kong?

I don't know what absinthes are available in HK but here's my advise, DO NOT waste your money on "absinths" from the Czech Republic or Germany, they're not real absinthes, far worst, they are only bad quality grain alcohol artificially coloured and flavoured. The best you can buy are swiss absinthes like Kubler or Clandestine and french absinthes like the Jades, Un Emile, Verte de Fougerolles, among others.

In case you're interested in konwing a little about absinthe, here it goes:

First and foremost, absinthe is not, never was and it's not suppose to be anywhere near hallucinogenic, it's a lie, a myth, perpetuated today by unscrupulous "absinth" vendors, especially those who sell czech "absinth".

There were made extensive and scientific tests on surviving XIX century absinthe bottles and no hallucinogenic substance was found. But, you may ask, what's the story on thujone? Yes, absinthe, more exactly the plant wormwood, has the moelcule thujone in it, but, although it's similar to thc it's not the same. But thujone is indeed hallucinogenic, yes, but maybe for an elephant: you had to ingest so many pounds of wormwood that you would die first from it's toxicity or your stomach would blow up, literally. Anyway, the thujone almost disappears completely with the distillation process so it's meaningless.

And this leads me to the following disclosure,

What (really) is absinthe?

Absinthe is quality grape spirit distilled together with up to 9 different herbs, acoording to the various recipes, mainly french and swiss. It's main herb it's not wormwood but green anis, followed by wormwood, fennel, hyssop, star anis, angelica of the alps, melissa and sometimes coriander seeds. All these herbs must be distilled in a very slow process, of up to 18 straight hours, so that all these subtle flavours can be kept in the final product, a very, very hard task impossible to mimic by an amateur. And this leads me to the next statement,

What isn't absinthe?

Absinthe is not cheap grain alcohol with wormwood leaves soaked in it, it tastes horrible and it's probably the origin of the myth that absinthe doesn't taste good and needs sugar.

Absinthe is not cheap vodka with artificial colourings and flavourings=czech "absinth", a waste of money and a gigantic rip off, there are bottles of this swill being sold to the US for more than 100 dolars...

But, you may also ask, why was absinthe banned in so many countries?

Well, it was banned because in the 1910's the wine producers of France were facing many difficulties because, incredibly, absinthe had taken over the preferences among the french, they no longer drank as much wine as they used to, absinthe was now the national drink. This lead to a major lobbying process, in which the french wine producers joined forces with conservative catholic anti.alcohol associations and finally managed to get absinthe banned under many false pretexts and absurd stories about mental illness. It was banned almost everywhere, except on the UK, Spain and Portugal. In these two last countries it was not only legal but also produced and to this very day.

Today the US are the only country in the world where it is forbidden, quite sadly.

What absinthes to order/try?

Mainly french and especially swiss, you can't go wrong with a swiss absinthe, like Kubler or La Clandestine. You can also go to the french, like the Jades, Verte de Fougerolles, Un Émile.

And please, please, always drink it dilluted in water, at least two parts of water to one small part of absinthe, pour the absinthe and then very, very slowsly pour ice cold water, you notice the translucid absinthe becomes cloudy, opaque, a sign of it's quality, it's the plants essential oils freeing themselves form the alcohol.

As for the sugar, NEVER burn it, it's a stupid commercial gimmick invented by the czechs in the 1990's, it RUINS the absinthe flavours. They did dilluted a sugar cube with ice water in the XIX century, but not because absinthe was bitter, on the contrary, due to it's content in anis most were quite sweet. Sugar was added as a sign of status, a luxury extra, up untill the early XX century sugar was not as common as today and it was expensive.

So please, enjoy absinthe for what it is, just THE most complex tasting alcoholic drink in the world, it's subtle aromas are superior to the very best red wines and that, it's flavour it's the main characteristic of absinthe and the reason why it's so good (if it's real).

Cheers

I Need an easy absinthe cocktail?

Listen, if what you have is real absinthe, to mix it with something is like drinking a 20 year old scotch with coke or to put 7up in your hundred dollar french red wine...

If you're really interested in knowing more about absinhte, real hard facts, here are some:

first and foremost, absinthe is not, never was and it's not suppose to be anywhere near hallucinogenic, it's a lie, a myth, perpetuated today by unscrupulous "absinth" vendors, especially those who sell czech "absinth".

There were made extensive and scientific tests on surviving XIX century absinthe bottles and no hallucinogenic substance was found. But, you may ask, what's the story on thujone? Yes, absinthe, more exactly the plant wormwood, has the moelcule thujone in it, but, although it's similar to thc it's not the same. But thujone is indeed hallucinogenic, yes, but maybe for an elephant: you had to ingest so many pounds of wormwood that you would die first from it's toxicity or your stomach would blow up, literally. Anyway, the thujone almost disappears completely with the distillation process so it's meaningless.

And this leads me to the following disclosure,

What (really) is absinthe?

Absinthe is quality grape spirit distilled together with up to 9 different herbs, acoording to the various recipes, mainly french and swiss. It's main herb it's not wormwood but green anis, followed by wormwood, fennel, hyssop, star anis, angelica of the alps, melissa and sometimes coriander seeds. All these herbs must be distilled in a very slow process, of up to 18 straight hours, so that all these subtle flavours can be kept in the final product, a very, very hard task impossible to mimic by an amateur. And this leads me to the next statement,

What isn't absinthe?

Absinthe is not cheap grain alcohol with wormwood leaves soaked in it, it tastes horrible and it's probably the origin of the myth that absinthe doesn't taste good and needs sugar.

Absinthe is not cheap vodka with artificial colourings and flavourings=czech "absinth", a waste of money and a gigantic rip off, there are bottles of this swill being sold to the US for more than 100 dolars...

But, you may also ask, why was absinthe banned in so many countries?

Well, it was banned because in the 1910's the wine producers of France were facing many difficulties because, incredibly, absinthe had taken over the preferences among the french, they no longer drank as much wine as they used to, absinthe was now the national drink. This lead to a major lobbying process, in which the french wine producers joined forces with conservative catholic anti.alcohol associations and finally managed to get absinthe banned under many false pretexts and absurd stories about mental illness. It was banned almost everywhere, except on the UK, Spain and Portugal. In these two last countries it was not only legal but also produced and to this very day.

Today the US are the only country in the world where it is forbidden, quite sadly.

What absinthes to order/try?

Mainly french and especially swiss, you can't go wrong with a swiss absinthe, like Kubler or La Clandestine. You can also go to the french, like the Jades, Verte de Fougerolles, Un Émile.

And please, please, always drink it dilluted in water, at least two parts of water to one small part of absinthe, pour the absinthe and then very, very slowsly pour ice cold water, you notice the translucid absinthe becomes cloudy, opaque, a sign of it's quality, it's the plants essential oils freeing themselves form the alcohol.

As for the sugar, NEVER burn it, it's a stupid commercial gimmick invented by the czechs in the 1990's, it RUINS the absinthe flavours. They did dilluted a sugar cube with ice water in the XIX century, but not because absinthe was bitter, on the contrary, due to it's content in anis most were quite sweet. Sugar was added as a sign of status, a luxury extra, up untill the early XX century sugar was not as common as today and it was expensive.

So please, enjoy absinthe for what it is, just THE most complex tasting alcoholic drink in the world, it's subtle aromas are superior to the very best red wines and that, it's flavour it's the main characteristic of absinthe and the reason why it's so good (if it's real).

Cheers