Uncorked - Le Tourment Vert

As the "flavor" booklet that was around the neck of the bottle states, the translation of "le tourment vert" is "the green torment," which apparently is what people around the turn of the 20th century called the spirit which I am about to blog about....the green fairy....our favorite newly-legalized spirit.

Absinthe.

Yes, absinthe (or absint, absinth, however you choose) is now legal in the United States. For the uneducated, absinthe is a form of liquor that usually involves a high-proof neutral spirit (such as vodka), infused with a fairly static blend of herbs including grand wormwood, which produces a chemical called thujon(e). This chemical is supposed to be a mild hallucinogenic, though I had never seen this effect when a select few friends and I were illegally importing (and consuming) it a few years ago.

And yet, the colors on this shitty laptop's screen are quite vivid right now.

I recall a few nights with Brian, a friend of mine that I used to bartend with at the good ol' Anthony's Home Port in Des Moines. We were purchasing a few different kinds of absinthe off a site called http://www.absinth.de/ that could pretty much get you anything you wanted, be it high or low thujon count, high or low alcohol content. They had some cheap bottles of "concentrate" that you could add to a bottle of, say, Smirnoff vodka as well. A few good brands we tried over the year or so we were dabbling were Suisse La Bleu, Amer 72 (named after its alcohol percentage, the proof being 144), and Ulex Strong. We lusted after a $200 bottle that we never ended up buying, the highest quality and highest thujon content bottle at the time....King of Spirits Gold. I'm still interested in trying said bottle, but as it is now legal here, I think the demand for said bottle may decrease a little bit, so I will be holding out for a lower price. In the meantime, the best-known absinthe label, Pernod, has begun producing it again (at the steep price of $65 a bottle), and I will eventually try this as well.

For the record, just because absinthe is now legal in the US does not mean that I'm all of a sudden going to become gung-ho about it. It's been legal for a few months now, but the problem is, if you want something that isn't made with "its less bitter (and much crappier) cousin, petite wormwood, you're looking to spend at least $50 on a decent bottle. I bought Le Tourment Vert because of the recommendation in a Wine and Spirits magazine that was sent to my store recently. Obviously Pernod is the corporate way to go, and I'm not so interested in trying the lucid brand as I'm smelling much more ad campaign dollars than product-invested dollars....

Thus ends my 'uncorked' blog for tonight. I give Le Tourment Vert a 9 of 10 for absinthes, ranking it as the best I've ever had next to Amer 72. If you're into fennel/black liquorice flavors, then this is right up your alley and will give you a good buzz besides the possible "life enhancement" effects. Note: for those who overt hallucinogens are a no-go, this is a safe and legal way to experience a mild example of what those drugs can do. No, I am not promoting acid/mescaline/psychedelic mushroom use, just simply pointing out that absinthe can and might show you a small example of what these do.

Until next time.

Watty