Taboo MYRRH - Reviewed by Experts and Consumers at The Wormwood Society
Editor reviews
2 reviews
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Back To The Drawing Board
(Updated: June 19, 2012)
Overall rating
2.6
Appearance
4.0
Louche
3.0
Aroma
3.0
Flavor / Mouthfeel
2.0
Finish
1.0
Overall
2.0
Color
Unlouched, amber/green, a little on the olive side. Very clear. Reminds me of La Coquette with a little more vivid yellow element. Louched, yellowish milky olive/green, amber highlights with whitish/olive meniscus. A good level of coloration.
Louche
Good average louche action at first, but then everything starts happening real fast. Totally opaque with a green line by .5/1, and green line gone by .8/1. The final color has heft to it, but the entire louche process provides little entertainment.
Aroma
Initial louched nose is herbal, resinous, and smoky, and then that Achilles' heel, the overarching aroma of wax/lanolin/exotic floral (that this shares with the Taboo Gold) that I find very acrid, challenging, and distracting... Musky, like a lot of the decorative lilies used in floral arrangements. Wormwood, anise, and fennel and a slight hint of citrus are there in the background, and more apparent as the drink warms. I think this absinthe needs at least a 4/1 dilution. Some of the highly condensed florals and herbals seem to have the breathing space they need at this level.
Flavor
That wax/lanolin/floral thing right up front, in interplay with some grainy, drying effects of the myrrh. Wormwood follows, more standard florals, herbals, citrus and very recessive anise. There's a bit of spice and a slight wormwood "pull" on the palate. In spite of the presence of all these facets, and the impression that the ingredients are of high quality, there is just no alignment, harmony, or balance here. I think a judicious addition of the myrrh could have been an interesting idea with a fundamentally sound recipe, but this stuff is just a schizophrenic mess.
Finish
Finish is a fairly quick fade of all the nose and palate impressions. Not complex at all. It eventually goes almost harshly dry on the tongue. No elegance to this.
Overall
Like the Taboo Gold, this does have a unique personality. Like the Gold, I would say it is exotic, but rustic, peculiar and unrefined, and even more unbalanced than the Gold due to the addition of the myrrh. This is one I would never give to a newbie. Again, like the Gold, I get the impression that it is made of quality ingredients, but it just doesn't seem to come together right, and I suspect that the fix for both this and the Gold is not a matter of little tweaks. I think it's time to go back to the drawing board.
9/13/09 Revisit - Wow... It's really hard to know where to start here. I had suspected that I had overrated this in my initial review, and this tasting confirms it. Actually, with the current age of my bottles being almost one year, the Gold now out shows the Myrrh. The laundry list of what is wrong here is extensive, but to summarize. Way unbalanced, way bitter, way harsh, and beyond challenging.
Changes to my initial scoring are:
Flavor - Changed from 3 to 2.
Finish - Changed from 3 to 1.
Overall - Changed from 3 to 2.
Overall Rating - Changed from 3.2 to 2.6.
For the sake of consistency, every review I post here is evaluated price unconsidered, but when you factor in the pricing on these Taboos, there are easily better ways to spend your absinthe dollar.
Taboo Myrrh 12/16/08, 12/27/08, 1/11/09, 9/13/09
All evaluations had consistent notes.
Unlouched, amber/green, a little on the olive side. Very clear. Reminds me of La Coquette with a little more vivid yellow element. Louched, yellowish milky olive/green, amber highlights with whitish/olive meniscus. A good level of coloration.
Louche
Good average louche action at first, but then everything starts happening real fast. Totally opaque with a green line by .5/1, and green line gone by .8/1. The final color has heft to it, but the entire louche process provides little entertainment.
Aroma
Initial louched nose is herbal, resinous, and smoky, and then that Achilles' heel, the overarching aroma of wax/lanolin/exotic floral (that this shares with the Taboo Gold) that I find very acrid, challenging, and distracting... Musky, like a lot of the decorative lilies used in floral arrangements. Wormwood, anise, and fennel and a slight hint of citrus are there in the background, and more apparent as the drink warms. I think this absinthe needs at least a 4/1 dilution. Some of the highly condensed florals and herbals seem to have the breathing space they need at this level.
Flavor
That wax/lanolin/floral thing right up front, in interplay with some grainy, drying effects of the myrrh. Wormwood follows, more standard florals, herbals, citrus and very recessive anise. There's a bit of spice and a slight wormwood "pull" on the palate. In spite of the presence of all these facets, and the impression that the ingredients are of high quality, there is just no alignment, harmony, or balance here. I think a judicious addition of the myrrh could have been an interesting idea with a fundamentally sound recipe, but this stuff is just a schizophrenic mess.
Finish
Finish is a fairly quick fade of all the nose and palate impressions. Not complex at all. It eventually goes almost harshly dry on the tongue. No elegance to this.
Overall
Like the Taboo Gold, this does have a unique personality. Like the Gold, I would say it is exotic, but rustic, peculiar and unrefined, and even more unbalanced than the Gold due to the addition of the myrrh. This is one I would never give to a newbie. Again, like the Gold, I get the impression that it is made of quality ingredients, but it just doesn't seem to come together right, and I suspect that the fix for both this and the Gold is not a matter of little tweaks. I think it's time to go back to the drawing board.
9/13/09 Revisit - Wow... It's really hard to know where to start here. I had suspected that I had overrated this in my initial review, and this tasting confirms it. Actually, with the current age of my bottles being almost one year, the Gold now out shows the Myrrh. The laundry list of what is wrong here is extensive, but to summarize. Way unbalanced, way bitter, way harsh, and beyond challenging.
Changes to my initial scoring are:
Flavor - Changed from 3 to 2.
Finish - Changed from 3 to 1.
Overall - Changed from 3 to 2.
Overall Rating - Changed from 3.2 to 2.6.
For the sake of consistency, every review I post here is evaluated price unconsidered, but when you factor in the pricing on these Taboos, there are easily better ways to spend your absinthe dollar.
Taboo Myrrh 12/16/08, 12/27/08, 1/11/09, 9/13/09
All evaluations had consistent notes.
M
User reviews
1 review
Overall rating
2.4
Appearance
4.0(1)
Louche
3.0(1)
Aroma
3.0(1)
Flavor / Mouthfeel
1.0(1)
Finish
1.0(1)
Overall
2.0(1)
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I couldn't figure it out.
Overall rating
2.4
Appearance
4.0
Louche
3.0
Aroma
3.0
Flavor / Mouthfeel
1.0
Finish
1.0
Overall
2.0
Bottle received and first tasted mid-December 2008. Two more glasses were prepared, all approximately 6 weeks apart from one another.
Color: Attractive green on the cusp of brown.
Louche: Not quite there, but it had some gradients, billows, and separation in the beginning to middle. Ended quickly.
Aroma: Wasn’t sure what to make of it. Sort of a perfume, though sharp and not entirely pleasing. Hints of smoke without the ashes and soot, if that makes any sense. An odd, dry coating to the whole aromatic package, though I could pick out a faint anise note and maybe wormwood. Before the louche it was much more pleasant, with the dry oddness more in the background. I know we don’t score pre-louche aroma, but I wanted to note it because I found it so much more pleasing.
Flavor: Dry, rough, tastes like frankincense smells though not in a good way (one of the few reference points I could find). Waxy, and to borrow a word from the previous reviewer, resinous (though he used it for aroma). Initially I chalked all this up to my palate’s response to the myrrh, but now I wonder if the wormwood choice has a part in this. I had three glasses over the span of four months and I had to sink every one. The last one I piled on the sugar and it made no difference.
Finish: Due to my response to the flavor, a non-existent finish would have made this score higher.
Overall: It is possible that my relatively inexperienced palate led me to these ratings, or something happened to the contents in transit to me. It feels weird to so strongly dislike an absinthe with the creators it has, but I felt it necessary to share my perspective, however skewed. This won’t turn me off to other Okanagan Spirits offerings by any means, because the reviews of the original Absinthe Taboo lead me to believe I’d quite like it.
Color: Attractive green on the cusp of brown.
Louche: Not quite there, but it had some gradients, billows, and separation in the beginning to middle. Ended quickly.
Aroma: Wasn’t sure what to make of it. Sort of a perfume, though sharp and not entirely pleasing. Hints of smoke without the ashes and soot, if that makes any sense. An odd, dry coating to the whole aromatic package, though I could pick out a faint anise note and maybe wormwood. Before the louche it was much more pleasant, with the dry oddness more in the background. I know we don’t score pre-louche aroma, but I wanted to note it because I found it so much more pleasing.
Flavor: Dry, rough, tastes like frankincense smells though not in a good way (one of the few reference points I could find). Waxy, and to borrow a word from the previous reviewer, resinous (though he used it for aroma). Initially I chalked all this up to my palate’s response to the myrrh, but now I wonder if the wormwood choice has a part in this. I had three glasses over the span of four months and I had to sink every one. The last one I piled on the sugar and it made no difference.
Finish: Due to my response to the flavor, a non-existent finish would have made this score higher.
Overall: It is possible that my relatively inexperienced palate led me to these ratings, or something happened to the contents in transit to me. It feels weird to so strongly dislike an absinthe with the creators it has, but I felt it necessary to share my perspective, however skewed. This won’t turn me off to other Okanagan Spirits offerings by any means, because the reviews of the original Absinthe Taboo lead me to believe I’d quite like it.
S
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