When I first saw the bottle, I admit I had that "child on Christmas morning" feeling. What a great presentation. Unfortunately, my excitement receeded quickly when I opened the lovely cylindrical case in which it was housed and actually examined the bottle closely. The first tip-off that this was going to be bad was the list of artificial color dyes used: "Yellow 45, Blue 40," and the like.

The aroma from the bottle was shockingly minty, with a hint of spice, some undercut anise tones, and no readily detectable wormwood.

I prepared the glass 3:1 (water:absinthe), with one sugar cube and a drip. The louche came abruptly and engulfed the glass all at once, with no real subtlety of any kind. The color turned a bizarre aquamarine. Holding the glass up to the light I did briefly note some interesting tones near the bottom, but nothing too spectacular.

The legs on the glass were thin and quick to dissipate, leaving an odd array of oily spots. Overall it just looked messy. After a bit of breathing time, the smell from the glass was still not very complex; far too simplistic, in my opinion.

And, as expected, the taste was not dissimilar in nature: dull, no traditional wormwood bitterness, just some half-buried anise flavor under a menage of sugary, candy-like mint and clouded spice. After pouring the drink I realized I should not have used sugar, as there is more than enough noxious, artificial sweetener taste in the bottle itself.

I will say, however, that this failed attempt does have a fairly good finish. It's smooth with the right amount of dryness and a nice fade. But that is hardly enough to redeem the tragic shortcomings of the flavor, which prevented me from even being able to finish a single full glass.

My advice is if you're looking to pick up one of the few labels now available in regular US liquor stores, skip this one and go with the Kubler (a blanche) or the Lucid. The latter is not great by any means, but a far better choice than Le Tourment, which will, in fact, torment the drinker, though not in the way they might be hoping.