Lucid was the first absinthe I purchased, and it got me hooked. After buying several more over the next year I began trying other absinthes. Still, Lucid is one of my favorites, and a great one to start with.

Appearance:
Intriguing bottle, it is always looking at you! Very light green, just enough to note it is not clear. Much lighter than most absinthe.

Louche:
This is one of my favorite louche effects. It will certainly surprise most people when the very light, nearly clear, absinthe turns a thick and cloudy white when adding water. It is a great effect, one of the best.

Aroma:
It smells like absinthe without the completely overwhelming anise, which I do not like.

Flavor:
Very good flavor. Depending on how strong your mix is you can choose how much flavor and warmth you want from it without losing the signature absinthe taste. Also good with sugar, but definitely not necessary.

Finish:
The finish is not too strong, but does give a lingering taste. Nothing note worthy about it, other than, again, being a great choice for a first absinthe.

Overall:
It is a great bottle to pick up, and is available much more than any other I have seen. Definitely worth a try even if it is more expensive than your average liquor. One of my personal favorites.

UPDATED 06/25/2014:

I was buying some wine this week (and always check the absinthes) and noticed the Lucid bottles they had in stock looked odd. It was selling for a fairly cheap price so grabbed a bottle. It is indeed a new bottle design!

How can you tell?
+ Much taller - Lucid is now the one absinthe that does not fit in my cabinet (it used to).
+ Squarer shoulders - no longer as rounded at the top... had a sharper, squarer edge.
+ No more "dimple" at the bottom of the bottle.
+ Labeling seems the same otherwise.

I had to sample it as well. It is nearly the same as I remember BUT doesn't have that "funk/beet" taste which in the past turned me off so much. I am very pleased with that! [probably has nothing whatsoever to do with the bottle shape, of course]

I have shifted most of my original scores up a bit in consideration of this. There must have been something off about the previous bottling as this is a clean, crisp spirit which doesn't exhibit any of the peculiarities noted in my original review. It is quite tasty!

A well-made absinthe that is available just about everywhere. Not a bad situation we have here.


ORIGINAL REVIEW:

Appearance: The color is a light green/yellowish as most other absinthes I've seen. Nothing remarkable but nothing offensive either :)

Louche: I like how this one louches. It sort of builds from bottom to top and retains a thin layer of unlouched absinthe until about nearly prepared. The louche itself is nice and thick - which tends to be my preference.

Aroma: Definitely smells like absinthe - but for the underlying beet scents. I find them to be distracting of the other aromas and that's really too bad. This is definitely the weak point in this absinthe! I enjoy some other absinthes that just blossom with aroma and wash over you... not this one though.

Flavor: Nice, usual, and as expected. Little bit of numbing and warmth - which is nice.

Mouthfeel: Has an okay creaminess to it as I would expect from the louche - though I'm too inexperienced to know whether these two qualities go hand-in-hand.

Finish: Nothing particularly striking.

Overall: I'm going to let this age a bit and see whether that underlying scent goes away. I have a bottle of Kubler which is a few months old and where at first it had an odd sort of "funk" to the scent... after hanging around in my absinthe cupboard it no longer does. Let's do a little experiment with Lucid :)

Definitely not the poor product some make it out to be - but I have (in my limited experience) had much better for the same price.

Appearance: The color is light. Really, really light. Clearly natural, and not cloudy, but there's a lot more that could be going on here.

Louche: Develops a nice louche, but ends up pretty thick. It does maintain a nice color.

Aroma: Ever so slight muskiness, but the aroma is fairly pleasant, reminiscent of the more "dessert-like" absinthes, with noticeable anise and melissa.

Flavor: Very sweet and full of anise, but not at all unpleasant. Tongue-numbing, but not a lot of complexity.

Finish: The finish has the mouth-watering sensation I would typically attribute to wormwood, but there isn't much wormwood flavor to be found...this sensation is decently lengthy.

Overall: I know it's pretty much the cool thing nowadays to make fun of this absinthe, especially among experienced absintheurs, but Lucid is honestly not bad. I grow a little tired of people going "I tried Lucid and it was so completely horrible, but I got a bottle of better absinthe and I'm happy now", which tends to read the same as most Czech-sinthe experiences...I don't find it to be at all like that. This was the first absinthe I ever tried, and I honestly breathed a sigh of relief that I found myself enjoying Lucid and would be willing to purchase more absinthe in the future, because initially I was worried I wouldn't like absinthe at all. I do feel that for the price, there are a number of much better absinthes on the market, but if I didn't have access to these other absinthes, I would still drink Lucid.

Appearance: Pale yellow that looks like an off color blanche. Natural though.

Louche: Nice oil trails with a smooth gradient. When finished it is a very thick louche. The color is nice and the formulation is good.

Aroma: Good anise forward smell. Not much wormwood and not much balance. No odd or exceptional aromas.

Flavor: Simple and like the smell this is very anise forward with maybe some lemon balm easily detectable as well. A very sweet absinthe on by itself, maybe overly so. It is smooth though. Nothing here that I would shun but nothing remarkable either.

Finish: The finish maintains the flavor for a decent amount of time but it doesn't do much else.

Overall: It is almost as if the producers were aiming for average. This is nothing that would go into my rotation but it is a very acceptable gatekeeper to the world of real absinthe. My only concern in marketing this towards newcomers is the pricepoint now that much stiffer competition is available for the same price. This is decent stuff but it is not really worth the pricetag that it is currently at.

Lucid absinthe was one of the first absinthes I saw on the shelf when the ban was lifted in the U.S. but for some reason I waited a long time to try it. We ended up buying a bottle when it was the best option at a local liquor store. The reviews were not great, so I wasn't expecting much but I thought it was a great absinthe! The color was a little dull, but the louche was beautiful and you could see each drop dance into the glass. The bottle is dark, I assume to block sun light but I think it could have done a better job as the appearance was underwhelming. The aroma is sweet, and strong. The flavor just about matches the aroma having a strong anise and fennel flavor, without the rewarding wormwood kick which is what stopped it from getting a 4 on flavor. Definitely a great absinthe, that is so close to being amazing!