Color
Very nice crystal clear light medium green. Hard to imagine as totally natural due to it's one dimensionality. Attractive, nonetheless.

Louche
Very good trails at first. Quite entertaining. This continued until louche reached 2:1, at which point it was fully clouded. Final color was a pastel/seafoam green with yellow highlights and glints of blue around the meniscus. Really quite pretty.

Aroma
Pleasing... wormwood and anise predominate. There is immediately, to me, a slight vegetal note I have difficulty defining (not fresh, but almost earthy like a root vegetable). It is not off-putting, in fact it kind of begs me to go to palate. However, if it were any more forward, I would consider it to be a clear fault. I find it to be an additional complexity that adds character, but I think this will boil down to a real personal taste issue. Because of this peculiarity, I must give this category a 3.

Flavor
Not simple, but not highly complicated, either. Nice balance between the wormwood and anise mid-palate, a spiceiness on the back-palate/finish. Along with the spice, some noticeable heat. Nice wormwood "pinch" on the palate that builds with each sip, and begs me to take another. Again, that vegetal thing, while interesting, keeps this one from getting a 4 here.

Finish
Quite a nice, long finish that follows the palate very accurately. This is always a critical factor for me with any beverage, since I really do not like schizophrenic palate/finish combinations. The bit of heat persists in the finish and palate numbing is noticeable, but the vegetal character disappears. Overall enjoyable, and makes me want to dive back in.

Overall
Very pleasant. Not a challenging absinthe, so great for someone new to absinthe, like me! I would keep this one around.

7/04/09 Revisit - Most of my initial observations remain consistent. The most notable difference is that the "vegetal" aroma and flavor referred to in the initial review, while still present, seem better integrated to me now. I am also observing a slight prickliness on the palate, probably due to coriander. Or I wonder if, perhaps, there is a slight amount of star anise in this formula? Overall still very enjoyable, and I've also found it to be quite competent for cocktail use.

Done with a 1 ounce dose, diluted 3:1, 3.5:1, 4:1 and no sugar.

Mansinthe 10/31/08, 11/05/08, 7/04/09.
All evaluations had consistent notes.