Appearance: A somewhat unappealing olive oil color, not cloudy, but also not particularly clear.

Louche: Stays a green color with deep reds and oranges but it seems a little dingy. I would consider this to be just the right thickness,

Aroma: Sweet, minty, cool and floral, with something medicinal lurking if breathed too deeply...whatever this element may be is very nearly masked.

Flavor: The flavor is somewhat bitter and it seems as though the herbs were old and dusty, particularly the wormwood flavor. There's something flowery here, but it's hidden behind the seemingly poor herb quality.

Finish: EXTRA sour and mouth-watering, and very tingly and warm in the throat.

Overall: I wouldn't say that this absinthe is particularly bad or unpleasant, it's just not very remarkable or nuanced as it could be. I feel like if I had gotten this absinthe as my first, I could have gone either direction when deciding if I should try other absinthes or give up the hunt here.

Appearance: A clear and burnt topaz with a dark green hue. Definitely a little too dark.

Louche: The color had me expecting worse but there is an impressive translucency to this absinthe. There is still quite a bit of color left but the translucent to opaque ratio is pretty good.

Aroma: Smells well balanced if a bit odd. Some sort of musky wine smell as well as bandage. There's also some nice notes of mint and citrus.

Flavor: Fruity and musky. If they are using a brandy base it comes across way too strong. The fruitiness dominates and shoves the absinthe trinity into the background. I'd recognize this as an absinthe but definitely not a usual one.

Finish: Some spicy notes and bitterness begin to appear in the finish helping the flavor out a bit.

Overall: This tastes pretty good but it is not something I'd reach for if I wanted absinthe. However I could see some interesting cocktail use with this brand.

Sirene, the alternative in Canada to verte through LCBO. At least, from the last infos I got. I'm kind of out of date, stopped absinthe for more than a year now. As I'm craving to return to my fairy, I thought of this notes I took when making the review of Sirene, so here it is (sadly not-that-much-detailed-due-to-too-much-time-passed-before-I-wrote-it)..:

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I felt bad these days... Left alone by a star that looked like a sirene and made me drown (or a sirene that tried to looked like a star and drowned me, depends of the point of view you take). One of these days, I was at my big appartment and the holy Father came by. My brother was there too. And Led Zep and Bowie were there too with the Black Dog and the China Girl.

So I decided to introduce them to absinthe, since I had some Sirene left from Toronto and some Taboo too. We tasted them side by side. My brother and the Father too prefered Sirene over taboo. There's a lot of of too and other double o in this review, boo hoo hoo!..

Color : Nice color, although quite yellowish.

Louche : A nice louche effect, interesting to look at, but too light to fully appreciate.

Aroma : I noted citrus-ish and cinamon-ish odors as others noted before.

Flavour : No suprises, but very good. Tastes as it smells, not very traditional but quite good still. The best I had, but I had not that much absinthes to compare and am (or not?) influenced by the opinions of the blood of my blood and want to balance my others notes too.

Finish : The finish lacks bitterness to my taste, it is a bit weak. Could be better for some people, though.

Overall : A nice absinthe and more traditional tasting choice for Canadian or Quebecer-passing-by-Ontario buyers.

Color was a bit dark yellow/brown olive oil. Clear and clean, no sediment

The louche started very nicely with thick defined trails, building to a nice smoky cloud from the bottom. From there it went quickly to a nice finish at 3:1

Aroma pre-louche was not strong. I had to hunt for elements, and mostly noticed a subtle background of anise, a light grassiness and some alcohol. Louched, it improved a bit and I noticed a more herbals. Fresh and clean, but not as room filling or 3-D as I'd have liked.

Flavor is interesting and tasty. Wormwood is right up front with a subtle and tasty anise. A light spiciness, kiss of pine perhaps, and a suggestion rosemary or sage. Quite nice and drinkable.

Finish was solid. Many elements to it, perhaps the strong point of this absinthe. The spiciness lingered for a long time. Other elements faded more quickly.

Overall I'd say this right in there with the nice solid mid-priced decent absinthes. The flavor is unique and good enough, that I'd consider buying a bottle.

This tasting occured in April with a bottle purchased in March. The batch # is 18.

Color- Similar to an olive oil & slightly lighter then La Coquette when looking at both side by side. No sediment in this bottle. I like the natural look.

Louche- Slight trails, slow to develop but once it does it reaches opacity fast. The most intriguing louche occured with a fast fountain drip of ice cold water.

Aroma- Alpine, very gin-like. Fennel and anise in the background. Kinda simple for my taste.

Flavor- Again, alpine and gin-like. Wormwood is front and center. Anise shows up here and there. Citrus notes as well. It tastes like juniper was mixed with melissa. Very tasty, if just a tad unbalanced.

Finish- Similar to the flavor but much more flowery/fruity. It really opens up and shows more complexity then the flavor. My favorite part of this absinthe!

Overall- Decent verte. Tasty and available locally here in the windy city. Give this some time to air out though; initial tastings were too gin-like as others here have noted. They subdued in a week or so of continuous opening/drinking! Time to purchase a few more bottles....