Your favorite Scotch? Your Favorite liquor in general?

[Vladimir Berkov]

Great, now you people have me interested in trying absinthe. And apparently from what I can tell it is impossible to get it here, and even if you do get it it isn't the good stuff?

Blast...

 

[LeFonque]

Tullamore Dew or Jamison's, but never before 4pm.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Ah, but 4PM in which time zone?

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

Revitalizing This great thread

OK, so I'm gonna revitalize this thread, because I'm very impressed with the knowledge of absinthe that I've gained from you all.

Tim and I finally took the plunge and ordered three different types of Absinthe from over-seas, along with sugar and spoons. I figured we'd save some shipping costs if I could find the glasses in the states somewhere.

I'm excited to try the different types we bought. I found a great web site, Alandia.com, that had the most information I could find outside of this thread. They also seem very reliable, I'll let you know when it get's here.
We got La Bleue Clandestine, Moulin Vert, Abisinthe Amer
I figured, I might as well get a bunch, since I was buying from overseas.
Has anyone ever tried any of these brands?
Well, we'll let you know what we think, if we can think (that's what i'm hoping for) after we try it. It should arrive in about one week.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

The Clandestine is decent, the Amer is mediocre, and the Moulin Verte far and away the worst of the three. (And along with the Amer, one I'd never buy.)

A few Recommendations:

The three Jade vertes:

Nouvelle Orleans
Vert Swiss
Edouard
Also the Jade / Combier Blanchette

The Eichelberger blanche & Verte is good, and the Montmartre is interesting, though a bit untraditional with it's cinnamon notes.

The La Ptite is said to be decent, but I haven't tried that one yet.

http://www.absintheonline.com/ is the best place to shop, and keep an eye out they have a few "interesting" surprises coming.

If someone is unsure about a particular brand, drop me a line, I've sampled just about everything at one time or another. (There is a lot of poorly made so called absinthe out there)

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

The Clandestine is decent, the Amer is mediocre, and the Moulin Verte far and away the worst of the three. (And along with the Amer, one I'd never buy.)

Never tried the Moulin Verte, and I concur regarding the other two, but: Ms Buchanan, don't be disappointed - you went very much in the right direction! Even the Amer isn't that bad in comparison with many, or most, brands on the market.

Try them in different grades of dilution, with and without sugar - it really makes a difference in taste.

(Another one of my innumerable ideas of How To Get Rich In America: My market research has shown that the American as such likes to use sweetener instead of sugar. I'll simply produce absinthe spoons with a less wide grill, so the tablets don't fall through during the Czech ritual. Ha! $$$$$! Ha!)

Absinthe_1900, have you tried the FrancoSuisse? Also M Bugnon's, like La Bleue Clandestine. It received one of the gold medals at last year's Absinthiade, whatever value you attribute to that. Kübler 45 got the other gold medal, which makes sense. Then again, do only Swiss absinthes have a chance? Or are they just the best?

Look at the stuff they sold there:

 

[Absinthe_1900]

I've sampled some of the different versions of Bugnon's stuff going back to his pre-commercial days, he makes a good basic everyday blanche.

K?ºbler has come a long way from it's early mis-steps.

My personal preference runs to vertes, and my favorites are ones that are somewhat difficult to find.
There will be an excellent verte coming out of Pontarlier this fall.

By all means try absinthe with, and without sugar, you'll find your personal preference by playing with the ratios.

Fee Verte, Oxygenee, & The Wormwood Society are excellent resources.

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

Fee Verte, Oxygenee, & The Wormwood Society are excellent resources.

As is Absinth-Guide and its forum. You might need this, though, as their English section is deplorably small.

 

[matei]

Absinthe is one of my fave tipples.

I like vodka, but not the high faluting fancy pants types. I'm a Stolichnaya man myself. Nothing else will do.

My fave Irish whiskey is Redbreast. A lot of people look down on Paddys, but I enjoy it. It is not expensive in the least and is very enjoyable.

Of course... nothing beats a shot of home brewed palinca or tuica (Romanian "firewater") to get you going! I'm partial to palinca myself...

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

Well, there's pălincă, and there's pălincă… But that's probably true for all kinds of regional bootlegs, be it pălincă, Bulgarian rakiya, Russian vodka or American whiskey.

 

[matei]

That is very true...

I've had really bad tuica that tasted like a combination of feet and kerosene

The worst is the stuff that is made for the tourists though. "Dracula" brand or some nonsense like that.

The best I've ever had was made by a friend from Radauti, it was wicked stuff - I could only have about 2 or 3 glasses of it... They need it up there to stay warm during the winter.

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

After we bought a lamp at an Alsatian antiques seller and then chatted half a day with him, he insisted on giving us a bottle of his self-made obstler, a local fruit-based spirit. Haven't seen any bugs in my bar cabinet since.

 

[Caledonia]

Bowmore (Islay). Dip your finger in the water and drop two draps in the glass. The wee draps blend with the whisky to bring out the aroma and the flavour. This is the way to drink whisky (please not whiskey or scotch). Straight and you get burnt, more than that and you drown it. If you ever get the chance to go to Islay go to the distillery and take the tour to the place the liquour comes off before it's casked. You will be allowed to taste (or you used to be). This is as close to straight alcohol as moonshine, but with sea salt and peat added in. Heaven and Hell combined. As the topic has expanded.... the only other drink for me is champagne.

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

Sorry for the stupid word "scotch" I used.

Ah yes, champagne. From time to time, I like a glass. Ever tried a "simple" Cr?©mant d'Alsace, by the way? Often, I prefer it to the ones from the Champagne region.

Wine: dry. I like white wines as well as red wines. Strangely, not the archetypical ones - with reds, I never befriended Bordeaux wines, and prefer a Chilean or Californian Merlot. Riojas can be excellent, too. With whites, I never liked Rieslings, rather a plain Pinot Blanc or a good Gewurztraminer. I don't mind a nice sherry either, between Fino and Amontillado. I'm not at all a wine connaisseur, though.

Beer? Small brewery Bohemian or Moravian, both light and dark, or a Guinness-type stout. American and many other sorts of beers are watery, German beers often too bitter, and French, let alone Belgian beers are badly made lemonades produced for headaches.

Rum: Guyana or Venezuela. Leave me alone with Bacardi and Cuban stuff.

 

[HistWardrobe]

name yer poison

Re: Whisky without the "e", (aka "Scotch"), I don't like the blended ones much at all. Single malts are the only ones I can abide. My favourites are the nice peaty Islay whiskies -- Laphroaig and all its cousins. I'd probably be happy just munching on a bag of peat moss (j/k!)

I'm really more of a bourbon drinker. Many of the new, up-market small batch bourbons are very good indeed, albeit pricey. For everyday, my favourite is Virginia Gentleman, which is hard to find outside of the Sacred Soil of Virginia. Very smooth, with a slightly sweet finish, you can taste the corn sugar in it but not excessively. Inexpensive, but very, very good. When I lived in England, it was always part of my regular "care packages" of beloved American products from home.

Bourbon whiskey (with an "e") is best consumed neat, with a splash of water ("branch water", aka "bourbon and branch") to bring out the flavour, as Calendonia described the best way of drinking whisky (without an "e"), aka "Scotch".

I also like brandy / cognac and as well as drinking it in a snifter, also drink it as a highball, as in a brandy and soda. Various liqueurs, mixed with tonic water, also make a refreshing summer highball. Good ones to try: Cointreau and tonic or Midori and tonic.

I also like good port and good sherry. One of my best times ever was at the Port Wine Institute in Lisbon, where they have over 300 varieties of vintage port to taste. Burmeister is one of my favorite brands, also Nieepoort, and for every-day drinking port, Calem has a nice product. With sherries, I like vintage sherries as well and also like fino (white sherry) chilled as a summer drink, particularly La Ina. Admitting to philistine / pedestrian tastes, my FAVORITE sherry however, is good ol' medium sherry (not cream) the mainstay of blue haired middle class ladies through Britain.

I love good Vodka, but my favourites are flavoured vodkas that I've not been able to find in America. Ironically, the consumer fad for vodkas in fruit, vanilla, hazelnut and other non-traditional flavours seems to have pushed out either the manufacture or export of the really wonderful traditional flavours.

Some of the best include:

1. Okhotnichya - "hunters' vodka" -- traditional Russian vodka for those cold hunting trips. Clove, ginger, orange peel are some of the dominant flavors. It's sort of a brandy color. Produced by Stolichnaya, if it's still around

2. Starka - "Old one" -- (Russian) Vodka aged in wooden casks, until it tastes like a cross between a whisky and a liqueur. Phenomenal stuff. Produced by Stolichnaya, if it's still around. Starka and Okhtnichnaya are great winter drinks in particular.

3. Pertsovka - red pepper vodka (Russian). Produced by Stolichnaya, marketed in this country as well but getting harder to find. Russians swear by this as the only known cure for the common cold and I swear they're right. Knocks chicken soup into a cocked hat. It also makes a very nice 5 alarm Bloody Mary

4. Zubrowka - Polish vodka flavored with buffalo grass. Don't knock it until you've tried it.

5. Tarkhuna - Georgian tarragon-flavored vodka. Sounds weird but it's good

6. Goldwasser -- just for decadent fun! Polish vodka with real flakes of gold in it...

Okhotnichnaya and Starka, I think are better served room temperature. Other vodkas should be kept on the freezer (or, in a Russian winter, on the windowsill between the regular window and the storm window!) until they get that lovely characteristic viscosity.

Other stuff: am partial to Pimm's #1 cup with all the trimmings -- hunks of cucumber, strawberry, etc. Also fond of Campari, particularly with orange juice.

 

[FedoraGent]

Great, now you people have me interested in trying absinthe. And apparently from what I can tell it is impossible to get it here, and even if you do get it it isn't the good stuff?

Blast...

Can Absinthe be brought back into The US like Cuban rum can or is it illegal to even possess it?

Jon

 

[Marc Chevalier]

It's illegal to import, manufacture and/or sell absinthe in the U.S.

It's not illegal to possess absinthe.

It's not illegal to drink it.

.

 

[dr greg]

late call

the most morish drink I know of:Zubrowka...utter heaven, but dangerous because you can't stop until the bottle's gone...as you should do with Scotch according to tradition

 

[FedoraGent]

It's illegal to import, manufacture and/or sell absinthe in the U.S.

It's not illegal to possess absinthe.

It's not illegal to drink it.

.

So...if I wanted to bring some back from my trip to Europe it wouldn't be out of the question then...delicious...

Jon

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Bringing it through U.S. customs at the airport would be considered "importing" it. So no, you're not supposed to do that.

.