The Making of Absinthe

In 2007, the United States government lifted a near century-long ban on absinthe. Public excitement about the newly available drink has been obvious at St. George Spirits in Alameda California, the first American absinthe producer since the ban went into effect. When the spirit was first released, the tasting room at St. George Spirits was packed and the line snaked across two parking lots. Yet many people were not fully aware of what the drink actually was nor why one would want to drink it. To help distill some absinthe facts, Laurence Liss, Web Editor for Outside's Go went to speak with Lance Winters, Distiller at St. George Spirits.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• absinthe
• wormwood
• alcohol
• thujone
• distilling

[sabbathcore]

this guy seems so at peace in his life.

[joshhCHAOS]

i was thinking the EXACT same thing.

[brundontfreeze000]

distilling purifies the liquor then you add the finishing herbs and botanicals then you filter that and then bottle it.

[bhweller]

does it taste like sambuca ?

[zeph4x]

what is the name of your product?

[heavyharpoon23]

Originally it was a mix of medicinal herbs that were used as a tonic. The swiss doctor, Pierre Ordinaire, sold the first recipe to Henrie Pernod in 1797, and that's the recipe that is used in the making of the absinthe Roquette 1797. Over the years the medicinal tonic became an apéritif and gained popularity.

[windnsea619]

How does someone think to mix all of those ingredients?

[powerofslack1]

distillation has the same effect as filtering. a clear liquid comes out the other side no matter how messy the "soup" is on the inside. it's then colored later with an additional step, and i would assume that step is filtered. ;)

[AndreTwin]

So you actually distill the whole soup of wormwood, hyssop, anise & star anise, fennel seed, lemon balm aka melissa etc. Without filtering it first?

[schutzo83]

Don't take it too hard with the star anise.. It's just a question of the ammount..