Federico, with all due respect, natural coloration can alter the product so profoundly that you would no longer recognize it (from its uncolored state). Whether that is the case with the products you mentioned is open to debate.

By Spirits on Thursday, April 05, 2001 - 04:37 am: Edit

If you allow me some comments made out of the insight to real CERTIFICATES that we have had.

Mari Mayans DOES have thujone, although one of the lowest. Only three Spanish absinthes are naturally coloured, namely Herring, Lasala and Segarra, and Montana follows with only a very small amount of only one artificial colouring.

Of course that all artificial colourings are allowed by the European Food regulations. But the colouring does not alter the product in no way, neither natural nor artificial.

By Timk on Wednesday, April 04, 2001 - 03:03 pm: Edit

"So what, if you like the flavor of it, drink it."

I couldnt put it bettr myself - infact I seem to remember being blasted by Don for making this comment.

TimK

By Wormwood on Wednesday, April 04, 2001 - 05:49 am: Edit

According to the tests I ran, I could not find any a-thujone or b-thujone in Mari Mayans. I have no idea how they colored it that way, but it does't look "natural". It kind of reminds me of the blood of the creature in the movie Predator.

So what, if you like the flavor of it, drink it.

P.S. I didn't know BEI was closing.

By Terminus on Friday, March 30, 2001 - 09:04 am: Edit

Thanks for the info, Mr. Breaux (Ted).

By Tabreaux on Friday, March 30, 2001 - 07:39 am: Edit

No. In the old days, quality absinthes were all naturally colored. The cheap, inferior absinthes were colored artificially, often with toxic agents (hence absinthe's bad reputation). Today, as you can well see, the spirit of artificial coloring and cheap manufacture is going strong.

By Terminus on Friday, March 30, 2001 - 06:05 am: Edit

Forgive my ignorance, but in their heyday, weren't most absinthes artificially coloured?

By Tabreaux on Thursday, March 29, 2001 - 09:33 pm: Edit

Actually, #2 should be natural coloring (e.g. with whole herbs) is unusual in modern absinthes. As of the present, not one modern absinthe is naturally colored.

By Anatomist1 on Thursday, March 29, 2001 - 01:32 pm: Edit

The other part of the lowdown is that the sentence you quoted has at least two misleading premises:

1)accurate tests have been revealed on thujone content in contemporary absinthes

2)artificial coloring is unusual in contemporary absinthes

3)

... three, there are at least three misleading premises...

3)whether or how much thujone content it has is all that important

All three are mostly false. They probably stopped carrying it because their clients wised up and started buying MM from Spirits Corner.

K.

By Artemis on Thursday, March 29, 2001 - 12:53 pm: Edit

Mari Mayans is simply not very good absinthe. It's one-dimensional. Its lack of availability won't bother anybody who's had better absinthes.

Spend your money on Segarra if you want Spanish absinthe. Or wait for the Jade products. That's the lowdown.

By Moonstar on Thursday, March 29, 2001 - 12:46 pm: Edit

OK, so I need to be slapped around a bit for not keeping up with this forum. Without too much physical abuse, will someone please give me the lowdown on what's going on?

Thanks...

By Malhomme on Thursday, March 29, 2001 - 12:36 pm: Edit

Sounds like Ted's almost outta the gate....

Jim

By Moonstar on Thursday, March 29, 2001 - 12:22 pm: Edit

I was looking at all the posts here to be sure this wasn't already discussed. If it has been, I'm sorry.

I was getting La Bleue from BEI and apparently they are closing soon. I ordered my last one today. Not sure when they announced their closing .

I also noticed that they stopped carrying Mari Mayans and quote the following from the email that I received:

"We do not currently carry Mari Mayans as tests have revealed that it does not contain any thujone, is artificially colored, and if very monochromatically flavored"

Oops. Is this true?

Thanks.