New Oxygenee
Sepulchritude Forum: The Absinthe Forum Archives Thru July 2001: Topics Archived Thru Nov 2000:New Oxygenee
Plus curieux et plus curieux...
"maybe they are trying it on in pontarlier to see how it flies with the locals"
thonon-les-bains is not near pontarlier at all, in
fact you have to cross some mountains and lake geneva to get there directly or go south around geneva to get to it, a trip few pontarlier locals
are going to make, even though it's unbelievably short by usa standards...it was not in pontarlier at all(absente was) and i was there 3 weeks ago...anyway, i'm going to order it to see the legal ramifications
of transporting by mail a substance that is supposed to be banned in this country...do you think a legitimate business in france would put themselves at risk if they knew it to be illegal?
If this is the case, then the scant information at hand points to a product which appears to be one of European origin which is currently being illegally (only if it is real) distributed in France by Pernod, pending distribution in the UK and Spain. Given the nature of the hostile legal climate in France with respect to absinthe, I am finding this somewhat difficult to swallow, but ok. Since there are obvious absinthe subtitutes with misleading names (e.g. 'Absinthe' Trenet), I suppose I'll have to test this one to determine its actual content.
after the ban, absinthe oxygénée became elixir
oxygénée and you see alot of signs for oxygénée
blanc anisée which was probably a distilled anis product, and not absinthe...c'est la sante (it's the health) and not c'est ma sante (it's my health)...the belle epoch lady in the window became a flapper..now it is back to being, what...? axelle red?
i'll start looking for it...i can't mail-order it from the wine shop that is selling it...very bizarre, since it is labeled absinthe and the store's description says that absinthe is it's appellation, which means the french government approved of the use of the word absinthe to designate a specific (exclusive) place of origin, which makes no sense at all...it seems that cusenier is now owned by byrrh or the other way around and are located near perpignon in the south
next to spain...are they making real absinthe? i
doubt it...it's still banned the last time i checked...stay tuned...
Justin brought this to my attention around two weeks ago, both he and I have been researching it fairly exhaustively since.
This is complicated as Cusenier is a common surname, street name, and Cusenier Mazarine is the name of a anise based monastic liqueur similar to Chartreuse.
The specific "Cusenier" trademark in question was reregistered in 1997 in the Andorran courts as Cusenier 142 Boulevard Haussmann, 75008 Paris, France, with satalites in Andorra and Spain. This is a reregistration of the 1897 trademark which lapsed, indicating continuing ownership by the initial trademarking parties.
This is where it gets very... very interesting. I know that address...
142 Boulevard Haussmann, 75008 Paris, is the international headquarters of... Groupe Pernod-Ricard. Pernod is back in the absinthe business.
About the product in particular, I have very little to go on, save the webpage cited here. A very rough translation (my French is attrocious) of their blurb reads:
OXYGENEE Cusenier 55 % vol. 70 cl.
This spirit containing absinthe extract (its legal appellation) permits you to become acquainted with the flavor which, known or not, was a delicacy at the beginning of the century. Serve it as formerly, by slowly pouring water, as in the poster below, so that your Oxygénée can shade.
The caption reads "Absenthe like the old days, with the legal amount of thujone essential oil."
Hmmm...
So, I'm browsing through the endless French
variations of non-absinthe absinthes, and I
found this. . .a mention of a new oxygenee,
which seems to be produced by the original
Cusenier company.
http://www.vinotheque-thonon.com/catalogue/
breuvab.htm
Has anyone seen this or tried it? Perhaps it is
what Absente was "supposed" to be.
Also, I thought this may be of interest to those
looking for Pernod Fils carafes and glasses at
absurdly good prices:
h
ttp://www.pubshop.com/pernod.html
