Newly Rated Absinthes, Post Absinthe's Not Yet Rated Here! (otherwise, post in approp Options

[traineraz]

I decided to try it with sugar.

So, I looked in the cabinet. I had:

Brown sugar. No, that'd be gross.

Confectioner's sugar. No, that'd taste like corn starch.

Xylitol. Um . . . I haven't used that in anything yet.

Big Bag O' Splenda. Well, that's all that's left. I don't have any sugar cubes or granulated "normal" sugar. So, 1/4 tsp went into the see-saw, followed by water.

It neutralizes the hint of bitterness in the unsweetened version. Might be helpful for newbies. Not my preference, however. It actually removed so much "edge" that at first I thought I'd overwatered it! Then the alcohol bit my tongue and I realized I'd underwatered. Oops.

It did add to the mouthfeel.

So anyway, if you like to sugar your absinthe, you'll likely like Lucid sweetened. If you like it unsweetened, as I do, I think you'll definitely enjoy unsweetened Lucid.

I like it better unsweetened, but I'm not sinking the sweetened, so it's not been made unpleasant.

Edit: having just read P's post, I can only say that I've not noticed the mustiness nor any pepperiness (as has been repeatedly reported) nor did I see the reported murkiness in the liquid. I wonder if perhaps there's a difference between batches?

Oh, and it certainly doesn't compare to l'Artisanale, which I'd rate at probably 97-100. Of course, I didn't expect Lucid to be in the same class as l'Artisanale. Hope I'm not giving someone a swelled head.

[Icarus]

So anyway, if you like to sugar your absinthe, you'll likely like Lucid sweetened. If you like it unsweetened, as I do, I think you'll definitely enjoy unsweetened Lucid. I like it better unsweetened, but I'm not sinking the sweetened, so it's not been made unpleasant.

Ummm, what?

[traineraz]

what?

[Donnie Darko]

Summary: If you like it one way, you'll like it that way. If you like it the other way, then you'll like it that way.

[absinthist]

Or the other way round and vice versa.

[Le Gimp]

My wife called me at 9:30 to let me know my package of Lucid arrived.

The dog went nutso (he does that).


Quick shipping from Drink Up NY. Order placed Wednesday afternoon, package shipped Thursday and arrived Friday.

Is it 5:00 yet?

[Donnie Darko]

It's always 5:00.

Provenance does have a point in his comments about it not being "very good", though perhaps what he means by that is that he doesn't think it is good at all, which I would disagree with. Lucid is not going to stand up to Jade or some of the better absinthes made by Oliver Matter, nor is its wormwood profile up to the caliber that you'd find in Eichelberger, L'Artisinale, Duplais or a few others, but it gets the job done and passes for a decent absinthe. It gets you 80% of the way there. The next 10% is a steep cliff to climb, and the 10% after that which would land an absinthe in the mid to high 90s is extremely hard to come by, achieved only by 3 US HGs I've had, 1 Swiss La Bleue, Jade lab samples, and a couple of Pre-bans. It can be done, which is what I'm keeping my fingers crossed for. If it ends up costing $100 a bottle off the shelf in the US, that's OK with me. 18 year old Macallan is more than that and IMO not quite as amazing as some of the best absinthes I've tasted.

[louched liver]

Would be nice.

Prolly won't happen
for a looooong time,
if ever.

I just can't imagine
the high end market
is there (here) yet.

[Provenance]

I didn't mean to imply that Lucid is vile, it's not. While it has significant novelty value as the first street legal absinthe in America, I found that it was simply not very good by contemporary standards. If it were judged by the standards back when UE 68 was about as good as it got for a CO, I would consider it far more favorably.

[louched liver]

Gotcha.

Sadly for us, the
standards are set,
by being the one and
onliest at this point,
by who did the leg
work, or down on
their knees work to
get the door open.

It's still something I
never really thought
I'd see, mostly because
other than a few fucks,
I didn't think the gov't
would give 1/2 a xit.

[wooperman]

100? Lets not encourage them. I thought we all agreed that they should be able to produce this stuff rather cheaply, including the use of quality grape spirits and the aging process but after they recoup some of the start up money. Arak is 15 dollars a bottle.!
People should be allowed to make money, but I still don't see how even a 12yr single malt scotch can cost half as much as Lucid. Ok, maybe absinthe is a little more expensive, but 60 bux should be able to buy the best.
I want Ted to succeed. His success should lead to great things for us all. But if he inadvertently teaches industry that absinthe drinkers are $uckers, I am not ok with that.

I still this a lot of the price is the up-front money being passed off to the consumer. Once that is re-couped, will the price come down? No, because a price standard will be set.

Arak is like 20 bux a litre.
12 yr single malts are between 30-45 bux.
A price break down would be nice, but then the "industry secret" gets played and we can't know.

Relatively speaking how much was a 750ml in the belle epoque?

[wooperman]

Which were the best quality absinthes? What did they cost?

As one would expect absinthe was produced in many different grades and was sold at widely varying prices, to cater for all parts of the
market - from the elegant boulevardier down to the ordinary working man and below him even, the desperate alcoholic scraping his last
few sous together to feed his addiction. At the top of the quality pyramid stood Pernod Fils and Cusenier's Oxygénée, which commanded
a wholesale price of around 2 francs per litre (this equated to a retail price of 5 francs).. Below them, the other grande marques: Berger,
Edouard Pernod, Premier Fils, Junod, Terminus, at around 1.60. Then lesser but still very reputable brands like Parrot, Bazinet and Vichet
at 1.30, and reliable house brands at about a franc per litre bottle. Below this, an unregulated mass of crudely produced and often
adulterated rotgut, some selling for as little as 60 centimes per litre.

At an expensive and fashionable cabaret like the Moulin Rouge, a glass of Pernod Fils cost between 50 and 65 centimes (still, relatively
speaking, cheap: about half the price of a whisky, and little more than draught beer). At an ordinary bistrot or cafe, the house brand would
run at about 25c, while at a rough standing-room only tavern on the outskirts of the city, a glass of inferior absinthe might be as little as 5c.

from: .info/absinthe_FAQ3.html" target="_blank">http://www..info/absinthe_FAQ3.html

[absinthist]

You have asked and you have answered. The situation has not changed much. Inferior brands still exist albeit hidden sometimes.

[traineraz]

Price is set by supply and demand . . . and marketing.

Most perfumes cost a few cents per ounce to produce, but some sell for hundreds of dollars per ounce. Why? Because that's how they're marketed. It's the most expensive, so it must be the best. Jacking up the price on a necessity is gouging; setting a luxury price on a luxury good is marketing.

Absinthe is a luxury good, and manufacturers will price it as they see fit. Some products, like the Jade line, will never be available at Safeway for $15 a bottle, since their price point is part of their marketing. The price of others, like Lucid, will probably fall in a few years as the market matures and production meets demand.

Similarly, a house in Arak Estates costs $125/sf to construct. A house in Jade Woods, built by a subsidiary of the same builder, costs $150/sf to construct due to higher-end finishes and the like. Arak Estates is priced at $170/sf, but Jade Woods is priced at $250/sf. Why? Because Jade Woods is being marketed as a luxury product, and the price is part of the status. And because they can.

In the meantime, don't like it? Don't buy it. Buy a house at Arak Estates. Complaining about how "unfair" it is for a manufacturer to price a product as he sees fit serves no purpose.

[Provenance]

But if he inadvertently teaches industry that absinthe drinkers are $uckers, I am not ok with that.

Dr. O, is that you?