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Good luck to him. There have been tricks to fake aged flavors wine, whiskey, and other aged alcohols for centuries. In CA mass-produced Chardonnay is aged in gi

Good luck to him. There have been tricks to fake aged flavors wine, whiskey, and other aged alcohols for centuries. In CA mass-produced Chardonnay is aged in giant stainless steel with wood chips. Others make Bourbon with charred wood chips. There are tricks with pressure and temperature, wood, and other things that I'm sure that is secret and proprietary. It's not always clear where tradition ends and modern tricks begin because they've been doing some of these things for a long time. But in the end these 'tricks' always produces an inferior product and are really only good for mass-produced wine/alcohol on the cheaper end. As an aside, two things, there are some excellent aged rums out there. The complexity can be almost as good as aged whiskey and the texture/mouth-feel (don't know the proper word) can be like a 20-year+ scotch for something not aged as long. Second, I see that he produced Absinthe in Spain which has similar thujone levels to absinthe that is legal in the u.s. USA absinthe is nothing like the real thing - it is more like drinking Pernod. In Switzerland, where Absinthe originates, the thujone level is 100x (?) what you get in the u.s. When you drink a fair amount of it it is like you have a high-contrast filter on your eyes. Further, modern absinthe is clear although I still prefer the green.

dangerlibrary 12y ago
It could be substantially less than 100x. The maximum amount of thujone in the EU is 35mg/L. The US requires that absinthe be "thujone free" but defines that as less than 10mg/L. Old recipes (from 1899) have been recreated and measured at 4.3mg/L. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thujone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thujone
- girvo 12y ago
  And in the same article, absinthe from the same time period of those recipes were shown to have > between 0.5 mg/L and 48.3 mg/L and averaged 25.4 mg/L via GC-MS. Interesting stuff!
DannoHung 12y ago
> But in the end these 'tricks' always produces an inferior product and are really only good for mass-produced wine/alcohol on the cheaper end. Double blind proven or asserted by experts?
- bbcbasic 12y ago
  Blind drunk experts
- sanoli 11y ago
  What double blind tests have proven so far: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/frontal-cortex/does-all-wine-taste-the-same http://www.newyorker.com/tech/frontal-cortex/does-all-wine-t... and the accompanying xkcd: https://xkcd.com/915/ https://xkcd.com/915/
Aloisius 12y ago
I've had "real" absinthe and US versions. Honestly, they both taste pretty much the same to me. That is, there is as much difference between "real" versions as there is between real and import versions. Clear absinthes lack the herbal flavor of naturally herb colored absinthes and I find to be generally inferior. You might as well be drinking ouzo.
- jghn 12y ago
  At one point in the not too distant past the "absinthe" in the US was basically grain alcohol with food coloring. This coincided w/ the surge of absinthe popularity and led to people pointing fingers as to what was different, often the thujone level. This is no longer the case, nor did it have anything to do with thujone. As you note, spirits which are extremely herbal in nature are going to have natural variance between recipes as each vendor finds their own unique flavor (e.g. fernets)
johndavi 12y ago
I have the entire LS collection and they are exceptional. As a rum man I agree with you about the complexity available in aged rums -- and even the early trial versions of Lost Spirits that predate the full-fledged Colonial example are outstanding from a "mouth feel" standpoint. I have routinely trotted them out to put in front of my Scotch-drinking betters, and while a Scotch snob is an impossible conversion target, it's rare to have one not express surprise at what they've tasted. They are all overproof but extremely drinkable. Even the 151-proof "Cuban Inspired" can be sipped, and its texture sensed, which is pretty unbelievable for its alcohol content (notwithstanding its age). Anyway, all this to say this is less fake than other techniques, e.g. sugaring wine. If you're in the Bay Area K&L and Beltramos carry various versions, all $40 or under. Worth a shot!
gallerytungsten 12y ago
>USA absinthe is nothing like the real thing - it is more like drinking Pernod. In Switzerland, where Absinthe originates, the thujone level is 100x (?) what you get in the u.s. Sorry, but this is not close to being correct. Thujone is largely left behind by the distillation process as it's a heavy compound. Tests of decades-old pre-ban absinthes gave the same results. Modern tests by GC-MS (required by the Feds for US absinthe approval) prove the same thing. The idea of heavy thujone content is largely a marketing tactic, used to hype some Euro absinthes. The quality of US absinthes is very high. There are some one hundred of them distilled in the USA, and many are based on traditional French recipes from the 1800s. Source: I distill absinthe. List of USA absinthes: http://realabsinthe.blogspot.com/2008/07/list-of-absinthes-approved-for-us.html http://realabsinthe.blogspot.com/2008/07/list-of-absinthes-a... TTB Circular regarding absinthe: http://www.ttb.gov/industry_circulars/archives/2007/07-05.html http://www.ttb.gov/industry_circulars/archives/2007/07-05.ht...

dangerlibrary 12y ago

It could be substantially less than 100x. The maximum amount of thujone in the EU is 35mg/L. The US requires that absinthe be "thujone free" but defines that as less than 10mg/L. Old recipes (from 1899) have been recreated and measured at 4.3mg/L. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thujone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thujone

girvo 12y ago
And in the same article, absinthe from the same time period of those recipes were shown to have > between 0.5 mg/L and 48.3 mg/L and averaged 25.4 mg/L via GC-MS. Interesting stuff!

DannoHung 12y ago

> But in the end these 'tricks' always produces an inferior product and are really only good for mass-produced wine/alcohol on the cheaper end. Double blind proven or asserted by experts?

bbcbasic 12y ago
Blind drunk experts
sanoli 11y ago
What double blind tests have proven so far: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/frontal-cortex/does-all-wine-taste-the-same http://www.newyorker.com/tech/frontal-cortex/does-all-wine-t... and the accompanying xkcd: https://xkcd.com/915/ https://xkcd.com/915/

Aloisius 12y ago

I've had "real" absinthe and US versions. Honestly, they both taste pretty much the same to me. That is, there is as much difference between "real" versions as there is between real and import versions. Clear absinthes lack the herbal flavor of naturally herb colored absinthes and I find to be generally inferior. You might as well be drinking ouzo.

jghn 12y ago
At one point in the not too distant past the "absinthe" in the US was basically grain alcohol with food coloring. This coincided w/ the surge of absinthe popularity and led to people pointing fingers as to what was different, often the thujone level. This is no longer the case, nor did it have anything to do with thujone. As you note, spirits which are extremely herbal in nature are going to have natural variance between recipes as each vendor finds their own unique flavor (e.g. fernets)

johndavi 12y ago

I have the entire LS collection and they are exceptional. As a rum man I agree with you about the complexity available in aged rums -- and even the early trial versions of Lost Spirits that predate the full-fledged Colonial example are outstanding from a "mouth feel" standpoint. I have routinely trotted them out to put in front of my Scotch-drinking betters, and while a Scotch snob is an impossible conversion target, it's rare to have one not express surprise at what they've tasted. They are all overproof but extremely drinkable. Even the 151-proof "Cuban Inspired" can be sipped, and its texture sensed, which is pretty unbelievable for its alcohol content (notwithstanding its age). Anyway, all this to say this is less fake than other techniques, e.g. sugaring wine. If you're in the Bay Area K&L and Beltramos carry various versions, all $40 or under. Worth a shot!

gallerytungsten 12y ago

>USA absinthe is nothing like the real thing - it is more like drinking Pernod. In Switzerland, where Absinthe originates, the thujone level is 100x (?) what you get in the u.s. Sorry, but this is not close to being correct. Thujone is largely left behind by the distillation process as it's a heavy compound. Tests of decades-old pre-ban absinthes gave the same results. Modern tests by GC-MS (required by the Feds for US absinthe approval) prove the same thing. The idea of heavy thujone content is largely a marketing tactic, used to hype some Euro absinthes. The quality of US absinthes is very high. There are some one hundred of them distilled in the USA, and many are based on traditional French recipes from the 1800s. Source: I distill absinthe. List of USA absinthes: http://realabsinthe.blogspot.com/2008/07/list-of-absinthes-approved-for-us.html http://realabsinthe.blogspot.com/2008/07/list-of-absinthes-a... TTB Circular regarding absinthe: http://www.ttb.gov/industry_circulars/archives/2007/07-05.html http://www.ttb.gov/industry_circulars/archives/2007/07-05.ht...