So Last night when we stopped to pick up a few bottles of wine for the missus and myself my eyes fell on a bottle on the shelf." Grande Absente Absinthe Original 138 proof" it read. My heart palpitated as I read the label and took note of the French origin and mention of atremisia absinthium (a.k.a Grand Wormwood) being quite present. “Can’t be near as good as some of the stuff I’ve had from Alandia” I thought. I paid the $60 price tag (On sale from $70) figuring even if it wasn’t high caliber and quality it was still and addition to my small absinthe collective which till then was a half bottle of Mansinthe and an unopened La Bleue Clandestine. I got home and proceeded to place my absinthe spoon (it came with a free one, not as nice as my period silver, but functional) on the cup, deposit sugar and go to town. Amazingly, prepared by both the bohemian and Czech preparations, this was actually a decent absinthe. Granted it’s not the top of the line or anything like that, but for a liquor store buy in rural PA…I was stunned. Beautiful louche, nice anise taste, and well I flew like a jet plane last night and felt like I head a spike in my brain for an hour this morning…so YUP! It’s absinthe. I know there are some fans of the Green Fairy on here and if you live in PA check your local bottle shop for Grande Absente. It’s $60 yes, but from somewhere like Alandia you will put that down on a mid way decent bottle plus another $35-40 on shipping. While not claiming at all that this is World Champion Gold Medal absinthe, it’s the real deal and quite good for a US legal bottle shop brand. I’m going back later this afternoon for the other 2 bottles I saw on the shelf.
I know I can’t wait to get myself a bottle of the stuff. 
For that morning after spike in the brain feeling?
well you only get the spike in the brain when you do like myself and drink 3 glasses (not shots…glasses) of 138 proof liquor that is distilled with a psychoactive on an empty stomach and then soon after fall asleep without so much as a drop of water. Imbibed with something in the stomach and some water or some hydration afterward, the spike isn’t nearly as much of a problem.
remember if drinking worked the other way round it be considered virtous. You know if it started with spike in head and you woke up the next day drunk.
I’ve awakened still drunk a few times. The only thing left to do is to continue on. It’s been quite a while since I enjoyed absinthe, but all these conversations around it sure have been piquing my interest again. I still have a bottle of some French stuff called Combier Blanchette which I’ve never cracked. Maybe its day is coming. I have never seen any in our local liquor stores; we live in a black hole here in Iowa in many ways. But maybe I can get one of them to make a special order; worth a try.
I bought the smaller bottle for $13 at the local liquor/wine store, but I didn’t care for it so much. Probably because I really hate black licorice.
i order the odd bottle of lafee and love the stuff.