A few weeks ago, I was approached by Alan Moss, a long time Wormwood Society member, who asked if he could do a complimentary article to a piece I did recently. Who am I to say ‘no’? Alan is the Global Ambassador for La Clandestine absinthe and the main contributor to the Real Absinthe blog. I thought you all might like a global perspective on the absinthe renaissance.
I enjoyed Brian’s earlier article about absinthe in Spain: it showed absinthe can be different in some countries, and yet very similar. A range of qualities, pricing and packaging, and a trend almost everywhere towards quality.
I’ve been a member of the Wormwood Society for six years and I’ve been working on La Clandestine absinthe almost all that time. I’ve sold liquor in 50 plus countries since 1989 so I’ve been privileged to travel, to experience and to observe. I see interesting global trends on absinthe and it will be interesting to see how they affect the US market (and vice versa).
QUALITY
In the USA, absinthe quality is generally much higher than in most countries around the world. You can easily find shops in NYC, LA, Chicago, etc with more than a dozen good quality absinthes. This is almost impossible in Europe where just one or two cities may have one or two shops like that (mixed with lower quality lines).
