Tasted from a sample received in a trade.



Color: light peridot green, very nice, natural. Would have liked just a little more depth in the color, but I'm picking nits here.



Nose (neat): good anise, spice, nicely aromatic. Very herbal as opposed to flowery. Occasional bit of alcohol burn, but not surprising for 68% spirit. Balanced and soft, rather than powerful.



Louche: great swirling trails with ice cold water drip. Good layering, nice finished color, minty green, clear with slight hint of blue at the liquid/air interface.



Nose (after louche): very similar to the pre-louche aroma, maybe leaning a bit more to the anise. Not huge or room filling, but very nice.



Flavor: great balance. Sweet anise, spicy, hint of mint flavor (from the wormwood?); not a strong peppermint, but just enough to give me a feeling of mint, like green mint ice cream. At this point I'm thinking this is what Lucid should have been -- excellent balance, very clean, not too intense for the "uneducated American palate". Good body, I wouldn't go so far as to say "creamy" but I may have overwatered this one a bit at about 4:1. Starting to get some mild clinging to the tongue.



Finish: nicely balanced finish. Some tip-of-the-tongue prickly feeling. Finish starts with anise, moves to a nice complex alpine herbal, and then to the bitterness and tongue-numbing sensation. Very nice. By end of the glass, I'm getting more of the tongue coating and numbing.



Overall, 4's all the way across the board. I really liked this verte, and while I'm still pretty inexperienced, this is probably the best absinthe I've had to date. I've had what I thought were more interesting aromas and finishes, but when taken as a whole, this is the best all-around absinthe in my brief time as an absinthe drinker. This one is getting me seriously thinking about making that first LdF order ...