Pours a very emerald green. Louches nicely, with a nice layering effect if you go slowly, before the whole drink becomes a nice greyish cloud (with subtle blues and yellow highlights). My bottle, I can barely smell anything from it. Even in the glass I'm mostly just picking up the alcohol, but there are hints of peppermint and cooking spices behind that. After louching I can barely smell anything, but there's maybe the ever so slight added hint of funky fruit.

Flavor- maybe my bottle just isn't very good. It's good, but I'm just not as impressed as everyone else seems to be, not even close. Everything about this is just way too subtle. I have to go with pretty low water ratios to get it to a point where I can even pick out flavors. Mainly I'm noticing the wormwood and anise, but everything is very balanced- maybe TOO balanced? It's really hard to pick anything out individually because everything is blended into one (kind of nondescript) profile, I think. The mouthfeel is nice. The finish to me seems a bit peppery and lasts a while, so at least that's a bit interesting.

Overall I think everything is too subtle. I like the nouvelle-orléans because it's more unique and also the flavors in that one stand out more. It's hard for me to even know what I'm experiencing while I'm drinking this (almost finished a 200ml bottle and every time I drink from it I feel the same way). I feel almost confused trying to figure it out. There's nothing offensive or bad about it, and I can definitely tell that high quality ingredients and distillation are at work here, and it is enjoyable. But compared to upper-tier absinthe it just doesn't leave a solid impression for me. Honestly I would rather have any other Jade, Walton Waters, or probably even a bottle of Vieux Pontarlier than this. But those are all great or very good absinthes, and this is still a high quality drink.