Color: A yellowish jewel color. Clear and natural. Bright enough not to be dead leaf. Very good but too yellow in hue.

Louche: Slow to start and hazes the original color. Nice layering and ends up an oily translucence. Clouds up in a nice gradient and is slightly on the thin side.

Aroma: Strong very noticeable smells emerge from L'Italliane. A bitter rush up front and sweetness in the back. The trio of absinthe herbs are there but they are behind other smells including what I detect as a lemongrass smell.

Flavor: Very complex and powerful. The taste does better at slightly higher ratios. Perfect bitter-sweet flavor without sugar for me. Tea (jasmine?) and other flavors enhance the general absinthe taste. An amazing wormwood feel in the back of the mouth. Really tasty stuff here.

Finish: Slight peppery taste displays here and the finish sweetens up just a bit for a while. The flavor doesn't change much but it does display subtle variances. Mouth feel lasts a long time even after the flavor dies down.

Overall: This is so close to a higher rating in just about every aspect. The color and louche are a bit off but the flavor is amazing with nice tones displayed in a subtle way instead of the usual in your face style of experimentation. Jasmine and lemongrass are a nice touch and the wormwood is phenomenal. This definitely separates this absinthe from the rest while still sticking to traditional tastes.