-Color-
Before Water: Clear vivid and natural amber-olive-green. The sample I had was a bit young, which contributed to the brightness, but I’d bet this will settle into a nice amber or peridot.

After Water: Thickish but good and opaque; light olive.

-Louche-
Great fog bank and bouncing tendrils, good pace.

-Aroma-
Before Water: Mild anethole along with sharp star anise, herbaceous and earthy.

After Water: A distinctly fragrant and dryly floral wormwood, citrus; anise and fennel are mild but subtly juicy in the back. Star anise is still one of the most prominent scents, and though I know not much of it was used, I feel it comes across as just a bit too cloying and distracting.

-Flavor-
Enjoyably mild spice, citrus and minty notes up front. The tasty A.a. from the aroma is very prominent and contributes the same dry floral character, along with a strong but well balanced savory bitter. The anise and fennel provide a backbone role, but are nice and full. It’s interesting, but I did not perceive the star anise in the actual flavor, only the aroma.

-Finish-
A dry, slowly receding wormwood zang carries us through. Perhaps slightly too much numbing though.

-Overall-
I found this absinthe overall to be very enjoyable and would recommend it. The big wormwood character is similar to Pontarlier, but is different enough to distinguish itself and is obviously very high quality (if I’m not mistaken, it’s the same stuff used to make L’Italienne). The one thing that actively detracted from this absinthe was the star anise in the nose. However, it did not hurt the flavor, which I found to be one of the better, more expressive wormwood forward profiles I’ve had recently.

Since it was young at the time of tasting, I wonder if the cloying from the badiane aroma will dissipate with time, and how long that might take. I recently had some PF Taragona 1950, and though the presence of star anise was about as obvious, it somehow wasn’t bothersome in the least.

Notes: 3-4:1 ratios tasted; with and without sugar.

Despite being given the opportunity of tasting all the previous St. Antoine versions, the latest one, i.e. #7 seems to capture all the glorious moments in its history. St. Antoine stands fast on its position of the most accurate absinthe hailing from Czech Republic. End of story.

Colour is not as vivid as in previous batches, slightly on the pale green side

Louche is ideal, that is all I can say

Aroma is composed of veronica upfront-in the vein of the premiere batches, good measure of anise, , very herbaceous

Flavour is slightly minty, not heavy, dry and smooth the same time. Wormwood and mint, or melissa get very prominent, but veronica is far away, the finish with coriander and anise. Has chamomile been removed-is the question that comes to my mind. Martin has kindly explained that it was lowered only.

All in all, everything that was supposed to be done in the realm of St. Antoine verte, has been done. Time for a blanche. Now!

Color- Inviting peridot with light gold edges under natural light. No sediment at all in the sample bottle.

Louche- Very nice think cascading trails right off the bat with a slow pour but it ends too soon and may be a tad too thick when finished.

Aroma- Sweet anise & fennel with some herbs I’ve never smelled before. It’s nice but some points need to be deducted since it’s undetectable after a minute.

Flavor- Overall I would say this is both fresh and flowery- probably due to the wormwood. There’s a decent amount of quality anise & fennel mid palate and ends with a creamy finish. There’s an herb in here that I can’t pick out (probably veronica as Brian points out) that lends a tea-like creaminess to the flavor.

Finish- Minty & fresh with a bit of fennel. I would describe the finish as a tad drying/bitter as opposed to sweet. Somewhat long lasting as well.

Overall- Congrats to Martin for putting together a quality absinthe from the Czech Republic. I’m looking forward to this being available in the states. Hopefully other Czech ‘absinthe producers’ can take note.

Color: Pale olive with no haze. It looked natural.

Louche: Started very quick but was fun to watch while it lasted. About 1:1 and then it thinned a tiny bit.

Aroma: I just couldn't detect much aroma. We louched with ice cold water and very little if any aroma wafted through the air. That changed a bit after it had warmed to room temp but the glass was empty.

Flavor: I gave it a 3 because 3=Appropriate but unremarkable.

Finish: I finished my glass. I like to see if the drink changes much as it gets less cool. The numbing was strong and lacked flavor. It didn't make me ask for another. The numbing hid any flavor from me.

overall: The drink wasn't bad and it showed promise. I haven't tasted the earlier version. I sampled this about an hour after dinner. I treat a review as I would being on a jury, yes or no. If half points were allowed the score may still be the same or maybe a bit higher as I wanted it to be a good drink. I really did. Perhaps a little more tweaking and less numbing would help. I have some left and will re-review it another day under different conditions. Age may help.

Color: The color was nice and natural. Olive with a little straw, and perfectly clear. For a verte, and for being only a few months old, I would expect a bit more green, but nonetheless, it's very nice.

Louche: I loved that the louche was a really nice bottom-up with lovely trails that gradually thickened. However, before even reaching a 1:1 ratio, it was almost completely louched. So a little quick, and ended a little thick. Perhaps the star anise.

Aroma: For me, this was an easy decision to rate. Uncapped, there was very little aroma. While louching, there was certainly no room-filling aroma, but even at 12 inches away, I still couldn't smell anything. After sticking my nose deep into the glass and really pulling in a scent, I was barely able to get much aroma at all. Odd. This changed when the drink warmed up some, and could have been a 3 if it smelled the same at the start. But no other absinthes I've tried have presented so little aroma, which made this rating somewhat easy for me.

Flavor: I gave this a 3 because it just didn't have anything at all that I would call home about. It didn't present anything dramatically, except for the wormwood and a bit of sweetness. They weren't entirely balanced, but aside from that there was a sort of emptiness to the flavor.

Finish: There was quite a bit of numbing here, and it lasted for some time. But otherwise unremarkable.

Overall: Aroma only presented itself as the drink warmed, and the louche was between a 3 and 4 for me. I think tweaking the recipe in these two areas would up the ratings by 1 in each of those rated areas, which would bring the overall up. But as is, the best I can honestly rate this absinthe is basically right down the middle. It's definitely not bad. Not at all. But it could be better, and I'm looking forward to tasting the next batch.