I received a 4 oz sample of the St George from a friend. I think it is the second batch. It was diluted 4:1.



The color out of the bottle was a nice amber feuille mort, very nice. Clear, clean, without sediment.



I'm only rating the louche a "3" as it was far too fast, and too heavy. Looking at the finished louche there are some golden highlights within it, and some blueness at the air-water interface. But I just didn't find the louche action itself very interesting. It just went very quickly to a heavy opaque cloud rising from the bottom.



I rated the aroma only "3" again as it really wasn't very strong, or floral. Definitely seems like some alcohol on the aroma and some other notes. But it wasn't something to make you say oh, that's nice, and promise something for when you drink it.



On the flavor, a "3" again. It's mostly star anise, which is much less interesting than green anise, with some brandy notes, and a bit of the other herbs. There's no wormwood to speak of that I can tell. When I took the first sip, swirled it around, chewed it, my response was "That's it?" Lots of tongue numbing from the star anise, but at least it doesn't scrape across the tongue leaving incisions in it's wake like star anise can do. There's no sense of tails, and the drink is quite smooth. So it's very drinkable.



Again a "3" for the finish. Too much star anise, some tingling, a little bit of the mouth saying "yes that's nice". But I can feel that it's fading already. In a couple minutes it may be gone.



Overall a "3". I couldn't find myself giving it a "2" as I did finish my drink. I didn't find it as terrible as my friend. It's somewhat unusual, but I really find the major flaw to be too much reliance on star anise. More AA would be good, but it really seems more like what pastis might be like. Maybe a very good one. I'm not so familiar with pastis so I can't comment further.



If I was going to buy just absinthes available on my local store shelves, I would keep this around. It's certainly well made, and a pleasant, easy to consume drink. If the flavor and finish were more like absinthe, and there were more of those qualities, I'd probably rate it a "4". Because it's so anethole dominant, it probably doesn't seem as weird as some have said. At least not to me.