Types of Absinthe

Not a lot of people even understand what absinthe is.  So of course, even fewer understand the different styles.  For the purpose of this post, I'm going to go over four styles of absinthe: French, Swiss, Czech, and "fake."

French style absinthe is the green absinthe, or absinthe verte, that most people think of when they think of absinthe.  In addition to the wormwood and anise, these absinthes are flavored with a variety of other botanicals.  After being distilled, they also are macerated again with herbs and botanicals, which gives the bottled spirit a green color, and causes the louched product to also be a cloudy green color.  Their flavor, while having a heavy licorice flavor from the anise, and also quite bitter from the wormwood, is more complex and balanced due to the heavy presence of other botanicals.

Swiss style absinthe is the clear (in the bottle) absinthe which louches a cloudy blueish white color.  These tend to be produced with a mix of botanicals that is heavier on the wormwood and anise, rather than the variety of other botanicals.  They also are not re-macerated, which is why they remain clear, rather than being bottled green.  The lack of the coloring stage also means that the flavors tend to be cleaner, and more focused on licorice and bitterness.

Czech or Bohemian style absinthe is really more like a wormwood bitters than anything else.  There is no anise or other botanicals, it is just a high proof spirit flavored with wormwood.  It is very bitter, which might explain why in the 1990s "Czech style" absinthe service, where the sugar cube is soaked in absinthe and lit on fire, was created, to caramelize the sugar, burn off some of the alcohol, and dilute the absinthe at the same time.

"Fake" absinthes are absinthes without wormwood.  I hesitate to call them fake, because some of them are still great products, but they are not true absinthes.  This category includes all brands of Pastis, Absente, Herbsaint, and others.  They are often a lower alcohol percentage than true absinthes as well.  These were mostly created in France, as well as New Orleans (Herbsaint) during the 100ish years when true absinthe was only legal in Spain, Holland, the Czech Republic, and Australia. By the time that absinthe was banned, it was an integral part of several cocktails, so people created this type of spirit in order to contribute the same flavor profile and coloring/clouding effects to a cocktail, without breaking the law.

What is rhum?

Wow, first post of the New Year, and in months!  I need to post more often.

I thought I'd take a minute to go over one of the most confusing classifications of spirits, and use a spelling difference to do so.

People see "rhum" on a menu, and often wonder if it is a typo, something entirely different, or just a different way of spelling rum.

Well, rum is one of the most difficult spirit categories to categorize, as its traditional origins (the Caribbean) is made up of so many countries.  Which means, unlike other spirits, there has been very little in the way of central regulation and definition when it comes to rums.

Another effect of the Caribbean origins of rum is that it is made in countries which speak different languages, due to the diverse colonial histories in the Caribbean.  So, unlike defining a term like "Scotch" or "Bourbon" or "cognac," what follows are general guidelines, and not necessarily hard and fast laws or rules which always prove true.

That being said, rum can generally be split into three categories, based on the language of the island where it is made.  Those categories are English, Spanish, and French.

For our purposes today, we will focus on French rum, or Rhum.  In general, French rums are made in the agricole style.  What that means is that while English and Spanish style rums are generally "industrial" style rum, made with molasses (a byproduct of the sugar refining process), French agricole rhums are made with raw sugar cane.

The biggest effect of making rhums with raw sugar cane is that there is a unique flavor which raw sugar cane lends to the finished product.  Many describe this as earthy, grassy, or funky.  It also lends a certain bitter bite, especially to the finish, despite the rhum still being pretty sweet.  To me, the funky, bitter bite is very similar to that found in tequila or white whiskey.

Hopefully this helps clarify what "rhum" is.