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.