I will be making my annual summer trip to Canada in a few months, and I am interested in your thoughts and/or recommendations about the absinthe that is available.
As you are no doubt aware, it is not legal in the US. According this article in Wikipedia (emphasis mine), it is legal in certain Canadian provinces.
I will be travelling to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. According to the article, I could only get absinthe with thujone in NS, assuming that it is actually stocked.
Which labels would you recommend, either with or without thujone?
I have seen no brands up here (BC) that I would pay money for (I usually see Hills, Czech, Pernod and Absenthe at the store). The other marks listed I don’t know much about-- they might be the better bets. You might check absinthe fanboy sites for ratings and go with the least awful.
The absinthe that’s readily available in Canada (at least where I live) is shit. It’s not really absinthe at all, in my opinion.
There are many different kinds of “absinthe” today and too many find their origin in absinthe’s recent surge in trendiness. The worst absinthes today are little more than ethanol blended with artificial colour, flavour, and oils.
The best brands are traditionally distilled. I would recommend:
Arrange to import some of these to Canada while you’re up here. Also, it would be proper to commit to the ritual that surrounds preparing and consuming absinthe so you’ll need to set yourself up with supplies, as well.
Take note: absinthe is powerful stuff and you can find yourself shit-faced drunk in no time if you aren’t careful. A raw potato fight in a spiral staircase at 4AM comes to mind… But as for the thujone, the effect is largely a myth as you will die from alcohol poisoning long before the thujone kicks in.