I may be spending some time in Spain this summer. If I do, I'll see about picking up a bottle of absinthe. Felix, since you seem to be expert on such things, do you have any recommendations for how to find a good one?
In what part of the country will you be staying? I bought my first absinthe when I was in Barcelona. Here's the address of the store:
La Cava de los Faros
Plaza Universitat, 5
08001 de Barcelona
Tel: 933-425145
The name is a pun on a local variety of sparkling white wine. They have a
website, too. They sell 5cl bottles of a lot of their drinks, so you can sample different labels without spending too much money, and you will be able to buy spoons and other related paraphernalia from them as well.
Most of the Spanish absentas go pretty heavy on the anise and have a less complex flavor, but I have had Mari Mayans before and it is pretty good for someone just starting out. Deva is supposed to be similar, but I've never tried it. Serpis Absinth looks like something you ought to avoid at all costs, but if you can get over the red color it's actually quite decent. That's about all I can tell you from my own experience. I'd look up any other labels you find before buying them to see what other people have to say.
Theoretically, the very best absinthes are those made before the 1915 ban, which are still drinkable if you can get hold of one. Interestingly, because absinthe's green color comes from chlorophyll, really old absinthes turn brown with age, but still louche to the same shade of pale green when diluted. Of course, these are completely outside any normal person's price range. The next best thing comes from
Jade Liqueurs, which recreates pre-ban absinthes from chemical samples and the original recipes from Pernod and other contemporary distilleries. Their stuff is still pretty expensive, though.
If you fly on Virgin Atlantic, you can buy La Fée Absinthe from their in-flight catalogue, but it's grossly overpriced. I bought some on my way back from Spain just so I could say that I did, but I haven't opened the bottle yet so I can't tell you how good it really is.
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