Day 3: Three Absinthe Hens
The concentration of α-Thujoneα, the chemical found in wormwood, is too low to cause a mythical, absinthe induced hallucination. Our protagonist from The 12 Days of Christmas must have been on something else when they gift-wrapped three French hens. Luckily for the spirits lover on your list, Canadian distilleries make brilliant absinthe that combines French tradition with local colour. This season, leave the French hens at the farm and give the gift of Canadian absinthe.
Arbutus Barrel Aged Baba Yaga Absinthe (56%)
If you’re on Santa’s naughty list, you get a lump of coal. If you’re on Baba Yaga’s naughty list, she’ll cook you over coals. Baba Yaga is an iron-toothed witch from Slavic folklore who helps the good and punishes the bad. Her house walks on chicken legs enabling her to roam the forest in search of botanicals for her elixirs.
The Arbutus distillery may lack chicken legs, but that hasn’t stopped distiller Michael Pizzitelli from finding the perfect botanicals to make his absinthe. Arbutus distils theirs from traditional grand wormwood, anise, fennel, lemon balm and mint. The blended spirit then soaks with more herbs and botanicals before the green-tinged spirit is aged in #4 charred new oak barrels.
Out of the barrel, the nose is sweet with candy-coated liquorice and a complex array of wood spice and fennel notes. Honeyed anise and old-fashioned root beer are pronounced on the palate slowly shifting to tannic and herbal barrel tones finally landing on fresh mint with a soft kiss of lumber. There is a reason why this absinthe won best in class at the 2020 Canadian Artisanal Spirits Competition – it’s brilliant.
www.arbutusdistillery.com 375 ml $29.60
This Prince Edward Island distillery makes its traditional green absinthe by infusing the triple distilled spirit with natural herbs such as aniseed, liquorice root and fennel. Amplified fennel, star anise and strong liquorice notes hit the nose with a wallop of alcohol-fueled heat. Gradually, the spirit calms into an insanely centred heart, never straying from the nose’s rich herbal flavours.
www.deeprootsdistillery.com 375 ml $48.00
The Alchemist Distillery’s Simon Buttet uses local Okanagan apples to distil the base spirit for his absynthe. (He also spells it with a “y”). The nose is traditional with splendid sweet and bitter anise notes. Given time, a smidgen of floral and juicy apple leap from the palate swirling in the spirit’s fresh herbal green notes. A pleasing bitterness on the finish adds complexity to this green gem.
https://www.alchemistdistiller.ca 500 ml $45.10
The subtleties of these high alcohol absinthes come through when diluted. Place an absinthe spoon holding a sugar cube over a glass containing the absinthe. Slowly drip ice-cold water over the sugar until it dissolves, usually about four parts water per one part absinthe. Gently stir then enjoy. If you see a green Santa, it may be the Grinch.
Join us tomorrow for Day 4: Seaweed Gin gift suggestions. Or, if you’d rather figure it out on your own, there are many more spirits to be found in our book The Definitive Guide to Canadian Distilleries – a gift suggestion in itself and one that’s worth its weight in five gold rings.
