What is absinth?
Note the missing “e”. “Absinth” seems to be an Eastern European spelling for absinthe. That spelling is today usually the mark of an inferior product, not that there’s anything wrong with Bohemia, or even pretending to be Bohemian, but there are less than a handful of properly made absinthes produced in any of these countries – and most of them are very bad indeed. The spelling was used for Hills, the product from the Czech Republic that started the absinthe renaissance. Its makers apparently knew nothing about absinthe other than its name and reputation, as they seemingly went by the seat of their pants when creating their product. Certainly they followed no historical protocol. As a result, Hills was a very poor product indeed, bearing no resemblance to real absinthe, and tasting more like high-proof mouthwash than anything else. It has less in common with real absinthe than, for example, Tennessee whiskey has with Scotch. Unfortunately, the other Eastern European producers have reta
