Absinthe

It’s a challenging spirit to make well, but absinthe offers a wide variety of flavor directions from which you can choose—and it can make for a striking addition to your distillery’s product line.

There’s more to enjoying absinthe than sugar cubes and ice water. Here, two distillers share approaches old and new—from backwoods and bare-bones to upscale mixology—for serving and enjoying the spirit. As told to Ryan Pachmayer.

You’re not hallucinating: Absinthe is enjoying some overdue growth among American drinkers. In the first of a two-part series, we consider its background and trajectory—and in the next, we’ll zoom in on the craft of making it.

Once you understand the basics of absinthe and broadly which path you intend to follow, it’s time to make some flavor decisions. Here we consider how you can put your own thumbprint on the spirit via botanicals and other creative choices.