Where can I buy a bottle of Absinthe?

Question

I live on the border of Illinois and Indiana near Chicago. I would like to go to a store and buy a bottle afraid if I order online it will break in trans it. Thanks

Answer 1

Here is the Lucid website. After you verify your age, they have a page where you can check store listings.

http://www.drinklucid.com/

Pay no attention to anyone who tells you its illegal, it became legal in the USA at the end of last year! (they are a client of mine)!

Answer 2

They sell it in liquor stores now. Don't you know where the local liquor stores are?

Answer 3

I second the answer that Binny's is the place to go, especially in the Chicagoland area.  Absinthe is great stuff, just go easy if it's your first time drinking it, it tends to pack a punch.

Answer 4

When I use to drink it,I would order it online through http://www.absinthe.bz/store/max-absinit...

they also have a 1-800 number on their site,normally though if it breaks during shipping they will replace it.You have to becareful about ordering it through websites based in Europe though because sometimes it is not pure.You might want to check your liquor store as well,the liquor stores here do not sell it but you are in a better city and might be able to get it there.The best kind comes from Spain.

Answer 5

I get all my crazy stuff from bevmo -  grappa, orangina, etc.

http://www.bevmo.com/productinfo.asp?sku...

Answer 6

the stuff they sell in the liquor store in the us is even less 'authentic' than the absinthe made overseas. it is purely a marketing thing. if you believe it, you will buy it, and the company will make a ton of money. the fda has a ban on thujone (the 'by-product' of wormwood). the only way 'absinthe' is legally sold in usa is if it is thujone free. then again, as before mentioned, if you believe it enough, you'll probably make yourself think you're seeing little green fairies.

order it online and it will not break (there should be a money back guarentee of some kind). even then, it will not be the true absinthe of 1800(s) europe.

Traditional absinthe has been illegal to sell in the U.S. since 1912, because it contains the chemical thujone. However, in 2007 some products labelled as "absinthe" were approved for sale in the United Stated. The situation is somewhat complex, but the short version is that the agency that now regulates alcohol in the U.S. (the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) defines "thujone free" (an FDA requirement for any food made with Absinthe's defining herb wormwood) as meaning less than 10 parts-per-million (10mg/L) thujone. It is an ongoing debate whether "thujone free" absinthe should be considered authentic, with the common understanding being that traditional absinthe contained higher levels of thujone but current manufacturers arguing that vintage absinthe had similarly low levels of thujone. Whatever the truth of their arguments, the modern low-thujone absinthes are being widely publicized as the first legal absinthes in the U.S. since the 1912 ban.



US Federal Law concerning Absinthe

http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/absinthe...

Answer 7

Binny's Beverage Depot has a wide selection if them here in Chicago.

http://binnys.com

EDIT:

The Absinthe (especially Lucid) sold in US stores today is authentic as what you could get in turn of the century France. They whole idea of "real" absinthe is a myth, it never existed. The US law that made it legal last year allowed for up to 10ppm of thujene, chemical testing on "real" absinthe...unopened vintage bottles from the 1800's purchased at estate sales have shown they averaged in the 5ppm range.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24371992/

http://www.absinthe.se/default.asp?load=...

Further...T.A. Breaux is considered by many to be the world's leading expert on absinthe and he is the designer of Lucid Absinthe...available at Binny's.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5wqW1IgSKmI

And finally...it is considered thujene free if it contians (drum role please) less than 10ppm thujene. Which as shown above, real absinthe never contained more.

"In 2007, TTB relaxed the US absinthe ban, and approved several brands for sale.[69] These brands must pass TTB testing, which is performed by the Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry method[70] and TTB considers a product to be thujone-free if the FDA’s test measures less than 10ppm (equal to 10mg/kg) thujone.[71] A US distillery also began producing and selling absinthe, the first US company to do so since 1912."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe#Un...