Week 36: Angelique [52 Whispers From The Muse]
Angelique
Overall Rating: 3.5
Appearance: 3.5
Louche: 4.0
Aroma: 3.5
Flavor/Mouthfeel: 3.5
Finish: 3.0
Overall: 3.5
Country: Switzerland
Appearance: A light, pale green. Completely clear and clean.
Louche: Full bodies, slow to start but once it gets going it rolls out quite nicely. Itends in a nearly white, very pale green.
Aroma: Leafy and earthy before louche, quite mild with clear Wormwood after.
Flavor/Mouthfeel: The initial taste is well balanced as it hits your tongue, there is a very slight Anise sweetness, a little herbal love, and then a bitter Wormwood kick to your gums.
Finish: Surprisingly little tongue numbing… wait…there it is… hiding in the bitterness that feels like it’s dehydrating the tongue.
I didn’t find the bitterness completely overwhelming, but I do like bitter. It’s not Crapsinthe bitter, there is a beautiful world of well crafted herbals within every sip, it’s just very post-distilled Wormwood heavy. Generally never one to add sugar to an Absinthe, if I were to add it to any, it would be to Angelique. The bitterness does hold you for a very long time after each sip.
It’s interesting, I’ve seen Angelique labels listing it as 72% ABV but the bottle I have is 68%. I don’t know the history of this particular Absinthe but I do have to wonder how many changes it has gone through compared to the bottle I have that I bought in December of 2015. I’m making a guess that they’ve mellowed out the bitterness some since the earlier days.
Kinda makes me wish I had a bitter ex named Angelique.
*as always, Zufanek Absinthes from Czech Republic are excluded from any list of Czech products to be avoided.
