La Fée Absinthe

La Fée was featured in the February issue of The Chap magazine, where our X•S Suisse recieved yet another shining review. Here is what they had to say:

La Fée XS Suisse
This bottling is the flagship of La Fée's range, arguably the most popular brand since absinthe was reintroduced in 2000.
Colour: Clear, with a very faint violet hue. Louches quickly.
Nose: Dry, with vermouth-like notes and light fruit and cereal notes. With water, a peppery spiciness emerges.
Palate: A creamy note is first to emerge, followed by a chalky dryness, then the anise flavour. Not as predominantly aromatic as the other absinthes, but pleasant and easy to drink.
Overall: Another very differently styled absinthe, which demonstrates just how versatile this excellent spirit can be.

CLICK HERE to buy La Fée X•S Suisse

 "God Save the Cream"
THE ICECREAMISTS

NV by La Fée stars in the Infamous Sex Pistol Ice-Cream.  Guerilla ice-cream installation by The IceCreamists [Agents of Cool] at the Ultralounge, Selfridges, London, W1A 1AB

La Fée X•S Suisse takes third consecutive Golden Spoon at the 2009 Absinthiades

‘The Green Fairy’ was thought to be illegal in the UK and was indeed banned across most of Europe and North America. George Rowley was most instrumental in its resurrection but before I tell his story, what is absinthe’s history and why was absinthe banned in the first place?

Words: Simon Difford

From left: Dr Ordinaire, Val-De-Travers, Toulouse Lautrec

BIRTH OF ABSINTHE

The origin of absinthe’s name, like its origin itself is both unclear and a matter of conjecture but it is thought to derive from the Greek word ‘apsinthion’ meaning either ‘wormwood’ or ‘undrinkable’ (presumably due to its bitter taste).
Earliest origins date back to ancient Egypt and medicinal use of wormwood is mentioned in Ebers Papyrus, circa 1550 BC. The ancient Greeks used wormwood extracts and winesoaked wormwood leaves as remedies and there is also evidence of the existence of a wormwood-flavoured wine around this time made by Hippocrates that was handed down as a cure for digestive and flatulence disorders. Modern day absinthe originated around the time of the French Revolution (1789–1799) when thousands of French loyalists sought safety through exile in Switzerland, Alsace, and other nearby countries. One such elderly émigré was Dr. Pierre Ordinaire, a retired French physician who fled to Switzerland and settled in the town of Couvet. Thus far the story is well substantiated. According to popular legend (and Pernod- Ricard’s marketing bumph) Dr. Ordinaire started work on creating a new elixir drink using plant extracts, in particularly wormwood, long considered to have medicinal properties. He sought to make a tonic which made ingestion of the bitter herb more palatable and, in 1792, the good doctor utilised distillation to arrive at his final formulae involving the maceration of fifteen botanicals in grape spirit.  These included wormwood bark, star-anise, liquorice, fennel, hyssop, parsley, camomile, spinach and coriander but he called the drink Extrait d'Absinthe after Artemisia absinthium, the Latin name for wormwood. On his death, Dr. Ordinaire left the recipe for the drink and a substantial sum of money to his trusty housekeepers, the Henriod sisters.  They made small batches of his potion and started hawking it as Dr. Ordinaire’s Absinthe.

Pretty Women of Paris......

A new New Orleans Cocktail

Bar Business Magazine recently spotlighted the competition we are running for professional bartenders.

Nightclub & Bar Magazine featues La Fée Parisienne on one of their Halloween Cocktails.

1. La Fée is now available in the following California Costco sites:

La Fée was the proud sponsor of the exclusive United States presentation of the special exhibition of Yves Saint Laurent in De Young Museum, San Francisco.