Looking for the Louche...

[kiwipete]

Hi

I have so far made only 2 (small) batches of absinthe, following to a tee the classic Pontarlier recipe and method, but scaled down to make 1 liter of product, so like so:

- 0.95 litre of 85% ABV neutral alcohol
- 25 grammes of wormwood
- 50 grammes of anise (green, andalusian)
- 50 grammes of fennel (doux Provence)

Macerated the above in a glass jar in a water bath at 60C for 12 hours (using sous vide), then added 450mils of water (water the first time, for the second time I used the tails from the first batch plus some water) and distilled as per recipe.

Did the colouring step as per recipe: take 400 mils of the product, added Pontica (10 grammes), Hyssop (10 grammes) and Melissa (5 grammes) into a glass jar kept in water bath at 60C for 4 hours. Let it cool down, strain and mix back in to the other product. Diluted to 70% ABV.

The stuff tasts great and has a beautiful colour, but I dont get any louching, at all. After the first batch, I thought that might be because of the fact that I didn't have any tails and I also read (after having made the first batch) that you should grind your anise and fennel to get better extraction of the oils.

So for the second batch I was expecting better results, because I now had some tails and I ground the anise and fennel. Unfortunately, again, no louche.

If somebody spots an error in the recipe or method that might have caused it, please let me know.

So what I can I do to get it to louche properly? I know I could add some star anise, which will most likely fix it , but that sorta feels wrong for a couple of reasons:

- the star anise might over power the green anise, flavour wise.
- it feels a bit like the cheats way out; you would imagine that back in the day when they devised and used the Pontarlier recipe it would louche OK.

So I'm looking for feedback, comments, suggestions. Anything welcome.