“The craft liquor and craft distilling business is growing by leaps and bounds ,” Beck said. Still, absinthe stockists are hopeful about the future about the future of the spirit in the Pine Tree State. “They don’t want to see a label that encourages people to think they are hallucinating.” “The label can’t promote the idea that absinthe is hallucinogenic or psychotropic or anything like that,” Olson said. There are also restrictions on the marketing of absinthe. “It took us a year from when we first sent in the sample until we finally got approved. “Our first sample that we sent in had too much thujone in it, so we can to cut back the amount of wormwood in the formula,” Olson said.
With absinthe, producers have to send in a sample and they test it for thujone, the hallucinogenic found in wormwood the Food and Drug Administration’s legal limit is 10 parts per million of thujone. Olson explained that to introduce a new wine or spirit, producers are only required to submit a formula to the federal government for approval. While absinthe has been legal in the United States since 2007, the liquor is still heavily regulated because of its tenuous ties to hallucinogenic properties. The legal hurdles could also deter potential producers. “Bars that buy our absinthe will go through 10 or 12 bottles a year.” “Even though we’re in lots of bars now, it doesn’t translate into incredible fast sales,” Olson said. Sales are also slow because absinthe is usually used sparingly as a flavoring in cocktails Olson said one 750 milliliter bottle would likely last the average consumer about a year. “We are small, so we live in this niche.” “It’s a real niche kind of market,” Olson said. Olson said absinthe attracts a small population of curious buyers who are attracted to unique spirits, mostly millennials and older liquor enthusiasts with money to spend.
Olson said that while the bottles of absinthe, which cost $77 for 750 milliliters, make up a large share of his annual profits because of their cost, he does not sell that many bottles every year. The market may be a hurdle for other potential absinthe producers in Maine. “If we were making 10 times as much, we could do it, but we sell all that we make.” “In other states, we’d have to find distributor and they’d take a huge cut,” Olson said. “It makes it a little more interesting and a little more satisfying.”īecause Tree Spirits is a small-scale distillery, the absinthe is also only available in Maine. “The goal is to not only make locally, but source locally as well,” Olson said. Most of his herbs come from Blessed Maine Herb Farm in Athens the only herbs he cannot get from there are anise and fennel, which Olson said he buys from an organic farm in Oregon. Olson makes the base liquor apple brandy by distilling wine made from fermented apple cider that he purchases from Apple Farm in Fairfield. Most of the raw ingredients for Olson’s absinthe are also grown in Maine. “You strain the herbs out of that, blend the two pieces together and get this beautiful green product.” “That’s where the green color comes from,” Olson said. Tree Spirits absinthe is special in a different way: it is the only Maine-made absinthe. “All those herbs are going to give you a slightly different feel than just alcohol, but you would get alcohol poisoning before you got any hallucinogenic effect.” “People think they’re going to be taking LSD when they drink absinthe,” Bruce Olson, founder of Tree Spirits Winery and Distillery, said with a laugh. The bottle of absinthe being used in the preparation was from Tree Spirits Winery and Distillery, which has a holographic green fairy on the label. Credit: Courtesy of Bruce OlsonĮven so, the preparation process does have a cinematic quality. In the 2001 Baz Luhrmann film, a group of French bohemians take shots of absinthe topped with flaming sugar cubes as Australian pop star Kylie Minogue emerges in the form of a glittering green fairy. “It’s not the way you saw in ‘Moulin Rouge,’” Beck said with a laugh. Maine’s most popular liquor, Fireball, as a point of comparison, is 66 proof.
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