Gwydion Stone, Paul Clarke and Jim Meehan did a super seminar on Absinthe. All facts, no hype and some thoughtful insights for where the category might be going. Gwydion gave a very clear history of how the product’s renaissance in the U.S. came about. Check out details at www.wormwoodsociety.org. Paul did an entertaining powerpoint on some historic absinthe recipes, some good, some awful, some just incomprehensible. Clearly this category has always been polaraizing…old newspaper articles from David Wondrich’s book that Paul shared portrayed it either it was a devil or angel, but never in between.

Then Jim took a thoughtful look at where the category might go. Key point, competition is great, the category will settle out, but all of us involved in the category need to insure we all market our brands with in an appropriate socially responsible way. Equally important is to grow the category…a rising tide will lift all boats. There are so many small producers getting into the mix perhaps it makes sense for all of us to get together to pool some resources. Just a thought.