Our absinthe recipe is the only authentic absinthe recipe being used in the Czech Republic. In fact, it is the only one made today with an actual Bohemian recipe that was used before 1990. It was a lot of work putting this together. See our
History of Oliva Absinthe page for the whole story.
We use a 5 step process to make Oliva Absinth. This is an Absinthe
Suisse recipe. Historically, there were five grades of absinthe: ordinaire,
demi-fine, fine, supérieure and Suisse (which did not denote origin), in order of increasing production quality.
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However, due to current Swiss law, and some insecure Swiss absinthe producers, we cannot call it an Absinthe Suisse even though it clearly follows the Suisse style procedures and was even labeled as such when we found it. When the term "Absinthe Suisse" was used 100 years ago, it did not have anything to do with the location it was made, merely to tell the buyer what style of absinthe they were buying. Just as Pilsner beer today is not only coming from Plzen, Czech Republic. Interestingly the Swiss make a (very poor) Pilsner beer in Switzerland, perhaps they should not be allowed to call it Pilsner.
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It takes over
six months to complete one batch (even longer for the sparkling version).
Here is an outline of our process:
1. Maceration (8 days)
2. Distillation (24 hours)
3. Coloration (12 hours)
4. Infusion (12 hours)
5. Ageing (6 months)
A few of the 14 select herbs we use are:
Grand Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium)
Petite Wormwood (Artemisia pontica)
Hyssop Flowers
Fennel
Melissa
Coriander
Green Anise
Oliva's Dream
Sparkling Absinthe
It took a lot of trial and error to produce Oliva's Dream. After reading
Viktor's musing, we instantly knew it would be a hit. Producing such a beverage,
on the other hand, was very difficult indeed. We talked to many Champagne and sparkling wine experts from around the world to get ideas how to do this. We went through hundreds of liters of test batches before finding one that not only sparkled, but also retained the wonderful taste of Oliva Absinth.
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