Product Review: Absinthe Lollipops
Published February 26, 2008
Absinthe has a notorious history. The beverage gained great notoriety as a popular drink with the bohemian counterculture during The Belle Epoque of Europe. Many noted artists and writers of the time who were known to partake include Vincent Van Gogh and Edouard Manet. There were claims that it had hallucinogenic properties. It became banned in a number of countries due to its opposition from the unlikely alliance of prohibitionists, who portrayed it as a dangerous concoction that led to violent crimes, and wine producers, who saw it as competition.
A modern revival began in the 1990s. Liquor makers in Europe began to take advantage of the markets where no ban occurred and they also discovered some bans weren’t about absinthe in particular but a certain amount of the wormwood compound thujone. New research showed that the claims of its psychological effects were unfounded, and many countries either dropped or modified their embargoes. The drink also began to appear in pop culture, from Nine Inch Nails’ “The Perfect Drug” video to Baz Luhrmann’s musical Moulin Rouge.
Lit Absinthe is a maker of absinthe lollipops. Their flavor is anise, which is similar to black licorice. The ingredients are sugar, simple syrup, and absinthe; however, there is no alcohol, which is no doubt what many people will be seeking these confections for. While you won’t get a buzz off them, the lollipops are certainly tasty treats. They have a strong flavor, which makes up for their small size, but if they were too much bigger, they could be over powering.
Absinthe lollipops can be ordered online through the Lit website in quantities of four for $8.50 and twelve for $12.00. They are also available in the following retail shops: Miette Confiserie in San Francisco, CA, and Big Top Candy Shop in Austin, TX.
- Product Review: Absinthe Lollipops
- Published: February 26, 2008
- Type: Review
- Section: Tastes
- Writer: El Bicho
- El Bicho's BC Writer page
- El Bicho's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
What Phillip said. Not much reviewing going on in this article.
People would want them if they enjoyed the taste of licorice, which is why I described them as "tasty treats." Sorry, if the review isn't up to your standards, but other than dealing with the perception that there may be alcohol in them, there's not much else to say about the item. What else do you want to know? The number of licks it takes to finish? The composition of the stick? If you have a problem with the new word minimum being 300 words, take it up with management because I didn't set the limit.
I don't think the 300 minimum is a problem. Maybe more description of the product? You spent two paragraphs on absinthe and two sentences on what you thought of the pops.
Honestly, how much more can you say about a flavored lollipop? I think the author did a hell of a job in stretching out the article to meet the requirements.
Looks to me like two paragraphs of history, a paragraph on the product, and a paragraph to help interested parties obtain the product. I don't see the problem. Hell, it's a lollipop. How many complexities are there to cover?
Personally, I'd like to know how many licks it takes to get to the center, and then, perhaps, how many other orifices El Bicho tried to stick the pops into.
What the crap, people! It's a dang lollipop, how much more of a review do you want?
Matt, Bennett, & Josh: Calm down, boys. Maybe the lesson here is that it's hard to write a substantive review of a lollipop without sounding like a press release for the company?
Perhaps what anyone who is thinking of getting them would like to know is "Do they affect your taste buds and nothing else?"
Maybe the lesson is it's a thankless task volunteering for material to help out a woefully stacked section.
Mr. Plow, if the phrases "there is no alcohol" and "While you won't get a buzz off them" don't make that abundantly clear, I am not sure what would.
The lesson I learned was that this lollipop review got more traffic and more emotion than most of my reviews (combined!).
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So people would want these because of... marketing?