Some news on the La Clandestine front. Claude-Alain Bugnon, Swiss absinthe maker, has his own website where you can buy his La Clandestine line and other fine Swiss La Bleu-style absinthes. Absinthe-Suisse.com has announce a sale, a competition and web site news:

• Anniversary Sale : you can get a great price on a three pack of La Clandestine Originale, at only US$225 including shipping. This is to celebrate the recipe's 75^th anniversary. And you can add a fourth bottle, including a version of La Clandestine Originale made with a wine base. We can also highly recommend the TA Breaux's La Blanchette.
• Birthday Photo Competition : To celebrate its second official birthday, La Clandestine is offering a nice set of gift certificates as prizes for a photo competition. Send in pictures of La Clandestine absinthes in action, and win absinthe - how can you go wrong with that?
• Reviews : You can now add customer reviews to each of the absinthe-suisse varieties, as you can see here. Log in and tell the world about these fine La Bleus.

Speaking of blanche absinthes, you too can get in on a prototype, or test brewing, blanche from the good folks at LdF (Liqueurs de France). One of the neatest things about the absinthe business is that you can try out early versions of a possible masterpiece, by purchasing test distillations. This is 'Essai 3', or third trial batch, and we've been hearing some good things about the earlier Blanche Traditionelle "Brut d'alambic" prototypes. Produced by the same distiller of the award-winning Absinthe Duplais, here's what they have to say about it:

This "essai 3" (third trial) absinthe blanche also follows the historic 'Absinthe Suisse Blanche' recipe (which does not include a final coloring step), using a single, mixed-plant alembic charge. This third batch has been modified by increasing the percentage of green anise used, while slightly reducing the fennel content. It still is being bottled without any water reduction as a full 81.3% alcohol distillate.

Well, we here at inAbsinthia are assuming the recently announced PF 1901 from Jade Liqueurs will, in fact, be pure ambrosia, just like its stablemates Edouard, Verte Suisse and Nouvelle-Orleans, as we have not had a chance to get a taste of it yet. PF 1901 is a "tribute" to one of the most famous absinthes, Pernod Fils. In fact, you can still find pre-ban bottles of it for purchase, at, of course, astronomical prices. At Combier Distillery, where absintheur Ted Breaux weaves his magic, there are rebuilt original Pernod Fils alembics. Breaux has tried to recreate the taste as well in this PF1901 label.