Here's another misinformed news story from KFMB channel 8 in San Diego, California on the influx of this "banned liquor".  Be sure to check out the video clip showing the story from the "Consumer Alert" portion of the newscast.  The print story is amusing too:

• I can't even begin to imagine just how bad Mexican "absinth" is.  Notice in the video clip how every bottle shown is labeled "Absinth", a dead give away for a very poor absinthe imitator.
• The horrific "burning sugar" ritual is everywhere in this story, with nary a nod towards the real dripping water over a sugar cube method.
• We're told that absinthe tastes like "Yeagermeister" (sic) - jeez, I hope not!
• The sugar ritual makes the "bitter liquor smoother".  Again, I don't understand this insistence that absinthe is bitter.  None of the absinthes we've drank here at InAbsinthia has even the slightest hit of bitterness.
• Just who the heck is "Earnest" Hemmingway? The star in an Oscar Wilde play?
• They just had to get in the hysteria of thujone (and by implication absinthe) being "linked to stomach problems, convulsions and even death".
• And, again, to call it "banned" in the US is overstating the matter, although we should give them credit for at least mentioning its legality in Europe and Mexico.