Ladies and gentlemen, I have new absinthe. And lots of it.

The nice Mr DHL delivered a consignment this afternoon direct from the lovely people at Absinthe-Shop.com to fill the void (and shelf space) left by more than a year of me not buying any absinthe.

My absinthe purchasing history has been somewhat chequered. You may recall the unpleasant eAbsinthe brouhaha from last year which – frankly – put me off buying for some considerable time. I’m very pleased to say that the ordering process from absinthe-shop.com was painless, simple and instilled way more confidence in anything (the now-defunct) eAbsinthe shop ever did.

The promise I made to myself was that I would sell stuff I no longer have reason to keep and use some of the money to spend on something I enjoy, in this case absinthe. For point of reference, I ordered four bottles in this shipment, enough to last me a year or more:

(The Mansinthe and Aderlass were bought as an appropriately-named Darkness special offer combo)

I am by no means an absinthe expert or even a connoisseur. I don’t drink lurid, luminous absinthe in those horrid shots, nor do I set fire to it (though I used to, I must admit). It’s a drink I take with ice water and sugar, and I enjoy it. It’s a ritual.

I enjoy it to the point that there are very few other alcoholic drinks I partake in. I’m partial to Jägermeister any time of the year, and an occasional Tanqueray (gin) and Fever Tree tonic in summer – the absolute best way to enjoy g&t, in my humble etc, but that’s about it.

Back to the Absinthe Shop order. Here’s the timeline:

  • Friday, March 12th, 2010 = Order placed, just after lunchtime UK time
  • The Absinthe-Shop.com pixies packed my goodies and despatched them
  • Tuesday, March 16th = Order arrived, courtesy of Mr DHL

Even with a non-working weekend in the middle, that’s essentially two business days for international delivery, including a cross-channel run – the package was dispatched from Heidelberg in Germany, which is by far the best service I’ve had from any online absinthe delivery, ever.

Packaging-wise, there are no complaints: a very sturdy cardboard box, well-fitting around the bottles (two of which, the La Fée XS, were boxed), with additional internal card protection and scrunched up paper for the non-boxed bottles. No box damage at all en route, the package could just as well have come from around the corner consider the tip-cop condition it was in.

All things considered, I’m very pleased. The memories of the eAbsinthe disaster are now long gone.