A Laughter filled conversation with the noted Bay Area Craft Absinthe Producer

You have vodka, gin, and whiskey at home: It's time to add some spice to your bar.

Meet Absinthia Vermut, the woman behind West Oakland’s Absinthia’s Bottled Spirits and distiller of small-batch absinthe.

Oakland's Absinthia Vermut, a maker of small-batch spirits, is so enamored with absinthe she legally changed her name to reflect it.

Absinthe – that high-proof spirit with the mysterious lore and liquorice taste people either love or detest. It’s gotten easier to love, though, with distillers making high-quality versions ever since the U.S. legalized absinthe in 2007. One of the best options on today’s market comes from our own backyard, Absinthia’s Bottled Spirits, from the eponymous maker who lives in West Oakland.

We’ve all heard the myths, urban legends, and fake news when it comes to Absinthe. A.K.A. The Green Fairy, La Fee Verte, the Green Muse, Absinthe has as many nicknames as it does legends. The reality is that the high-proof spirit is an important part of cocktail culture—past, present, and future.

Absinthia’s Bottled Spirits has released Absinthia Barrel-Aged Absinthe, a new version of their award-winning Absinthia Blanche.

On today's show we welcome: Absinthia Vermut is an entrepreneur with a passion for vintage spirits made with wormwood. Her first taste of absinthe was in 1996. ... Absinthia's products are all made with organic ingredients, based on vintage recipes, and produced in California. Absinthia's Bottled Spirits, LLC, is WBENC certified and 100% woman owned.

Absinthia and Exploratorium Executive Director Chris Flink at the Science of Cocktails Fundraiser

Oakland based Absinthia’s Bottled Spirits, an artisan spirits company owned by a woman with the same name, has released Absinthia Barrel-Aged Absinthe, an aged version of their award-winning Absinthia Blanche.

San Francisco's Absinthia Bottled Spirits offers two types of absinthe: blanche and verte.

An Oakland Jewish woman has a relationship with absinthe, the spirit known as “the green fairy,” that goes back 20 years.

The slender, tall bottle is more like that of eau de vie than what you’d expect for absinthe, and this certified-organic producer stands apart in other ways, too.

What inspired you to start your business? I have been obsessed with the misunderstood absinthe since my first sip in 1996. I started making my own for friends, family, and myself in 1997. Ten years later, absinthe was suddenly legal for the first time in almost 100 years!

Absinthia Vermut likes a challenge. She must, as she decided to pursue her entrepreneurial dreams into the male dominated liquor industry AND to create her own version of absinthe — a spirit so misunderstood that it was banned in the United States for nearly 100 years.

Absinthia uses vintage Swiss recipes, natural ingredients, and no sugar to produce its two expressions, a blanche (clear) absinthe and a more traditional verte (green) offering.

Absinthia Vermut sounds like the name of some sort of fairy you’d encounter after several glasses of her namesake spirit. But she’s an actual person. With green eyes, a nymphlike smile and the last name that’s German for “wormwood” — the herb at the center of absinthe’s pungent, medicinal flavor (and supposed hallucinogenic effects) — fate seems to have chosen her to bring the green liquid properly back into the American palate despite a century’s worth of baggage.

Professional bartender Jared Hirsch and entrepreneur Absinthia Vermut have put together a line of small-batch custom cocktail syrups made from all-natural ingredients.

Absinthia’s journey that took her from bootlegger to award-winning spirit maker started in 1997. This is also when she earned the name Absinthia, which she eventually made her legal name. Her Absinthia™ Organic Absinthe Blanche Superieure—which has won multiple awards—is uniquely elegant, bright and refreshing. So, we can’t wait to try her Absithe Verte which be released in the near future, so we’ll let you know as soon as it does.

Last year, J. Absinthia Vermut launched Oakland’s newest small-batch, organic absinthe company, Absinthia. You’ll find her bottles at Sidebar, Camino, and Alchemy Bottle Shop — destinations that reflect the seriousness of Vermut’s craft.

J. Absinthia Vermut first tasted neon green absinthe in 1996. A year later, she was already making her own. “It fascinated me. I wanted to know why it was illegal for so many decades, why it was so loved and then so hated,” the Oakland resident said.

The Oakland-based absinthe maker is making small-batch absinthe, a spirit which has only been legal to make since 2007.

Local spirits maker Jennifer Vermut has shared the trippy backstory of her artisanal absinthe label called Absinthia.

Look at the label on a bottle of Caged Heat Cocktail Syrup, and you’ll see a tiger baring its teeth

This year’s winners include Reid Rosenthal and Aaron Kaplowitz, co-founders of Herb & Lou’s Infused Cubes; Jeffrey Cohen, owner of Motion Menus Video Signage and Absinthia Vermut, co-owner and operations manager for NickelDime LLC.

Nothing says Oakland like Nickel Dime Syrups' spicy cocktail syrup Caged Heat. Born out of ingredients sourced from the Oaktown Spice Shop, featured in the best selling cocktail at Oakland's Sidebar, and winner of the Four Roses National Cocktail Competition. Merged with Oakland's own Absinthe, Absinthia blanche, this ultra low proof cocktail is tamed with Seedlip, a distilled without alcohol spirit.

We’ve got some new mixers at the store that we simply love.

Other East Bayites at the Mercantile included Oakland’s Absinthia, whose enchanting organic absinthe blanche is made with biodynamic organic grapes, star anise, fennel seed, coriander, and fresh wormword;

Absinthia Vermut is an entrepreneur with a passion for vintage spirits made with wormwood. Her first taste of absinthe was in 1996.

... in the basement at the "Flambe Lounge" party was "Absinthia." A vision in emerald, she and her minions were serving up plastic cocktail glasses full of absinthe, with the special aesthetic bonus of a green glowstick in each glass, for four dollars a pop.

...and the Absinthe Underground dispenses an evil-looking concoction that contains Everclear and resembles Joy dishwashing liquid. “It tastes a little, um, soapy,” says a man clutching a yellow cocktail in one hand and a Speak-and-Spin barnyard animal toy in the other, “but it packs a punch that is not altogether unpleasant.”