Perique

Appearance: Pale gold, transparent with no particulates. Aroma: Leather car seats, raw tobacco, wormwood, green anise, grass clippings, wood (but not oak cask – wood like freshly snapped twigs), and a hint of both Cointreau and sambuca. Palate: There is an initial moderate sweetness but as the palate develops a bright herbal spice note emerges. Leather, citron zest, caraway seed and yes there is a flavor of tobacco but it’s not as I expected. This is not in any way smoky. The aftertaste is moderate and there is a lingering subtle spicy, almost tingling sensation on the tongue. You might expect a tobacco liqueur to be smoky in character, and if it was made by a mass-market producer then indeed it probably would be heavily laced with artificial smoke to give that profile. However what we have here is something far more sophisticated. This is tobacco presented as an elegant, semi-sweet, herbal ingredient. If it tastes a little unusual at first then imagine yourself chewing a piece of green tobacco leaf rather than smoking. It has a fresh, crisp and almost minty quality coupled with a slightly tingling attribute, as with fermented chewing tobacco. However, although it retains the character of tobacco, it does not contain its harmful components and while devoid of nicotine it still has that taste. There is also a slight reminiscence of both absinthe and green Chartreuse about this. Jade Perique Liqueur de Tabac (to use the proper full name) was created by Ted Breaux, the mastermind behind the Jade absinthe range which is arguably the most authentic contemporary expression of absinthe. Being born and bred in Louisiana it is not surprising that he would eventually turn his attention to perique tobacco, a type of tobacco found only in that region. If you are not familiar with perique it is a singularly aromatic, fruity and intense tobacco normally used in small quantities in pipe mixtures and hand-made specialist cigarette blends. It’s an unusual liqueur that I am enjoying very much. It is not produced in large quantities so may be hard to obtain, but if you do see a bottle it is not expensive and definitely worth a try. “Very Good” : 87/100 (4.25 stars)

Once you accept the fact that this is chewing tobacco rather than smoking tobacco, it improves. Truly a unique product.

I think that I expected this liqueur to be something that it's not. I was envisioning smoked tobacco, but the taste here is raw tobacco. Reminds me of chewing tobacco; it has this gummy type sweetness. Very novel and not a bad drink, I was just hoping for some smoke.