Here (above) is the COLA for Pernod Absinthe, at long last. It was extremely difficult to find, in TTB records, and a lot of absinthe enthusiasts have been looking for the COLA for upwards of a year. For example, Alan Moss’ Real Absinthe Blog does a great job tracking all the US-approved absinthes, but he too was not finding the approval. As of today his blog says “Pernod Aux Extraits de l’Absinthe: announced … for July 2008 launch. … Where is the label approval?”
We think it’s fairly interesting that the Pernod label, for some reason, lists CERTIFIED COLORS AND FD&C YELLOW #5 in big text on the front label. But the comparable La Fee absinthe shows “caramel color & certified colors FD&C Blue #1 & FD&C Yellow #5” in much smaller text, on the back label.
Pernod Absinthe
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Robert C. Lehrman is the principal attorney at Lehrman Beverage Law, PLLC. Robert founded the firm in 2001 after 12 years at the Washington, DC office of a larger firm that specializes in federal and state administrative law. From 1998...... Read Full Bio
Intriguing that this label was so hard to find. It was almost as if Pernod decided that they needed to be a little … “clandestine” about it.
Do you think that there is a reason that the labels reflect the added colorings issue so dfferently? The latest COLA that I can find for standard Pernod (August 3 2007 approval) specifies the artificial coloring on the back label and the letters do not seem unduly large.
Interesting to note that the standard Pernod back label hints at absinthe without using the word:
“In 1805, Henri-Louis Pernod first created what became the most celebrated spirit on the café terraces of 19th century Paris.”
I guess up to that stage the TTB were still saying one couldn’t even mention “absinthe” on a back label without some qualifier.
One thing that I find interesting about the La Fee COLA is the dates. The form date on the top right shows 1/31/2009 but the issued date is March 26, 2008. Is the form date the date that the form expires, or the date that it was last updated. In my experience, it’s the latter.
The only reason I bring it up is due to the comment about why additives were so boldly advertized on the one, but minimized on the other. My first guess was that something in the regulations might have changed between these two approvals. But would it have changed within that short amount of time?
I don’t see why a company would want that information to be more prominent as opposed to less.
New Pernod Absinthe COLA here
http://tinyurl.com/ortdzd
Quite a few new absinthe COLA’s recently: Herbsaint, La Fée NV, Absinthe Ordinaire, Fleurs du Mal, Abyss Raspberry etc.
Good news for the artificial coloring business, unfortunately.