Matt

Quite nice and refreshing - the cassis skews this s bit to the sweet side. Creme de cassis works well with dry vermouth - I tried other similar liqueurs (I was trying to polish off a bottle of dry vermouth) - creme de mure was overly sweet, Chambord was (surprisingly) weak, and creme de violet was had a nice bluish color, but wasn't as good as the cassis. I didn't have enough left to properly check out sloe gin - but a small taste made me think that would be very good (I note that the abv of sloe gin is ~2x that of these other liqueur).

A pale straw yellow, with bubbles clinging to the edge of the glass - looks very nice. The flute brings a nice, faint nose of anise as you prepare to sip. Cold, crisp carbonation, but the carb bite drops off and leaves a modestly sweet and surprisingly complex flavor. The dry cider is dramatically extending the absinthe, allowing you to taste many of the individual flavor notes, as well as contributing apple notes to the background. The absinthe is the star, but this is not a overpowering absinthe cocktail - it facilitates tasting and enjoying the various facets of the absinthe flavor.

Only had bottled-in-bond applejack. I found the apple flavors to be somewhat musty and earthy - not as refreshing as I had hoped, and not an improvement on drinking the dry cider straight. Perhaps use of calvados and the applejack would have improved the drink.

Dry, crisp - the pear eau-de-vie transforms the apple cider into a distinctly pear flavored refresher. Fresh pear notes, and even some bitterness that reminds me of the pear skin. Very enjoyable way to kick up a bottle (or can) of dry cider into a few cocktails.