We Stopped Chasing Allocated Bottles | The Real Liquor Connoisseur Journey

Behind the Pour

There is a moment in every serious spirits drinker's journey where the chase stops being the point. Crystal and Roger mark that moment in this episode — a reflective conversation that starts with a bottle of Van Gogh absinthe from a party they hosted 'BC' (before child) and traces the full arc of how their relationship with spirits changed. From a time when they drank whatever three or four options were socially familiar, through the discovery of absinthe, through the Absinthia episode that demolished the hallucination myths, to where they are now: people who buy two bottles of a whiskey they love because they actually finish it.

What You'll Discover

• The starting point — absinthe at a party: Van Gogh absinthe with the Green Fairy on the label, brought to a gathering where the rules were 'try something you've never had or something you think you'd like.' They didn't know what absinthe was. They drank it wrong. They kept the bottle as a conversation piece for 15 years.
• Why the 'big three or four' limited what drinkers discovered: Before spirits education became accessible, most people in their social circle consumed the same narrow range of options. Crystal and Roger describe the self-limiting filter: if it wasn't one of those few names, it was automatically 'something different.'
• The Absinthia education: Absinthia Vermut, founder of Absinthia's Bottled Spirits, appeared on TLC and debunked the hallucination mythology around absinthe. Crystal and Roger credit that episode specifically for reframing their relationship to a spirit they had misunderstood for years.
• Where smear campaigns come from: The historical absinthe ban was driven by market competition, not public health. Roger's observation — 'follow the money' — connects the 19th-century temperance-fueled propaganda to the broader pattern of how consumer products get demonized for commercial reasons.
• Buying two of what you love: The marker of a mature collector is not the rarest bottle — it is being willing to finish what you have and already having the replacement. Crystal and Roger describe buying New Dawn 10-year twice because they emptied the first one.

A Moment of Pourspective

The beginning of any real education is the moment you admit you were doing something wrong. Not because it was shameful — but because it tells you the learning hasn't stopped yet.

Explore the Conversation

The 'stopped chasing' episode works because Crystal and Roger are specific about what they are describing. This is not a general meditation on connoisseurship — it is two people with a shared history going through their memory in bottles. The Van Gogh absinthe they kept for 15 years is a physical artifact of who they were before they knew what they were doing. The Absinthia connection ties their personal evolution to an episode they made — a producer who appeared on TLC and gave them the real story of a spirit they had misread. That is what the channel has always been built to do: give people the information that changes the relationship with a spirit, rather than just reviewing the liquid. The 'before child' framing (BC) is both funny and honest. Certain experiences of curiosity and experimentation belong to a specific phase of life, and recognizing that shift is part of what makes this episode resonate. They are not nostalgic for what they didn't know — they are grateful they kept asking questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Does absinthe actually cause hallucinations? No. The hallucination reputation came from 19th-century anti-absinthe campaigns driven largely by the wine industry, which saw absinthe as a competitor. The compound thujone in wormwood was claimed to cause madness — but modern analysis shows the amounts in traditional absinthe were too small to produce any such effect.
• Why was absinthe banned in the US? The US ban in 1912 was the result of temperance-era campaigns that targeted many spirits. Absinthe was re-legalized in 2007.
• Who is Absinthia? Absinthia Vermut is the founder of Absinthia's Bottled Spirits and one of the most active absinthe educators in the US. She appeared on TLC in an episode that walked through the real history and debunked the myths.
• What does BC (before child) mean in this context? Crystal and Roger use it as personal shorthand for the period in their lives before parenthood — a time of different priorities and more freestyle social experimentation with drinks and gatherings.

Episode at a Glance

• Hosts: Crystal and Roger
• Runtime: approximately 17 minutes
• Category: Spirits Education
• Format: Journey and reflection episode — traces the evolution of Crystal and Roger's relationship with spirits