A Notorious Spirit Finds Its Way Back to Bars

It took a meeting in February between regulators and the trade counselor from the Swiss Embassy-- to explain that his country had dropped objections to absinthe in 2004 -- to restart the process.

Hurdles remained. When Kubler proposed listing 33.8 fluid ounces on its proposed bottle label, regulators rejected it, saying the proper designation was 33.82 ounces. In May, Kubler was told to "remove the 'boldness' of the text on back label puffery and use the same size print for all text shown," according to one directive.

Approval for Swiss Absinthe Superieure Kubler, 106 proof, was granted on May 17. Kubler's success was diluted when a competitor, Lucid Absinthe Superieure, 124 proof, was in the stores the same month, after being approved in March.

Jared Gurfein attracted publicity for his Lucid brand when he abandoned a law career to start Viridian Spirits in Manhasset, N.Y., to make and distill absinthe. Gurfein also knew that "Kubler had hit a brick wall" with regulators, he said.

"We pushed the door down, and they walked through it," Lehrman said, expressing frustration with the red tape he faced.

"In this instance, there was more than one reason to take a look at these labels," said Resnick of the Tax and Trade Bureau. The office approved 125,000 labels for beer, wine and spirits last year. He wouldn't elaborate on what those reasons were.

A Web site for the Drug Enforcement Administration 's Office of Diversion Control still lists absinthe under "drugs and chemicals of concern." And the U.S. Customs Web site continues to list it as banned. A Customs spokeswoman said that while individual shipments are being approved for import, the agency is waiting for direction from the Tax and Trade Bureau.

In the meantime, the marketers have taken over.

"This is so easy," said Lyons Brown, chief executive of Altamar Brands in Corona del Mar, Calif., distributor for Kubler, as the product was unveiled last week at Corio, a club in New York. "The key is to just get it into the market with all the theatrics that go with it."