Just a note to WS members....Years ago Betina brought Absinthe to preferred enthusiasts in the USA and continues to have opportunities.She is a wonderful person and has helped me on numerous occasions to obtain various types of Absinthe .Deliveries are flawless, she is costly but there are no customs situations.Her web site ...
http://www.allthingsabsinthe.com
She will asssist WS members that she is comfortable with thru Email correspondence and provide Minis which are great at these times for Absinthe friends that need a nudge and she has regular sizes
of premium Absinthes even hard to get Swiss La Blues from the farmers themselves. I feel from my many experiences with Her that she easily will attain the WS vendor list soon. She is costly, but there are no customs difficulties as she is domestically located. She regularly leaves the country to assilimate absinthe antiques and other items and will return Mon the 21 of NOV. A partial exerpt from her below..



I will be away November 9-21, so please email
> me and order soon if you
> desire shipment prior to my departure. Or at
> least if I have your order I
> can then prepare the box, you can send the
> money while I am away, and I can
> ship immediately upon my return from my
> journey.
>
> Please permit me to introduce myself as the
> only reliable and highly
> recommended source for exquisite and original
> Swiss La Bleues and I, as
> well, offer a complete line of Spanish and
> French absinthes. I am also the
> only source of French and Swiss absinthes that
> ships from within the USA. I
> was the first enthusiast to formally introduce
> absinthe into America back in
> 1996, nine years ago.
>
> European absinthe distributors may claim no
> difficulty exists for receiving
> foreign shipments, but the possibility of FDA
> or Customs seizure does exist.
> The other distinct probability is glass
> breakage due to improper packing. I
> am the only source that will actually honour my
> guarantee to replace broken,
> seized, or otherwise lost merchandise.
> Typically, European vendors will not
> replace your absinthe shipment if lost or
> seized. A popular Spanish vendor
> claims to replace lost shipments, but pads the
> initial shipping price to
> cover their costs. Likewise, since the
> importation of absinthe into the U.S.
> is technically prohibited, it may be difficult
> to recover charges from a
> credit card company. I am costly, but there are
> no hidden charges and
> everything is guaranteed to arrive intact.
>
> Because of the nature of this endeavor, my
> website does not detail my sales
> of absinthe. You can access my absinthe web
> site of antique and wares at:
> http://www.allthingsabsinthe.com .
>
> I serve those who for personal or professional
> reasons desire to remain
> discrete. I , also, would need to know if you
> are 21, (or 19 if Canadian),
> as I cannot ethically sell liquor to a minor,
> and if you are a law
> enforcement officer, news reporter, or an IRS
> or Customs agent. A response
> to this query is essential in order to purchase
> any absinthe..sorry, just
> precautions. I, myself, am none of the
> professions stated above.
>
> SPANISH ABSINTHES:
>
> Here is a list of the Spanish absinthes I have
> available: (70 cl is about
> 2/3 of a full liter)
> Deva 50 % alcohol ­ 1Liter
> Deva 70%-70 cl.
> Mari Mayans 70% Collector¹s Edition ­ 70 cl
> Chateau St. Ferran ­ 70 cl
> Tunel- 70%-70 cl.
>
> Each of the above is $135 USD per bottle, which
> includes Priority shipping.
> French Emile Pernot, Abisinthe, Serpis, and
> Montaña absinthe minis (airplane
> size bottles with gorgeous tiny authentic
> labels) are available for $10 each
> when purchased with order of ANY standard size
> absinthes, and make for great
> gifts! Each Spanish absinthe ("absenta" in
> Spanish) is the real thing and
> each is sent in the original, sealed and
> commercially labeled bottle.
>
> VINTAGE SPANISH ABSINTHES:
>
> I have obtained from Spain, some FULL LITERS
> OF Vintage Pernod Fils de
> Taragonna.
> A VERY LIMITED NUMBER OF CORKED, SEALED FULL
> LITER Pernod Fils de Taragonna
> IN EXCELLENT CONDITION WITH LABELS are now
> available, SO PLEASE EMAIL FOR
> PICTURES, DETAILS, AND PRICE.
> Pernod Fils Tarragona was made in Spain WHEN
> PERNOD MOVED THE FRENCH
> DISTILLERY TO TARAGONNA, SPAIN following the
> absinthe ban in France in 1915.
> PERNOD FILS OF TARAGONNA, we believe, was the
> identical recipe as the French
> Pernod until the early 1960's and is very
> similar in taste, color, and
> impact to vintage French Pernod Fils absinthe.
> This is only the second cache
> I have found in 8 years and I only have a few
> bottles left.
>
> For a very limited time, I, also, have OAbsenta
> Escat¹ Spanish vintage
> Absinthe available. This absinthe. in a corked
> and sealed bottle with
> vintage label, was probably made between
> 1930-50. The samples are sold in
> individual shots, which are $45 for each shot.
> Shots will only be sold to a
> customer if a regular size bottle of any
> absinthe is purchased, as well.
>
> The Absenta Escat, like the Pernod Tarragona is
> a gorgeous, dark amber color
> like most vintage Absinthes (due to the
> chlorophyll green color disappearing
> over the decades) and has a complex, yet smooth
> flavour and a potent impact,
> quite similar to the original vintage pre-ban
> French Pernod. Pernod de
> Taragonna and Absenta Escat, as well as other
> vintage Spanish absinthes,
> were produced with the same turn of the century
> recipes for decades as SPAIN
> NEVER BANNED ABSINTHE!
>
> AUSTRIAN ABSINTHE:
>
> Mata Hari 60 %-50 cl.
>
> $140 USD
>
> FRENCH ABSINTHES:
>
> Here is a list of the French absinthes I have
> available:
>
> Blanche de Fougerolles 74% alcohol- 70 cl
> François Guy 45% alcohol ­ 1 Liter
> Emile Pernot 45% - 70 cl
> Un Emile Blanche 68% - 70 cl
> Oxygenee 55% ­ 70 cl
> Pernod 68% - 70 cl
> Abisinthe 72% - 70 cl
> Abisinthe Amer 72% -70 cl
> Muse Verte 68% - 70 cl
> Montmartre 65%- 50 cl
>
> I no longer carry La Fee : too many chemical
> additives and artificial
> colorants.
>
> Note - The French liqueur "Absenté" found on
> the shelves of U.S. Liquor
> stores is not made with the herb A. absinthium
> and is therefore not real
> absinthe. The word "absente" means "absence" in
> French, which is a fitting
> description for this clever marketing
> strategy/farce (which I classify as
> outright consumer deception).
>
> Each of the above French Absinthes is $150 USD
> per bottle, which includes
> Priority shipping. Again, Emile Pernot, Serpis,
> Montaña or Abisinthe
> absinthe minis are available for $10 each when
> purchased with any order of
> standard size absinthes, and make for great
> gifts! Each French absinthe is
> the real thing and each is sent in the
> original, sealed and commercially
> labeled bottle.
>
> Worthy of note is that modern absinthes which
> consist of 45-50% alcohol are
> not watered down versions of the 65-70%
> versions. The 45-50% versions appear
> to contain the same herbal content as the
> stronger versions, just
> less alcohol.

Discuss.

Let's start with todays beginner buying their first bottle of Deva from Betty AKA "Cousin It"



$135.00 U.S. for a Bottle of Deva that is $9.73 at S.C.

First an inexperienced person will contact Betty or "Cousin It", she'll tell the buyer to send her the $135.00 by overnight courier.......add the cost of a cashiers check, or money order, plus courier for the payment, and your $135.00 bottle of crappy Deva, (That cost under Ten Bucks at S.C.) is now dangerously close to $150.00.

$150 for a bottle of Serpis?

Spirits Corner charges $15.22 USD for a Bottle of Serpis 65, and will replace any lost packages, and has done so since the beginning of their online sales.


Don't buy absinthe from Betina or you will be taken advantage of.

I think the boards saved Wild Bill a BIG mistake.

My wife brought her book home one day (pre-release freebie). I went to her site with the full intention of buying from her but got a bad feeling and started searching the web. I'm glad I did, or I would be one of the pissed off people she took advantage of.

BBW = Beware of Betina Wittels

140 bucks for Mata Hari!!!

I wonder if LDF knows that Betty is using their images?

>I wonder if LDF knows that Betty is using their images?

no! what a cunt!

pierreverte,

I'm confused, what are you trying to say

I think someone is about to get a nasty email.

Like Stroller said, The WS saved me from falling victim...
I was fixing to buy a glass from her that she had described as being both EXTREMELY rare, ( In all her lifetime she'd only heard of 6 of them...I had never seen one before, so who knew? ) and also a glass made solely as an "absinthe glass".

Her price was so high that I had to ask her to hold on to it for a while as I snatched nickles and dimes from here and there to pay for it.

In the meantime, I joined the WS, and on the first night, scrolling through the old threads, came across a picture of the glass, and a discussion about how this late-model pastis glass was common on ebay in a comfortable price range.

Sure enough, in the short time since then, I've found three of them, each for less than a tenth what she'd been asking.

So, obviously the lesson is that a fool and his money...
except that this time the fool stumbled into the WS just in time.

She sent me an angry note when she started to realize I wasn't going to do the deal. She described my behaviour in exactly the words I would have chosen to describe hers.

She tried to sell me a fake spoon once. When I pointed out to her that it was a copy, the angry emails kept coming. One collector here once said “Betty wouldn’t know a fake spoon if it walked up to her at a party and introduced itself.”

What was the story about the earrings? Was that a Kirk thing?

Kirk has a lot to be pissed at her about.

That's for sure.

Good thing he's such a forgiving soul.

1900, you're too F'in funny... Cousin 'It'...

Then again I've hit the Chartreuse tonight so's everthing will be funny!!!

$140.00 for Mata Hari???

Runnin' around my brain... yee-haw!

Shave the Betty.




http://www.shavemyyeti.com/

Damn it!

Where do you guys keep finding these pics of me?!

That was too funny 1900 and I got too many laughs from it...

She has Montmartre listed as a french absinthe, and she's charging the same 150.00 for it in the 50cl bottle as for the 1 litre and 70 cl bottles of the other "french" absinthes.

She waxes superior when refusing to carry La Fée because it has artificial coloring, but she's happy to sell you a bottle of Mari Mayans or Serpis for three times their market value, because these products are colored naturally by artisanal distillers using only natural herbs to obtain their flourescent, day-glo hues.

But she is the ONLY highly recommended and reliable source, after all. And she was the FIRST absinthe enthusiast to introduce America to absinthe, so I guess we'd all still be doing flaming Sambuca shooters if it wasn't for Betty. Hell, she practically invented absinthe. She might be one of the original Henriod sisters, living incognito all this time, undead as Elvis...


It amazes me that she was able to get MCD to do the intro to her book. In it, the Madame talks only about her own experience with absinthe, and her only reference to Betty is her excited anticipation leading up to Betty's visit. The narrative pointedly stops as soon as Betty arrives.

way back when, late '99 to early '00 i found feeverte but never entered their forum, i just read some of the reviews they had and read about the vendors that were available (pre-ldf, marcus, alandia...) ... i remember eabsinthe, butty, spirits corner and sebor. i ordered from her three times (the third time was for a couple bottles of lableue). by then i started to realize that this was becoming an expensive habit...
so by then i was willing to take the "risk" at S.C., there was a small problem with my order, but they resolved it at no cost to me... at that moment i realized that i could be doing exactly what butty was doing (but i didn't)... buying in "bulk" from foreign vendors and turning a nice profit for not much work on her part.

i have just one last thing for butty...

The curious thing, is that anyone who writes stuff like like: "leaves the country to assimilate absinthe antiques" is a guaranteed Betty client.

When I took over Fee Verte, I removed Betty from the vendors list.

She has informed a close friend that your action killed her business altogether.
Good work Oxy!
I'm not done with her yet, I would like to think I cost her a few sales,
but until I know for sure I'm going to haunt her.
If she is still alive after Christmas I'm going to make a special project of her.
Normally I wouldn't hold a grudge but there is something about the way she manipulated me that really leaves a foul taste.

Fear was her most powerful tool.

Kirk, she should pay for taking advantage of you generosity and kindness.

Hmm...

Could there be an evil caricature grille in the works?

The likeness of her would foul the water.

That evil oopma loompa still owes me $$ for an undelivered shot of Edouard from 5 years ago. I paid for two, and she sent one. The hairy cow said she'd credit my next order, as if I would actually order from her again!

I know another person she tried to sell a pastis fountain to as a pre-ban fountain for several thousand dollars. She's right up there with 0pie.

That would be a compliment to her.

I am looking forward to doing business with this fine lady. Certainly her integrity is exceeded only by her beauty.

At least 0pie backed off when he knew we were hot on his trail.

Funny how she brags about being in business since 1996. She's been lying and stealing in the absinthe world longer than anyone else!

"She has informed a close friend that your action killed her business altogether."

one word, karma... besides i thought she was an "author" now.

She’s great at writing fiction.

She's not even great at writing fiction.

She's a terrible writer, on top of being wrong about what she's writing. She claimed, in her rambling emails to me, to be a psychologist. ( !!! ) Her subjective, free-association decriptions of the psycho-sexual subtext in old absinthe advertising is, to me, the funniest, most airheaded shit I've ever read that was passed off as "history".

I'm really glad, proud, actually, that the only dealing I ever had with her gave me the chance to leave her feeling abused and ripped-off.

But you have to admit, she's hot...

Please tell me you saved the e-mails.

>She claimed, in her rambling emails to me, to be a psychologist. ( !!! )

she really is, which is only that much more scary...

In the time honored tradition of Freud, who had more neuroses than most of his patients.

dammit, maybe tom cruise is right about psychology

Maybe, but he's got more neuroses than Freud.

I think maybe you misread that. Her bio describes her as a masters-level psychotherapist. So, essentially a licensed social worker or maybe an MFT/MFCC. Someone with less than doctoral-level education claiming to be a psychologist would be liable to a rash of shit. Besides, it would be a transgression against profesional ethics.

She was a social worker, and also a parole officer, I believe.

Specializing in troubled youths.

...many of whom were troubled by the lack of the balztrippin' potency of the watered down absinthe they had just purchased from her.

Did you just say Yutes?

I heard she likes getting rude phone calls from cell phones...

(That are not your own.)

Ted does too.

drunk dails, a little bit of fun, yes?

Ha!