I know a lot of you think commercial is all crap anyway (and I'm not necessarily disagreeing), but what is the best of the worst? For various reasons, hogsmacking it myself still ain't in my picture. So I suppose I'm left with buyin'.

LuXit is now in the County-run store, though I haven't bought any. I picked up a bottle of Kubler on a recent trip to Boston, just because I could. But what offerings from the usual suspects (or others) are available and actually remotely worth buying? I'm several years out of date on what is what. So I'm looking for recommendations on what is least crappy.

Justin

Arak.

Here's for ya JunkIn

TGO: I have several bottles of Arak. I agree on it being the next best thing, at a very reasonable price. But sometimes you want real thing.

Mthuilli: Yeah, I saw that. Didn't know if anyone had anything to add, or thoughts on vendors. I'm vaguely familiar with LdF and Spirits Corner. Have seen Markus' site, but never ordered from him. Don't know the others.

Justin

If you're going to try something commercial, maybe go with HellBitch. I haven't tried it but Cros likes it. Don't try anything else from Markus or you could poison yourself.

I'm curious about Vieux Pontarlier,
butt of course that distributor
won't get my bizniz.

I already know plenty of things for sale that I won't consider buying. Some that I would. But there is a whole range in the middle that I'm just not knowledgeable about. Not that I'm knowledgeable about much of anything, mind you.

However, with the current exchange rates, I don't know that I can afford much of anything anyway.

Indeed!™ Hellbitch or Arak. The rest is overrated.

Hellbitch is good.

Ya are never fully-satisfied.

All yer posts belong to me! ARP-ya are so weak.

Have ordered from Markus more than anyone else and have never had a bad experience, and since he's gone courier time of delivery nearly as quick as LDF (3-4 business days tops). Several of his La Bleu's I have tried and like them for what they are, however personally feel Kubler is nearly as good. Of the four I recently bought all three were tastey, however 3 of the 4 were 1/2 liter bottles with the Duplais Balance being the only liter bottle, making it a bit more "worthy" than the others, not to mention it was pretty tastey in it's own right.

That being said, the next batch I order will probably be from Spirits Corner, as I do miss NS-55 and Deva being on my shelf for those days I wanna go slumming (last time I ordered from SC it took nearly 7 weeks with snail mail and I had given up hope for delivery).

Don't get your hopes up if you buy a bottle of Lucid -- hella hangovers with a funky taste to boot. Let me know if you want a sample and I can send ya some.

'Course this coming from someone who chews, thinks mountain oysters taste like little bits of heaven, and has stuck his arm in a lotta assholes...and likes NS-55.

You became a lobbyist?

Ha!