Hexensalbe Stora Skuggan 2023

Starts as black liquorice and crushed pine needles (could this be a boreal gourmand?), but soon thickens into an occultist’s bunker, heavy with woodrot and mortared herbs. The anise that lingers is beautifully rendered; a poison-green absinthe that goes down surprisingly smooth. But the background feels a little too lived-in for my liking, almost musty. And quite aftershave-y. It’s a thick fragrance. Rather than carrying Hexensalbe with me, I felt like I was swimming through it. Or maybe I’ve been burned by too many patchoulis before. Less the VVitch, more sweaty hookup in the basement of a Berkeley co-op.

The opening notes, though? Now that’s living most deliciously.

Mental Snapshot: A trail of obsidian gems guide you through the wood, sweet as sap and thick as night. You creep through the snarled roots of an ancient yew into a subterranean hollow. Something lives here. The walls prickle with a thorny library of herbs. Something wicked. Its Birkenstocks scrape the bare earth. “Dost thou like the taste of ayahuasca?”

tl;dr: Berkeley Phillip