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French manufacturer tries to shake off fusty image of star anise-flavoured beverage and recast it as a trendy summer drink
It is as French as berets and pétanque but now drinks groups are trying to boost flagging sales of pastis by shaking off the national drink's fusty image and recasting it as a trendy long summer drink.
The French use the phrase "je suis dans le pastis" to mean in trouble and the foggy liqueur is indeed in trouble – eclipsed by whisky as the country's favourite tipple.
Although 120m litres of pastis are still knocked back in France annually, sales are declining at a rate of about 1% a year and, like brands such as Baileys in the UK, it is heavily discounted in supermarkets.
Now market leader Pernod Ricard says it is trying to "redefine the pastis drinking experience" by marketing a new drink "piscine" – French for swimming pool – a heavily diluted pour of its Pastis 51 brand.
"It's the way people playing pétanque used to drink it because it is a long way from the field to the bar," explains César Giron, a scion of the Ricard pastis dynasty who is chief executive of the Pernod business.
Giron blames Hollywood movies for the French defection from pastis: "Every Monday night there used to be a western on TV with John Wayne in it, and he would go into a bar and ask for a whisky. This was at a time when it was completely forbidden to mention brands or categories of alcohol on TV."
It is crucial for Pernod Ricard to keep French consumers interested, as all attempts to export pastis have failed.
Even in China, where key ingredient star anise grows, drinkers have turned their noses up.
"In China, star anise is used as a medicinal ingredient so people associate the taste with medicine rather than something they would like to drink in a bar," says Giron.
To that end, Pernod Ricard is now concentrating on the overseas potential of pastis's reckless cousin, absinthe, which is enjoying a renaissance. The group believes it can be sold alongside its other luxury brands, such as Perrier Jouet champagne and the Glenlivet single malt whisky.
The potent drink once dubbed the "green fairy" has shouldered the blame for historic excesses from artists including Oscar Wilde and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, culminating in a French ban in 1915.
The spirit derived from wormwood has since been rehabilitated and, according to the company, is now a small but "very fast growing market".
"Absinthe has always been the friend of the artist and they were calling us, asking for it," says Giron.
He says initiatives like piscine are helping Pernod Ricard to turn the tide and recruit drinkers from outside the "core" pastis audience, which one suspects is largely made up of elderly men.
To make a piscine, the barman is required to mix pastis 1:8 with water, compared with the usual ratio of 1:5 – any neater and the French dub the mixture "yoghurt".
The transformation to chic summer cooler is completed by serving it in a wine glass packed with ice which marketers hope will one day be considered as tempting as ordering a glass of rose on a sunny terrasse.
"Piscine makes for a very fresh, very easy way to drink pastis and as a result we are seeing women and others, who would not be regular drinkers, trying it," says Giron. "Through our efforts, the pastis category is being revitalised and I think a market that is down 1% is a beautiful result given the declines seen in the on-trade."