This aniseed aperitif was invented in 1932 in Marseille by Paul Ricard as a replacement for the banned absinthe, and quickly became a massive successs in its own right.
Ricard is a French public company that was founded in 1932 in Marseille by Paul Ricard to sell his Ricard drink. In 1962, the Ricard business was floated on the Paris Stock Exchange. In 1968, Ricard retired from his daily running of the Ricard company, as a result of a fit of temper with state controls (said to be due to a combination of his famous bad-temper and his detestation of the power of the French state and bureaucracy). Paul Ricard's son, Patrick Ricard, inherited Ricard as the company's single product, sold almost entirely in France. Patrick Ricard led the drink and the company's international expansion, becoming managing director in 1972. In 1975, the companies of Ricard and Pernod Fils, the two largest French aniseed aperitif producers and fierce competitors, merged creating the Pernod Ricard group, which currently owns the Ricard company. After the merger, in 1978, Patrick Ricard became the CEO of the Pernod Ricard group which he held until his death on 17 August 2012. Today Pernod-Ricard is the second-largest drinks business in the world, with only 10% of its sales in France and one of the widest product ranges in the industry, including table wines, champagnes, scotches, cognacs, gins, and vodkas.
Pastis, meaning 'mixture' in the Provençal dialect, is made from a blend of concentrated alcohol, star anise, liquorice powder, water, sugar and an infusion of numerous Provençal plants such as thyme, rosemary, savory, sage and verbena. Serve diluted with ice-cold water.
