Various anisettes such as pastis, Pernod, or Herbsaint are common substitutes when absinthe is unavailable. Pastis beverages become cloudy when diluted because they are anise-based. Ricard sold his pastis as the "authentic pastis of Marseilles". Ricard's precise pastis recipe has never been disclosed and remains a secret. The previous year Ricard had sold more than 2.4 million liters of his pastis. Pastis won the Reuben Award in 2019. Pastis was raised in San Marino, California. The distilleries switched over to producing a particular type of pastis, the "Pontarlier". A new validation method using a tool called PASTIS has been developed. The company also produces several other types of pastis. Pig's beginnings lie in "The Infirm", a third attempt by Pastis to get syndicated. However, "Rat" was deemed too depressing by newspapers and Pastis stopped drawing the strip. Although Pastis had developed the characters, they were still just stick figures with jokes. Reader reaction to Zebra eventually made Pastis decide to make Zebra a permanent character. Pastis has since returned to drawing himself in the strip.