GOTH LICENCE

Not-very-scary rocker Marilyn Manson is once again sticking it to the man by releasing his own brand of booze. Not virgin blood and Cinzano but a type of absinthe, the very drink which was reported to drive artists to the edge of sanity in the nineteenth century, but is in fact just like Manson himself, over-rated and nasty.

And what would this legendary man of words call his creation (for he has created it himself and it's not just another way of squeezing money out of impressionable teenage Goths)?

Mansinthe.

Brilliant. Utterly dark, brooding and brilliant. But what of the taste? Well according to the poor sods at Epicurious who had to drink some for a review, there’s something of the night about it.

"The Number One problem was the aroma, which some verbally compared to sewage water or swamp mud, but with the exception of a lone taster, the panel felt it wasn't really worth wading through the odor to get to mediocre flavor anyway."

Naturally, the drink isn’t available in the US or UK, it's far too dark and brooding for that. It's only available in the spiritual homeland of darkness and evil. No, not Transylvania, silly. You can only buy it in Switzerland, land of the cuckoo clock and the most underused army on earth. Shiver! Great marketing Goth Boy.