A Taste of the Green Fairy, Marilyn Manson Style

You can crawl out of the speakeasy now. Absinthe is legal again. Not only that, several years after its decriminalization, the infamous herb liquor is also über trendy. And just as Ernest Hemingway and Oscar Wilde counted the ‘green fairy’ as a muse, so too do modern artists. Take Marilyn Manson, for instance. In a seemingly peculiar union, the controversial shock rock singer has paired with a sleepy Swiss town to produce one of the most-talked about absinthe products on the market: Mansinthe. Together, Manson, renowned absinthe producer Markus Lion, and the Matter-Luginbühl AG distillery produce the spirit using the same tradition, style, and recipes that were employed in the 19th century.

The result is a natural absinthe, distilled from vermouth, aniseed, fennel, wormwood, and other herbs — most of which grow in abundance in the Swiss Jura, where the distillery is based. Not surprisingly, given its name and producer, Mansinthe is a masculine drink: it’s smooth with a minimal bite and strong overtones of coriander, wormwood, toasty aromas, and a kick of spicy heat. But don’t worry if you don’t taste all the subtleties just yet; though the recipient of a good deal of international competitions and awards, Mansinthe is made to appeal to a novices’ palette. So, dust off that flapper dress, tune in to some jazz, and ready your carafe for a taste of the green fairy.

[This post originally appeared on Lost At E Minor.]