Mansinthe was awarded a gold medal out of a group of 10 absinthes entered into the largest and most important spirits competition in the USA.The results of the professional tasting event “shocked” the amateur panel from an earlier attempt at judging the Mansinthe. The stark difference between the trained palette of a professional spirits taster and that of unqualified bloggers, demonstrates why consumers should be wary of accepting the tasting opinion of unskilled amateurs.
The San Francisco World Spirits Competition is the first comprehensive, international spirits judging ever held in the United States on an annual basis. Founded in 2000 by directors of the San Francisco International Wine Competition, Anthony Dias Blue of Patterson’s the Tasting Panel Magazine, and Carol Seibert. Along with Director of Judging, F. Paul Pacult, writer/journalist of The Spirit Journal, they have established an unparalleled reputation for the competition and its principles, since its inception eight years ago. This year 847 spirits were submitted and evaluated, and six out of the seven continents (only Antarctica was missing) were represented, making this a globally influential spirits competition. This year will be the first for judging absinthes from around the globe. All eyes will be on this, the most prestigious professional tasting event held in North America.
Mansinthe was recently sampled in a ‘taste-test’ conducted by a New York City food-blogger.While presumed to be a food and spirits professional via his web-association with two international food and lifestyle magazines, the methodology of the tasting exposed that the writer lacked basic skills in conducting even a semi-competent spirits tasting panel.The ‘tasting’ was conducted in plastic cups by a randomly selected group of deputized individuals, most having had no prior absinthe tasting experience, let alone general spirits industry experience.Obviously confused by the smell and taste of real wormwood, and having no prior reference for comparison, the amateur tasters gave low scores and unprofessional comments, seemingly based on shock-value alone. It appeared as if the tasters spent much effort trying to outdo each other with how outrageous a tasting comment they could each create.In spite of their inexperienced pallets, the panel did manage to score the Mansinthe higher than the most well known USA-legal absinthe presently on the market. Once the review was publicly posted on the blog, the amateur tasting panel was then magically transformed into ‘world spirit experts’ via the inability of many in the international press to actual review the qualifications and protocol used by the amateur tasters. Clearly, the celebrity attachment of rock superstar, Marilyn Manson, was a main driver and too juicy a target for papers that were more interested in running tabloid style stories, than researching facts. Not surprisingly, the other, lower scoring absinthe was never mentioned in the multitude of articles, obviously due to the lack of celebrity involvement.
Here, finally, the first picture of the bottle ….
Prototype 35 has now completely sold out – please stop asking for it! There really are no more bottles left.
Galerie Schenk in Cologne is selling the PreRelease, which was limited to 80 bottles, at 300 Euro (unsigned) or 500 Euro (signed). Tel.: +49 (0)221 9250901 – Absinthvertrieb has no bottles of this special edition.
After the signing of the contract last week, the purchase of pallets of bottles, and the storage of herbs and alcohol, production of the final version of Mansinthe starts today. A logistical masterpiece, for which I would like to take this opportunity to thank Nicole & Oliver Matter.
Friday 13th is apparently not so unlucky, as the contract between Manson, his management and Absinthvertrieb was finally signed today.
At the same time, the tickets for the forthcoming tour of Australia went on advance sale…
2 years after the initial idea, the official Marilyn Manson absinthe – “Mansinthe” – goes on sale in August 2007. Produced in Switzerland, this Absinthe promises to be a real delicacy!
Distilled from fine herbs, coloured naturally and with no artificial colourings, and not pre-sugared, this Absinthe should delight even the fastidious absintheur and Marilyn Manson fan – the protagonist loves it and has played a significant part in the product development.
In order to polish the product to perfection, there will initially be 2 limited editions:
1. The signed edition with special label, which is limited to 80 bottles and
2. Prototype 35
The sale of both versions is planned for July 2007, before the final “Mansinthe” product is available.