Bands, festivals and the lot are releasing branded booze by the dozens these days. GRIMM makes it its mission to get to the bottom (of the bottle) of this trend with insightful reviews and extra backgrounds. So sit back, PICK YOUR POISON, and discover all you need to know about your favorite band’s alcoholic brands! This time pay even more attention because GRIMM and PICK YOUR POISON ventured into brewing their own concoction…
Poison Fact Sheet
- Band: Apocalypse Orchestra
- Poison name: Dr Estil Pence’s Invigorating Black Death Pestilles
- Poison style: Candy with Mackmyra whiskey!
- Creator: Pastillfabriken (Sweden)
Come and gather around, dear readers, for stories of old worth to be retold as the wheel of time continues to unfold… We’re setting the tone here for a review by the medieval inspired doom band Apocalypse Orchestra. For once, these Swedes do not present us with a beer, wine or pure strong liquor, but rather a fine candy treat infused with Swedish whiskey!
Tasting
The pastille gums are medium soft in texture and pleasant to whirl around in your mouth. It’s better to let the flavours melt on your tongue than to try and crunch it too quickly. A strong liquorice flavour is the first to meet your senses. The candies have certain sweetness to it, nothing clingy, but just a pleasant backdrop for the liquorice base. Unlike your standard supermarket confections the 5% quality whiskey that is added, gives the pill a certain depth and warming sensation that lingers throughout. For this reason, these sweets will accompany me in my pocket during the cold winter days!
Just a note of caution: do net get overwhelmed or too enthusiastic when tasting the sweets. The manufacturer is so kind to warn us on the back label that extravagant consumption can have laxative effects… It seems that as with all the poisons we share with our readers that moderation is key.
For those of you that do not like liquorice or warming whiskey flavours there is also a sweeter red fruit version available! Get your share at Apocalypse Orchestra‘s shows as long as stock last, they are worth the buy.
Packaging
Passing by closed doors
No sounds but crying
These are our chores
Accompanying the dying
Dressed in black we are
Pestilence our vanguard
Truly bizarre
Our sanity’s beyond scarredFrom the song The Great Mortality
The sweets come in a handy little box that you can always carry with you in case of a sudden plague – I mean cough. The symbol on the pills could be a sort of stethoscope referring to the plague doctor portrayed on the box. The box itself is full of neat word puns like ‘Dr Estil Pence’, ‘invigorating black death’ and ‘pestilles’.
Besides a neat little something you can take away from Apocalypse Orchestra‘s shows, it can also be part of the band’s stage act. The band is known to not only enthrall the audience with captivating medieval doom, but also for their fire acts and plague doctors that walk around the audience handing out ‘medicines’ in the form of treats or liquids.
What is so nice about this product is that it’s a really local product. Hailing from Gävle, Sweden, Apocalypse Orchestra included Mackmyra whiskey in their candy. Not only does Mackmyra also have its home base in Gävle, it is the country’s first whiskey distillery! All the more reason to be proud of your hometown. To top it off, the band took the golden liquid to the candy makers of Pastillfabriken located in… Gävle!
Goes Best With…
While the lyrics of The Great Mortality might fit the styling of the candy better, the visuals of Apocalypse Orchestra that accompany the clip for Theatre of War provide some eye candy as well!
