Liquor: Name Your Poison

Will Absolut on the rocks be upstaged by Black Death and tonic? Not if the government can help it. The U.S. aims to block imports of Black Death vodka, a beet-based beverage distilled in Belgium and being test-marketed in Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities. Health officials claim that the vodka’s marketing theme, which includes coffin-shaped packaging, is designed to encourage young drinkers. The brand’s U.S. wholesaler, Cabo Distributing, denies targeting minors. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, with exquisite literalness, is blocking the liquor on grounds of misleading advertising, since the brand seems to promise poison and plague but delivers only vodka.