"Friends Don't Let Friends Drink Friends," is one of the slogans for Tru Blood, the "synthetic blood nourishment beverage" vampires enjoy on the addictive, sexy, amusing, brilliantly written, philosophical HBO series "True Blood."

The Tru Blood Drink has now been defictionalized and emerges into reality as a delicious blood orange carbonated drink. The bottle is an exact replica of the design seen on the TV program. The 14-oz. glass container is stained in a rich red, with raised Tru Blood English lettering and matching Japanese Kanji characters.
Slightly tart, lightly sweet and subtly carbonated, Tru Blood soda is manufactured by San Francisco-based Omni Consumer Products, a company that creates "real-world" versions of products created in movies. It pours like a regular soda, but the standing appearance in the glass is stormy and mysterious.

Produced by Alan Ball, the somewhat gory, award-winning TV series is loosely based on the The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris, and is set in steamy Bon Temps, a fictional small Louisiana town. Apparently, Japanese scientists invented a synthetic blood (called Tru Blood) some years ago, which allowed vampires to come out of their coffins, into the mainstream and live among the mortals, since they no longer have to kill humans to survive.

You can purchase a four-pack for $16 or a 24-pack for $96 plus shipping at http://store.hbo.com – no questions asked.