Crime, scandal, unemployment and football futility — forgive the good people of Miami if they could use a drink.

Good news: Sorrows can now be drowned with a taste as unique as our city. And with no lack for irony, Miami in a bottle goes down a little bitter, and a little sweet.

The new drink’s called Absolut Miami, the latest variety from the Swedish sprits outfit responsible for jalapeño-, mango- and vanilla-flavored vodka, among others.

The limited-edition liquor, which blends passion fruit and orange blossoms, debuts Thursday through Sunday at Art Basel events in Wynwood, part of a three-month promotional tour throughout the region. The product hits retailers on New Year’s Day and will remain in shelves until at least the spring.

“Miami is a very creative, very vibrant and forward-looking city,” said Maxime Kouchnir, Absolut’s vice president of marketing. “It’s an absolutely perfect match with Absolut.”

Left unsaid: Miami absolutely knows how to imbibe.

In South Florida’s image-based nightlife subculture, vodka is the drink of choice for the velvet-rope VIPers. Ordering bottle service has become as much a symbol of status as foreign cars or gaudy jewels.

And from Grey Goose to Svedka, every vodka company wants a seat at the table. With the marketplace flooded, a middlebrow product like Absolut must be innovative to cut through the static.

“In the spirits business, somewhere way down in the priority list is the actual taste of something,” said Tom Pirko, president of Bevmark, a food and beverage consulting firm.

“One of the tried-and-true angles is personalizing.

Miami is the sixth U.S. city with its own variety, joining New Orleans, Los Angeles, Boston, Brooklyn and San Francisco.

But simply creating a product and slapping Miami on its tropical-colored label won’t be enough to generate the buzz the company wants. And so, Absolut is taking it on the road, with portable “pop-up” parties during Art Basel and beyond. Hoping to leverage Basel’s momentum, pop artist Mr. Brainwash (aka Thierry Guetta) has used the traveling bar as a canvas.

The portable gallery will feature original Mr. Brainwash work, along with that of previous Absolut contributors and artists Daniel Fila and Ceron. The installation will also appear at the Fontainebleau hotel next month and at Ultra Music Festival.

The drink’s ad campaign: Dusk Till Dawn, just like how the Magic City rocks.

“We’re distilling the essence of Miami in a bottle,” Kouchnir said. .