try everything once? perhaps not...

[Ken Gargett]

SOURTOE COCKTAIL

The Sourdough Saloon in Dawson City in Canada has dunked a salt-preserved human toe into the drinks of the brave since 1973. You can choose your alcohol, but you aren't a true sour-toe club member unless your lips touch the toe, which feels like a slimy raisin. A series of toes have been used and some swallowed – twice inadvertently, once deliberately. A hefty fine now puts off all-consuming daredevils. See downtownhotel.ca

PRAIRIE OYSTER

This American hangover remedy, perhaps invented in Texas in the 1890s, comprises Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper, and an unbroken raw egg yolk whose slippery texture as it slides down your throat is said to resemble an oyster. Some add hot sauce or horseradish to disguise the taste. Alas, no scientific evidence shows it cures hangovers. Not to be confused with those other infamous prairies oysters, bull's testicles.

SNAKE WINE

Few more confronting drinks than a cobra bottled in rice wine or whiskey, now sold as a tourist gimmick but traditionally a Chinese medicine across east and southeast Asia. Variants might bottle geckos, spiders, seahorses or scorpions. The fishy-like taste of decomposing reptile isn't masked by the strong alcohol and added herbs. Given the use of sometimes endangered snakes and cruel preparation methods, this is a challenge best avoided.

CHICHA

This fermented alcohol of Andes origin was used by the Incas in religious ceremonies, but is now common across South America. It's similar to beer and most frequently made with cassava or corn. The confronting part? Traditional preparation methods involve the chicha-maker chewing the cassava or corn to release its starches and provide enzymes that convert it to sugar. Otavalo in Ecuador has an annual September chicha festival.

SMOKER'S COUGH

The very name of this "cocktail" is off-putting and its phlegm-like appearance and taste are just as horrible. It's a simple mix of the herby German digestif Jägermeister and mayonnaise. A variant is the tapeworm cocktail in which mayonnaise from a squeezy bottle, resembling white worms, is added to vodka. Needless to say, only après-ski bars and raucous tourist pubs are likely to serve you such concoctions.

BABY MICE WINE

This men's tonic takes the drinking challenge a further step since, once the alcohol is consumed, the fermented (and still hairless) mice are eaten. Rumour has it that most of the flavour is disguised by the burn of alcohol. As the mice are drowned alive during preparation, this isn't a drink for the travellers with a conscience. The supposedly medicinal rice wine is found in China and Korea.

THARRA

This is the generic term for Indian and Pakistani moonshine in which sugarcane juice is distilled in earthenware pots to produce a rum-like drink. It isn't burying the pots in cow dung that's the turn-off (that just supplies fermentation-inducing warmth) but tharra's high alcohol levels and lack of regulation, which can see it contain poisonous impurities such as lead. Drink at your peril unless your tharra comes from a reputable factory.

KOPI LUWAK

This ridiculously expensive Indonesian coffee is made with semi-digested coffee cherries pooped out (and fermented in the process) by the Asian palm civet. It tastes little different from bad coffee and its flavour largely depends on the bean roasting; its value lies mostly in its gimmicky appeal. Most kopi luwak is fake (and rarely found in Indonesia), which is just as well considering the force-feeding of caged animals in its production.

HVALUR 2

Produced by Stedji Brewery north of Reykjavik in Iceland, this seasonal beer has among its ingredients a football-sized whale's testicle which, even worse, is smoked in sheep's dung before being brewed with hops, malt and water. If you need a further challenge, try the sour-beer version. The beer is consumed at an annual festival whose other traditional delights are fermented shark and cured whale fat.

CEMENT MIXER

You can mix anything into a cocktail, so awfulness is only limited by your imagination. This staple of silly bars is more prank than unpleasant flavour, but makes the list for its vile texture. The mix is three parts Baileys to one part lime juice, which floats on the surface in the glass but, when shaken together in the mouth, creates a thick, lumpy concoction resembling cottage cheese. Ugh.

[dobbs]

good lord, no thank you...

-dobbs

[cgoodrich]

@Ken Gargett I could have gone all year without reading this. 😂

Everything ok? First it’s the ofal gastronomy feast with your mates, and now this…🤣

[TheDonTX]

🤢

[Joeyjojo]

As the old English saying goes: "You should try everything once, except incest and country dancing"

I would now like to add drinks with dismembered toes to that list.

[Chibearsv]

23 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

A series of toes have been used and some swallowed – twice inadvertently, once deliberately.

Does it only bother me that they have a source for replacing the toes that get swallowed?  Or that cannibalism is generally considered taboo?

[Ken Gargett]

21 minutes ago, Chibearsv said:

Does it only bother me that they have a source for replacing the toes that get swallowed?  Or that cannibalism is generally considered taboo?

i assure you that you are not on your own. 

[TheFullMontecristo]

[avaldes]

Of the things on that list...the toe is not the worst.

[Chibearsv]

4 minutes ago, avaldes said:

Of the things on that list...the toe is not the worst.

You have experience do you?