Alcoholic drinks are popular all over the world. It is difficult to find an adult who has never drunk alcohol. But sometimes the desire to try something new crosses all boundaries.
1. Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca (translated from the Quechua language - "liana of the dead" or "liana of spirits") is a drink that has a hallucinogenic effect. It is made by the indigenous people of the Amazon. The main component is a liana from the melon family called the spirit vine. The Amazon Indians believe that this drink is able to connect two worlds for a short time with an invisible thread: the living and the dead. There is nothing surprising in this: the powerful psychoactive effect of ayahuasca, reinforced by the belief in the existence of spirits, directs hallucinations in the right direction, and you can very well see dead relatives. The preparation of this enchanting, in every sense of the word, drink looks like this: pieces of the spirit vine are boiled for 12 hours together with a whole bunch of leaves of other plants, acting as spices. Another interesting effect that ayahuasca has on the body is its immediate cleansing from all parasites living in it.
2. Goldenrot
Goldenrot is a Swiss cinnamon schnapps (containing 53.5% alcohol), which contains very fine but clearly visible flakes of real gold. Each liter of Goldenrot contains ~15 mg of gold. Strainers with tiny holes are produced especially for this drink, which hold back especially large gold flakes. However, most snobs who bought a bottle for over 300 bucks drink the drink without straining, as a result of which tiny pieces of metal often damage the gastric mucosa, there were cases when gold remained in the stomach for several months, causing discomfort, burning and nausea to the gourmet. Upon exiting, the precious metal can also get stuck, damage and cause suppuration in the rectum.
3. Gilpin Family Whiskey
This extremely rare drink of the gods is made exclusively to order, which will certainly interest all whiskey connoisseurs without exception, who, however, are unlikely to be able to suppress their natural gag reflex upon learning that the main ingredient of Gilpin Family Whisky is the urine of elderly people suffering from type 2 diabetes. The author of this masterpiece is the outrageous designer and researcher James Gilpin, who has been sent to a psychiatric hospital by critics more than once. Mr. Gilpin extracts urine from a group of elderly volunteers, including his own granny. Before the freshly collected urine is used to make whiskey, it undergoes a simple purification procedure - it is filtered through a regular water filter.
4. Tsongsul
Tsongsul is a not very popular traditional Korean drink, which is a wine made from human feces and medicinal herbs fermented in alcohol for 3-4 months. The site decided to test this disgusting swill on three unsuspecting Chinese girls, who you can see in the photo. The naive girls gave the following assessment of the taste of Tsongsul: “A very tasty drink that is easy to drink and has a very soft aftertaste. I think it will become a real hit among girls who like sweet alcoholic drinks.” However, they immediately changed their minds when they found out that this sweet alcoholic potion is made from Korean poop, stating that Tsongsul “tastes like shit.”
5. Fijjtu beer
The title of the world's most dangerous beer rightfully belongs to an African brew called Fijjtu, which was made using rotten, parasite-infested water. The Fijjtu brewery was closed in 2003 after five years of operation, after it was discovered that excessive consumption of its product led to bloody diarrhea, hellish headaches, and vomiting (and that's only in the best-case scenario). Some drinkers reported seeing vivid images while drunk, which earned the brew the nickname "God's Dew."
6. "Armageddon" is the strongest beer in the world
The new brainchild of the Scottish brewing company Brewmeister, called "Armageddon", will arrange a real end of the world in your stomach. The percentage of alcohol in this foamy drink is an incredible 65%. That is, this hellish swill is even stronger than whiskey and vodka!
“The strongest beer in the world,” reads the inscription on the bottle label of “Armageddon”. This title has not been officially assigned to it by the representatives of the “Guinness Book of Records”, but I think it is only a matter of time: the previous record holder, the beer “End of History”, is inferior to “Armageddon” in strength by as much as 15%.
Brewmeister co-founder Lewis Shand says: “Armageddon is much closer to a liqueur than a beer in terms of its composition, but it has been classified as a beer in terms of its flavour, which we couldn’t be happier about!”
He also added: "Armageddon" is a nuclear warhead that will hit you in the head so hard that you will remember it for the rest of your life.
This beer is very popular, because a group of friends only needs one bottle to fall under the table together!
This is why Brewmeister warns everyone that Armageddon should be consumed with the utmost caution and strictly in small doses!
Brewmeister brewer Jon McKenzie said: “To get a beer with such a high alcohol content we had to develop a special fermentation method, which we call ‘ice fermentation’. As a result, this beer is much thicker than the beer you are used to drinking.”
How does this special method work? The beer is made using crystal malt, wheat, oat flakes, and the purest Scottish spring water, which is frozen during the brewing process! This is done to increase the alcohol content! The mechanism is very simple: the water freezes, but the alcohol does not. The brewers remove the excess water in the form of ice, and thus get a drink with a strength of as much as 65%!
7. Mollort
The most disgusting alcoholic drink in the world in terms of its taste is malört – a Scandinavian schnapps made from wormwood (35% alcohol).
It is said that if you try mollort just once, the taste, which many describe as “poisonous poison,” “nasty stuff,” and “vile abomination,” will haunt you for the rest of your life.
Mollort has a specific smell, which includes a whole bouquet of aromas that evoke memories of burnt rubber, turpentine, ballpoint pen ink and embalming fluid.
In 2011, Mollort was awarded the title of "Worst Liqueur in the World".
8. Changaa
Changaa is a Kenyan moonshine and one of the cheapest alcoholic drinks in the world. Changaa gained its greatest popularity in African slums. Drinking Changaa is extremely harmful to the body and alcoholics who are addicted to this drink usually live a very, very short time.
The literal meaning of the word chang'aa is "kill me quickly", which fully reflects the essence of this swill, each shot of which will take several years off your life.
Changaa is obtained by distilling grain crops such as corn and sorghum. It doesn't sound bad, if you don't take into account that African moonshiners are completely unfamiliar with such concepts as sanitation and quality standards, so in the finished product you can find anything, from sand to human waste products. In addition, competing manufacturers, wanting to present their product in a favorable light, add secret ingredients to it to give it a special taste and aroma, such as battery acid, jet fuel, embalming fluid, etc.
In order to "get full" you only need 300-400 grams of changhaa, after which a person most often loses consciousness, and in the morning experiences a severe hangover, accompanied by terrible headaches and nausea. Often, the use of changhaa completely knocks out a person's memory and the mission to remember the feats accomplished during a drunken stupor becomes simply impossible, which, however, is probably for the best.
9. Miracle drink for cough
In the 19th century, heroin was considered an excellent cough medicine. Just think about it, from 1898 to 1910, this powerful drug was sold as a morphine replacement and cough medicine for children. Imagine your immature offspring coming up to you and saying, “Mom, I’m sick, give me some heroin!”
Of course, it helps with coughing, but there is no need to explain once again how dangerous this drug is. Nevertheless, back then, heroin was considered a harmless "aspirin" that could instantly relieve a bothersome ailment.
10. Rice vodka on mice
Strong alcohol infused with scorpions and caterpillars is nothing new, but what about vodka infused with baby mice? The babies are chosen without fur, no older than three weeks, and filled with vodka. The drink is then left to stand for a year in a dark, cool place, after which it can be drunk. According to the manufacturers, it not only tastes great, but also helps protect against diseases.
11. Chicha
The recipe for chicha was invented by the ancient Incas over six centuries ago: women chew corn thoroughly and spit the resulting paste into a jug, which is then diluted with water and infused in clay bottles. However, now they are trying to ban this drink, as it can cause diseases.
12. Snake Wine
And although the homeland of this drink is Vietnam, today the technology of its preparation is used in other Asian countries. The main ingredient of this wine is a poisonous snake, which is poured with alcohol to neutralize the poison. Sometimes for "decoration" they also add small snakes, cockroaches, turtles and even birds.
13. Everclear
This is the name of the strongest liqueur in the world, which got into the Guinness Book of Records for its alcohol content (95%). And although it is more likely to be real alcohol, it was nicknamed a liqueur for its soft taste.
14. Rotten Toe Cocktail
Perhaps this signature drink of the Canadian bar "Sourtoe Cocktail Club" is the leader of our list by its strangeness. The cocktail, which costs about 5 dollars, is made from a real severed human toe, doused with some kind of alcohol. According to legend, in the distant 1973, Captain Dick Sivens threw his toe into a friend's glass. And now the cocktail with the amputated toe has become a tradition for joining the local elite club.
15. Mezcal, or tequila with a caterpillar preserved in alcohol
A traditional Mexican alcoholic drink. It is made from fermented agave juice with the addition of a moth larva that parasitizes on this very plant (Hypopta agavis). To make mezcal, white or red larvae are used. By the way, the red ones are more valuable. The very first insects were added by the Navisa company back in the 40s of the last century, in order to somehow stand out among other manufacturers. As a result, some companies took this idea into circulation and still use it.
This marketing ploy is intended to show that the drink has a high alcohol content (40% alcohol) and that if the alcohol content were lower, the larva would dissolve. Often, a bag of scarlet powder is sold together with the bottle. This is nothing more than ground chili peppers, salt and dried caterpillars. The powder is poured onto the hand, licked off and then a shot of mescal is drunk in one gulp. Perhaps it tastes better than it looks.
16. Cocktail "Snake's Blood"
It is difficult to surprise those who travel to the countries of Southeast Asia with dishes and wines made from creeping things. For example, rattlesnake shashlik, grain alcohol or rice wine with a floating snake. But not everyone will dare to try the “Snake’s Blood” cocktail.
To make it, you only need 2 ingredients - strong alcohol (tuak, rice vodka, arak) and a snake with a freshly cut head or a cut belly. The blood is drained from the snake directly into your glass and mixed. You need to drink the cocktail in one gulp so that the blood does not have time to clot. This "delicacy" can be tried in Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.
17. Fugu hire-sake
You've probably heard about the poisonous fugu fish and how difficult it is to prepare. Here's another drink called "Fugu Hire-Sake." It's made from the dried tail and fins of the fugu fish, which are set on fire and then doused with hot sake. You have to drink it in one gulp.
18. Mamma Mia Pizza Beer
Tom and Athena Seefurt are a brewing couple from Illinois, USA, who are not afraid to experiment. They produce beer with a standard strength of 4.6% and… the taste of Margherita pizza. To make it, the brewers first prepare the pizza, then grind it to a mushy state, put it in a linen bag and place it in a vat of boiling water, brewing it like a tea bag. Then, based on the resulting infusion, they brew ale according to the traditional recipe. The resulting drink has a bright smell of pizza and an aftertaste of garlic, basil and oregano.
19. Milk beer "Bilk"
The Japanese have long been famous for their manic desire to combine the incompatible. Therefore, it is not surprising that a drink consisting of a mixture of beer and milk is widespread in this country. "Bilk" appeared as a result of overproduction of milk on the farms of the island of Hokkaido in 2006. The son of the manager of one of the liquor stores located on the island did not lose his head in this situation and agreed with the famous brewery Abashiri Beer to release a drink consisting of beer and milk. To everyone's surprise, many liked the milk beer - the drink was described as "light and pleasant". The "Bilk" brand became famous due to another factor: to name the new drink, the Japanese, without thinking twice, simply combined the words "milk" and "beer" ("milk" and "beer"), but the resulting word "bilk" is an English verb meaning "to deceive".
20. Rice vodka with scorpion and spider
In Thailand, a popular drink is rice vodka with a scorpion or spider. The latter, despite its impressive size, is not poisonous at all.
21. Shubat
This drink is very popular among the Mongols, and the method of preparation is similar to the well-known kumys, but not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance. The basis for airag is mare's milk, which is poured into a mare's stomach. A container with milk is hung at the entrance to the yurt and they wait until it sours and gains strength. The taste of the drink is specific, and the smell leaves much to be desired, but for variety and alcoholic memories, if the opportunity arises, do not miss the chance to try real Mongolian airag.
22. Jandia
An alcoholic Indian drink made from hay, fermented rice and various herbs (some of which are of unknown origin). The process of making handiya is quite labor-intensive: the herbs are first dried, then ground into powder, mixed with rice flour and rolled into balls. The herbal balls are left to dry in the sun, after which they are mixed with rice. The cooked balls are cooked into a porridge, which is left to ferment in the sun. At the end of the cooking, a cloudy and unappealing liquid is obtained, which is ready to drink. Handiya is believed to satisfy hunger for several days and cure many diseases.
23. Three Lizards Liqueur
To make this drink, rice liqueur is infused with real lizards (usually of the gecko family). Traditional Eastern medicine believes that this way the gecko's energy is transferred to the alcohol, and then to the person who drinks it.
