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OK. This has a yuck-factor to it. I have heard of it before, have you? In Canada, in (we used to say “the”) Yukon, it’s fashionable to drink a Sourtoe Cocktail. And yes, it has a real human toe. The original toe was lost in the early 80s though, when someone accidentally swallowed it. The current toe is a replacement.

The cocktail consists of a severed human toe in Yukon Jack liqueur and the drinker must touch their lips to the toe in order for it to be official.

The columnist at the National Post writes:

Let’s put this barbarism into a bit of context.

Back in 1973, Captain Dick Stevenson, a former riverboat captain, was cleaning a Dawson-area cabin when he found a preserved toe of the former owner, who lost the digit in the 1920s from frostbite while smuggling liquor to Alaska with a dogsled team.

Since then, visitors to Dawson City, stopping for a drink (or several) at the Downtown Hotel, have the chance to “do the toe,” that is, down the beverage of their choice, served with the preserved toe. It is some kind of macho northern Canadian madness.

There’s even a poem:

You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow. But the lips have got to touch the toe.

Full story: National Post.

More stories about Cocktails & Spirits.

Photo credit: Screenshot from sourtoecocktailclub.com