The Cocktail With a Kick (Literally): Patrons in Canada Go Mad for Human Toe Drink

We’re all for drinks that have a little bit of a kick to them, but we think this is taking it a little bit TOO far to be honest. Ladies, do you want to know what the latest cocktail sensation is in Canada? Well, it’s a drink that contains a real-life severed human toe. Yes, really.

The Sun reports today that the Sourdough Saloon in Dawson City, Yukon Territory is offering brave patrons the chance to have a swig of its famous Sourtoe drink. The drink itself costs €5 (that’s around €3.90 to us) and is made up of a beer glass filled with champagne, and a pickled human toe sitting in the bottom of the glass.

We don’t even have the words to describe how queasy this makes us feel…

But drinkers are flocking to the pub to try the drink and if they successfully drink the beverage (while allowing the pickled toe to touch their lips) they’re given a certificate to mark their achievement.

The toe-challenge is so well known in the area that there’s even a rhyme that goes with the drink: “You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow – but the lips have gotta touch the toe.” Charming, right?

Toe-tally awesome: the famous Sourdough Saloon in Dawson City, Canada.

The famous cocktail has been a part of the menu at the Sourdough Saloon for a whopping 29 years and according to legend, in 1973 a man named Captain Dick ‘River Rat’ Stevenson found a severed toe preserved in a pickle jar and decided to create the drink.

Apparently the original toe only lasted seven years before someone accidentally swallowed it. Nice.

Nowadays though locals in the area donate their digits to the bar so the tradition can continue. The current toe came after someone lost it during a lawnmower accident.

But is it dangerous to swig out of a glass that contains a human toe? Apparently not and local health care officials insist that there are no side-effects of the drink.

“There is no issue with the toe. The risk of freezing on the way to the bar or being attacked by a pack of wolves would be higher,” said Patricia Living, the communications director for Yukon Health and Social Services.

Hmm... even with that reassurance we don't think we'd be brave enough to try it. Would you?