Learn About Sourtoe, The Most Disturbing Cocktail Served To Man

'You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch this gnarly toe.' - An Ode to the Initiated, anon.

No one would think ill of the Canadians; after all, they are the mellow, friendly folk on the upper half on the Northern American Continent. But Canada holds the secret of the most disturbing cocktail ever served to man, at the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City in the Yukon.

We are talking about the Sourtoe, usually a whiskey cocktail, though the drinker may choose their poison, with an extra little feature - the amputated phalange from the foot of an old gold-digger. The rule goes “drink it fast or drink it slow, but do not swallow the toe”! Sounds quite simple, doesn’t it?

Well one unfortunate American ignored the rule and down the drain did the dehydrated toe go. Joshua Clark, a writer from the U.S. swallowed the toe. He enraged the town, was charged with cannibalism and desecrating a corpse, fined $500 and chased out of town. One local declared, “If we find him, we will get ourselves ten new toes.”

Years later he apologized, by reading a poem he wrote by himself in front of a packed house, pledging his big right foot to the bar upon his death. He even brought his own shears as proof of his honesty!

And you thought Long Island Ice Tea was a tough drink.