Ever looked at your glass of wine or beer and wondered whether humans stopped inventing new drinks after discovering the alcoholic drinks most of us are familiar with? Well, around the world, people have been brewing, fermenting, and consuming concoctions that range from the downright bizarre to the oddly genius. Think of snake-infused wines and fermented mare milk – these are some of the world’s strongest, strangest, and weirdest drinks you’ll ever come across.
For our first strange drink, we’re heading to South Asia, where you’ll find a rather unusual kind of drink – snake wine. And as the name suggests, this wine contains an actual, whole snake immersed in the storage container. Preferably, venomous snakes are used, as traditional Chinese medicine believed that their venom could add more health benefits to the wine.
While the ethanol is said to neutralize the effects of venom, snake wine is not a 100% risk-free drink to have. The drink has significance in traditional Chinese medicine and is still a very popular drink consumed in many parts of China, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
Status: Alcoholic
Alcohol by volume (ABV): 35-40%
Also Read: 7 Local Alcohols You Can Only Find In The Northeast
This next drink is made for our list of the ‘world’s strongest, strangest, and weirdest drinks’. Hoihoi Tatea is a drink served at the Green Man Pub in Wellington, New Zealand and has managed to grab eyeballs around the world. Why, you may ask? Well, the drink is basically an apple flavored drink with added horse semen.
Don’t worry; our reaction when we first heard about it was the same as yours as you read this. The owners claim that these drinks are not particularly popular among men but are favored by women. In fact, people jokingly say that those who consume this beverage become pregnant with horse-human hybrids. Only a truly adventurous person would be willing to try this drink if it doesn’t make them feel uncomfortable.
Status: Non-alcoholic
We previously introduced you to snake wine, and now it's time to present its cousin: scorpion vodka. This unique beverage is a Thai rice grain vodka infused with an actual scorpion - just as the name suggests! The vodka undergoes a special triple distillation process for maximum potency, and a scorpion is steeped in it for several months. This infusion gives the vodka a distinct woody flavor.
But worry not, these are not just any random scorpions lying around in fields. The creatures used in this infused vodka are raised carefully in a farm and measure about 3 to 4 cm long before being steeped into the drink. They’re also raised to be edible, meaning you can practically down the entire bottle along with the scorpion.
Status: Alcoholic
ABV: 37.5%
Also Read: Is Navratri A Dry Day? State-Wise Liquor Sale Rules Explained
Airag is one of the weirdest drinks in the world, simply because of how the milk product produced initially turns into an alcoholic beverage – quite an unconventional transformation! Mongolian communities in Central Asia collect mare’s milk and filter it through a cloth, followed by pouring it into a thick cowhide sack called ‘khukuur’.
They then use a wooden masher to stir the milk constantly, and it is this constant stirring that helps in turning the milk into a slightly alcoholic beverage with an ABV of just about 2%. The drink holds religious significance as well as health benefits – loved by many communities in Mongolia.
Status: Alcoholic
ABV: 2%
What if we told you that you could escalate to ‘cloud nine’ with just a sip of cactus tea? As strange as it may sound, the peyote cactus tea is known for its extremely bitter taste. The tea is made of the spineless peyote variety and is known for containing a hallucinogenic substance called ‘mescaline’.
This hallucinogenic substance causes a ‘high’, which is why the tea is consumed by those looking for a kick of hallucinogenic properties. However, you must know that consuming or possessing peyote and peyote tea is illegal in the United States and can get you under the legal radar.
Status: Hallucinogenic
Which one of these do you think is the weirdest drink in the world? Now that we’ve mentioned the top 5 world’s strongest, strangest, and weirdest drinks, which one managed to amaze you and which one managed to make you squirm in discomfort? From fermented mare milk to horse semen shots, we’ve listed some of the most whacky and bizarre drinks the world consumes – drinks that might be bizarre for us but are totally normal in other parts of the world.
