World's most dangerous drinks

[malcolmwilliamson]

How many of these have you tried? What did they taste like?

World's most dangerous drinks

[Carolyn Tillie]

Well, I haven't had the new kick-butt whiskey, but I have had Absinthe, Moonshine, and Everclear...

[Kent Wang]

Everclear is definitely dangerous! I burned my hand in a stupid fire-breathing trick with it, needless to say while under its influence.

Also, more fun names for Everclear drinks: Gatorade + Everclear = Faderade ('getting faded' being an expression for getting drunk).

Edited March 1, 2006 by Kent Wang (log)

[Snowy is dead]

cement mixer shot: lime juice and baileys. Not physically dangerous, but the vomit factor is exceptionally high.

[slkinsey]

Here are the drinks listed in the article:

- Bruichladdich's 92% abv whiskey

- Absinthe

- Hjemmebrent, a high proof (and illegal) Norwegian moonshine

- Everclear

I'm not sure I agree that any of these are "dangerous" -- although I can't think of any reason I'd drink anything with Everclear in it.

[Bridgestone]

Disclaimer - didn't feel like reading the article...

"Hjemmebrent" is certainly the same as what folks in Sweden call "hembränt". The word literally translates to "home-burnt" and refers to distilling your own alcohol, i.e., moonshine.

This, perhaps, is the only drink on the list that I'd actually consider "dangerous" in any sense beyond the dangers of getting (too) quickly drunk on high-proof liquor. I'm far from a pro but my memory is that methanol can boil off initially in the distilling process before the ethanol starts vaporizing. Upon condensation, if this isn't kept seperate and discarded then there's a risk of consuming methanol which leads to a mess of acute health problems (blindness, death, etc).

(As an aside - I think I remember hearing from a toxicologist that anyone who suspects that they have consumed methanol should immediately consume/be administered some ethanol as the body will then need to metabolize the ethanol, too. By keeping the body occupied with ethanol one may be able to excrete the methanol without it ever being metabolized by the liver and turned into toxic formaldehyd. Sure, there are easier ways to get a drink but when was the last time you got to say "Cheers!" in the emergency room?)

Oh, and one more danger with high-proof liquor - it's extremely flammable (and not always in the humorous, Revenge-of-the-Nerds sense...).

Sorry if I'm just repeating stuff from the article!

Edited March 1, 2006 by Bridgestone (log)

[Jenny McClure]

What about Potcheen (sp) it is an Irish spirit that was illeagal for many years. They have now made a much weaker version whcich isleagal to buy. But the original stuff was first made by the monks and was complete rocket fuel. Really Vile stuff altogether. I want to say that is made from potatoes, but I am really not sure

[Splificator]

I can't think of any reason I'd drink anything with Everclear in it.

Were you never 19? I have--what's the word I want? fond? queasy? sheepish? alarming?--memories of a night spent doing Everclear shots and slam-dancing to the Buzzcocks with a girl with vivid pink hair and tattooos, back when only Marines had tattoos and old ladies from Pensacola had pink hair. Ah, youth.

[Raoul Duke]

In '98 on a visit to North Vietnam we had some home brewed shine with a dried lizard floating in it. The locals thought of it as a cure all. Wasn't as bad tasting as it looked or sounds, actually did two shots and bottle of Hanoi beer chaser. Still ended up with dysentry for 11 days.

Raoul

[slkinsey]

I can't think of any reason I'd drink anything with Everclear in it.

Were you never 19? I have--what's the word I want? fond? queasy? sheepish? alarming?--memories of a night spent doing Everclear shots and slam-dancing to the Buzzcocks with a girl with vivid pink hair and tattooos, back when only Marines had tattoos and old ladies from Pensacola had pink hair. Ah, youth.

Heh. Oh, I've had any number of drinks of Everclear. I just can't think of why I would drink any of it now.

Luckily for me, during my formative drinking years (er... substantially younger than age 19) I was able to sneak booze from the big glass bottles of Fish House Punch my parents aged in the basement for a year to use in their big Xmas party. I can only imagine that the Kinsey children were the only ones in America during those years getting loaded for the first time on Fish House Punch.

[biscuit]

In my recollection, Everclear does indeed taste of Koolaid. The color indicated its relative strength - yellow early on in the evening moving on to the much stronger purple for anyone left standing.

Lately I've experimented with using it for extractions - it pulls flavor out pretty fast.

As for most dangerous, I'd have to say it was Ouzo served at the jewelry stores in Santorini, Greece. A successful marketing ploy for sure.

[Jmahl]

Thirty-five years ago in Chinatown NYC four of us ordered one Singapore Sling before dinner. It came in a frosted 10" tall glass with a slice of orange and a paper umbrella as garnish. We all got smacked on one drink. THAT'S A DRINK.

Good libations to all,

Jmahl

[Alchemist]

i am right now in Zihuatinehjo. I just had "fresh daquri" with H.C 7 and then some stuff that wold make most bartendres hack and spew. i fear for my life, and I don't give a rats ass at the same time. MMMMMMMMMM

[Raquel]

i am right now in Zihuatinehjo.  I just had "fresh daquri" with H.C 7 and then some stuff that wold make most bartendres hack and spew.  i fear for my life, and I don't give a rats ass at the same time. MMMMMMMMMM

←

Alchemist, say "Hello" to Dufresne & Red for me...

[MikeInSacto]

(As an aside - I think I remember hearing from a toxicologist that anyone who suspects that they have consumed methanol should immediately consume/be administered some ethanol as the body will then need to metabolize the ethanol, too.  By keeping the body occupied with ethanol one may be able to excrete the methanol without it ever being metabolized by the liver and turned into toxic formaldehyd.  Sure, there are easier ways to get a drink but when was the last time you got to say "Cheers!" in the emergency room?)

←

This is true. The same enzyme that metabolizes methanol to formaldehyde also metabolizes ethanol. For many years, the only treatment for methanol poisoning basically involved keeping the patient drunk until the methanol was excreted. Nowadays, they use dialysis to remove the methanol, I believe.

Mike

[srhcb]

Back in the early 70's, whenever I visited friends in Las Angeles, we would go to the Tonga Lei, a "Polynesian" restaurant on the beach in Malibu.

It was one of the "tiki" themed restaurants that were popular in the 60's. (I understand it later became a Don the Beachcombers.) The menu was rather exotic for the time, and as I recall, their version of Peking Duck was pretty good, although I'd never had anything to compare it to.

They also featured fancy drinks in hollowed out pineapples and the like. One night my friend Beetle asked the Oriental waiter why a drink was named the "Suffering Bastard".

The waiter replied, "You drink, you see."

Beetle ordered the drink, which came in a large wooden bowl and had several flowers and kinds of fruit floated in it.

He drank it. He found out why it was called "Suffering Bastard".

[MaxH]

(As an aside - I think I remember hearing from a toxicologist that anyone who suspects that they have consumed methanol should immediately consume/be administered some ethanol as the body will then need to metabolize the ethanol, too.  By keeping the body occupied with ethanol one may be able to excrete the methanol without it ever being metabolized by the liver and turned into toxic formaldehyd.

Yes indeed, as another poster already mentioned. I believe it has been posted here before. Overload the alcohol dehydrogenase in the liver. (Q: Is that the same enzyme that interacts with the alpha-amanitin in one phase of Amanita mushroom poisoning?)

I've had some very good moonshine from the Southeastern US. Sold in Mason jars and a true "artisanal" product. (This was before some of the recent posters who disdain mere $30 commodity Cognacs like Remy Martin were born, BTW.) I imagine it doesn't do to poison the customers, if you do know what you're doing -- they won't return -- and whoever made that stuff knew what they were doing.)

Some absinthes are more toxic than others. The stuff from colonial Macao way back when was more toxic than others.

[Carrot Top]

Beetle ordered the drink, which came in a large wooden bowl and had several flowers and kinds of fruit floated in it. 

He drank it.  He found out why it was called "Suffering Bastard".

←

I drank something similar to this on my first solo trip to Mexico. It was in Acapulco, early afternoon before an evening flight out.

I was fifteen years old, travelling alone.

I may have been a suffering bastard the next day (as I remember I definitely was ) but that afternoon it took more the shape of "The Wizard of Oz" for I could not find my plane ticket or passport to get onto the plane to go home.

For a while there, I thought that the rest of my life would be spent in Acapulco.

Some kind soul located my passport, and the agent at the airport confirmed my flight without a voucher.

I guess they didn't want me to be sick, "there" but rather back on my own home soil.

......................................................

Rusty Nails.

Now there's another horrid beverage.

And it doesn't even come with a paper umbrella nor any hint of "native culture".

[slbunge]

Methanol metabolization is linked with blindness. One of the dangers, really, of any home distilled spirits from plain old white lightnin' to pot stilled grappa made by Italians in their garages.

I seem to remember a New Yorker article about how it also can result in 'jimmy legs', that phrase made so popular by Kramer on Seinfeld. Does anyone have the New Yorker DVD set to confirm or deny my recolleciton?

[slkinsey]

That's odd re the Suffering Bastard. I've never heard of it being associated with Tiki Bars or Mexico, nor being served in a bowl with fruit floating in it. I've always heard of it as a gin, whiskey and lime highball.

I seem to remember a New Yorker article about how [drinking methanol] also can result in 'jimmy legs', that phrase made so popular by Kramer on Seinfeld.

You're probably thinking of "jake leg" -- a characteristic kind of paralysis that resulted from drinking too much Jake (slang for Jamaican ginger extract patent medicine) during Prohibition. This was not due to methanol however, but rather to organophosphate-induced delayed neuropathy caused by the tri-o-tolyl phosphate that was added to Jake. If I recall correctly, the magazine article explored the question of why so many blues songs containing the words "jake leg" and "jake walk" appear around the years of prohibition.

[srhcb]

Methanol metabolization is linked with blindness.  One of the dangers, really, of any home distilled spirits from plain old white lightnin' to pot stilled grappa made by Italians in their garages.

I seem to remember a New Yorker article about how it also can result in 'jimmy legs', that phrase made so popular by Kramer on Seinfeld.  Does anyone have the New Yorker DVD set to confirm or deny my recolleciton?

←

"Jimmy Legs" is an actual medical condition aka Restless Leg Syndrome. (you may have seen the recent tv commercials on the subject) Perhaps the word "jimmy" has some connection to "jimmying", or picking a lock?

Besides the Seinfeld episode, the term appears in Melville's "Billy Budd".

[srhcb]

That's odd re the Suffering Bastard.  I've never heard of it being associated with Tiki Bars or Mexico, nor being served in a bowl with fruit floating in it.  I've always heard of it as a gin, whiskey and lime highball.

←

Well, the Tonga Lie played fast and loose with the term "Peking Duck" too. That's just the way things were in Malibu back in those days.

SB (also met the "Manson Girls" in LA back then, and sat in Dionne Warwick's baby blue Rolls convert before she did)(and had many other adventures, some of dubious legality!)

[elixirofthetropics]

What about Potcheen (sp)  it is an Irish spirit that was illeagal for many years.  They have now made a much weaker version whcich isleagal to buy.  But the original stuff was first made by the monks and was complete rocket fuel. Really Vile stuff altogether.  I want to say that is made from potatoes, but I am really not sure

←

I've had 2 forms of the legal Poteen. (Would like to try the original someday.) I like it.

[elixirofthetropics]

How many of these have you tried? What did they taste like?

World's most dangerous drinks

←

I had everclear once (1993). I used it as a mixer. Not too bad. Here in MD, they've a version of Everclear called Clear Spring. Just as strong but different name.

The highest I'll go is 100 proof, and it is a very rare exception that I'll go higher than that. The other day I bought a bottle of Bocador 151 rum to try; a 2nd exception to my personal rule of thumb in 10+ years.

[phlip]

actually i dont think everclear and these wierd drinks are nearly as dangerous as a well crafted cocktail. im thinking of milk and honey in nyc. i just cant seem to leave with out having probably two too many cause they are so damn good. they just go down so easy and they are best when cold or frothy or both demanding almost quick consumption. that said i will mention how me and my friend back in pittsburgh used to drink our boiler makers. wed have them with guiness and jack daniels. wed drop the shot of jack right in the glass and jug the pints right down. suprisingly delicious and packed an instant wallap. not as dangerous as the drinks at milk and honey or a few other joints nyc is fortunate to have but not one you wanted to drink more than one or two of. cheers