FOOD & SPIRITS

If you feel like a drink more exotic than the normal whisky or vodka, it might be an idea to plan a trip to Vietnam or China or Japan. For nothing can beat the bizarre range available in these countries. Saurabh Deb, a commercial designer who has been working in Vietnam for close to three years says that he is stunned at the array of unusual drinks available in Vietnam. "I enjoy my drink and have always been open to experimenting but what you get here is stretching even the most experimental drinker's endurance. I remember once some of us went to a drinking hole a little distance away from Hanoi and there was snake wine being served. I was so psyched that I couldn't drink a drop the rest of the evening."

Poisonous reptiles, baby mice and even scorpions can be found in drinks across Asia. Snake wine or whisky for instance, is popular and is commonly believed to work as an aphrodisiac. From cobra whisky to vine snake wine there is quite a range available. There are two ways this drink is made: one where a large venomous snake is placed into a glass jar of rice wine, left to steep for many months and then drunk as wine in small shots and the second method is where the body fluids of the snake are mixed into the wine and consumed immediately. Vietnam actually has snake penis wine (ah, so that's why they think it is an aphrodisiac). China too has quite a following for snake wine. Lizards, which belong to the same family, can also be found in a brandy like liquor, which is made by fermenting the gekko in rice wine. It is said that lizard wine has been around for centuries in China and was even exported to other countries way back in history. There's more on the deadly wine list. Scorpions in vodka, whisky or mescal are quite common not only in Asia but also in Latin America. Scorpion is said to lend a woody taste to the alcohol and the myth is that this too works wonders as an aphrodisiac. In case you think that snakes and lizards are the lowest one can go, there's more. In China and Korea dead baby mice wine is drunk with glee by a certain section of society.

CHEERS TO EEL ENERGY

Roshan Sharma, an IT professional who has been working in Japan for the last five years says that some of the drinks on supermarket shelves leave him flabbergasted. "Initially I could never figure out what the labels meant but now that I can read Japanese it really amazes me what people can drink. Have I tried anything exotic? Yes, at a party I had something called Unagi-Nobori, which was an eel energy drink." Eel juice is apparently quite a hit in Japan and locals knock it down both in the form of an energy drink or as wine.

Like Vietnam, Japan too produces some of the strangest drinks in the world. If you happen to be a beer lover you may balk at the thought of the Japanese drink called Bilk, which is mainly beer with some milk. This is targeted at the ladies as they are supposed to like a sweet taste in their drinks. Japan is also the first country to create a beer for children and one of the main ingredients in it is the Latin American plant guarana. Though it is non-alcoholic, the beer is sold in bottles, cans and even six-packs and marketed in a manner that kids think they are consuming an adult drink.

There are those who actually enjoy flavoured beer: in Chicago one can find the Mamma Mia Pizza Beer where the beer is brewed with all the ingredients found in pizzas like tomato, oregano and basil. Then we have the chocolate donut beer, which is brewed in Alexandria, Virginia and, yes, even a Champagne beer, which is said to be the world's first champagne lager that is refermented in bottles.

WE PREFER COW URINE

Call it luck, good or bad whichever way you choose to see it, Indian drinks don't quite figure in the extraordinary list. Nevil Timbadia, Partner, Bonobo, says, "I don't think in India there are drinks that use deadly reptiles although desi dhara (Indian home made liquor) can be quite deadly." At Bonobo, the most exotic cocktail is the Ratnagiri Rhapsody where ingredients like kaffir lime, kokkum, cumin seeds and star fruit are used. However India may soon make it to the weird drink list with cow urine or Gao Jal, which is slated to release end of the year. Any takers?