The world of alcohol is as wonderful as it is unusual. Besides the (boring) grapes and wheat that we make our wine and beer from, we humans have tried to turn all sorts of stuff into drinks.

Strangely enough, some of them are still considered delicacies today… I’ve even sampled a few of them.

Let’s take a look.

1. Raki

Starting off mild, we have a clear Turkish drink made of, surprisingly, grapes. It’s made by taking grape pomace, the remains of pressed grapes (skins, seeds, stems and all), distilling it twice, and then flavouring it with aniseed. The result is a very strong, spicy, drink that is commonly served slightly diluted with water.

The water turns the Raki milky, hence its common nickname, aslan sütü , or Lion’s Milk. You might have noticed the term “lion” being thrown around- you have to be quite brave to take this drink, which can reach up to 90% ABV!

That said, it’s pretty tasty, but definitely an acquired taste. Goes well with kebabs.

2. Cointreau

Going a bit off the beaten track, how about a drink made of orange peels?

Other types of orange liquors exist, such as Triple Sec, Grand Marnier and Curaçao, but we like Cointreau the best. While the exact recipe is a carefully guarded secret, we do know that it is made of a combination of bitter and sweet orange peels. While we wonder how people figured out which peels were sweet and which were bitter ( I mean, do they eat them? Smell them? Put them under an electron microscope?), the final drink is a sweet, citrus-y syrup that is commonly used in cocktails like White Lady and Cosmopolitan.

Goes well after dinner, with ice cream, cake, or in cocktails.

3. Smoked beer

You might have heard of a smoky taste in your whisky, but how about your beer?

Made in Bavaria, Germany, drinking these beers is like putting a barbecue in your mouth.

While a typical malted barley used in beer production is dried in a kiln, which is a kind of enclosed oven, those used to make smoked beer are dried over an open flame. The burning wood and fuel imparts the smokiness to the beer itself.

Yet another acquired taste, we found that it goes best with barbecues, char kway teow, or even hokkien mee, where the tastes complement each other perfectly.

4. Pizza beer

Not happy with just barbecues? How about beer that goes well with pizza? You know, because it tastes like pizza.

Yes, tastes like pizza.

Made by the Seefurths in Illinois, this beer was the end-product of their goal of creating a beer “that would pair with a wide variety of foods, especially [o0ur] favorite, Pizza”. It’s made of tomatoes, basil, oregano and garlic and apparently also goes well with curry and fish and chips.

5. Kumis

When you’re a nomad, you usually have a problem with making wine. After all, having barley fields and vineyards are prerequisites to getting barley and wheat, which are kinda required for making most of the alcohol we know of today.

No worries though, there’s a solution for everything.

Kumis is made by slowly fermenting raw mare’s milk over a few days, while slowly churning it like butter. Apparently, this used to take place in horse-hide containers, which is not perhaps not so surprising considering the origins of the rest of the drink! It is served cold. You can see a video here.

Apparently , it has a slightly sour taste that “grows on you”. We’ll leave you to decide.

6. Snake and scorpion wine

Going further up the crazy meter, we have snake wine. Made with real snakes. Oh, and let’s not forget the scorpions.

Made by dunking a snake in real live snake (or scorpion) in a bottle of regular liquor, it’s said to have medical benefits, including boosting fertility and virility. Okkkay.

Apparently, it’s safe to drink because the alcohol actually dissolves the snake or scorpion venom and makes it harmless. Mostly. There was a case of some mildly pissed snakes waking up after 3 months of being soaked in a bottle of liquor. True story.

No, I’ve never tasted this one. Apparently it’s available in Vietnam and China. Good luck.

7. Mice wine

If you think snakes and scorpions were interesting, how about a wine made with dead baby mice.

In the same vein as the snake wine, newborn baby mice are thrown into a bottle of liquor and fermented. Apparently, the Chinese really like putting dead animals in their drinks.

Apparently, it tastes like gasoline. Yuck.

Nope, I’ve never tried this one either.

8. Seagull wine

We couldn’t actually get a picture of this one, but maybe it’s good that we didn’t.

Eskimos created this drink, one presumes, because milking polar bears and fermenting their milk for alcohol seems like quite a challenging prospect.

The process is quite simple actually. Take a dead seagull, put it in a bottle, fill it with water, and leave in the sun for a couple of months.

Yuck.

9. Three penis wine

Saving the best for last. This alcohol is actually what it says on the bottle. A wine made from three different animal (hopefully) penises. the normal ones are deer, dog, and seal. Apparently, this is not a prescription, since there’s also a five penis wine.