Cocktail of the Week

Our second Cocktail of the Week appears in honor of my two fellow finishers from the 2006 Q'pungies and their respective hatred for the human foot...

The Sour-Toe Cocktail

The Q'punga Cocktail of the Week for
March 11-17, 2007!

The Sour-Toe Cocktail is the specialty of the house at the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City, Yukon Territory. In its original form, the cocktail was comprised of two elements:

1. A beer mug filled with champagne, and
2. The frost-bitten and pickled big toe of a 1920's rum runner and bootlegger.

This first toe, introduced in 1973, was accidentally swallowed the toe while finishing off his thirteenth (and record-breaking) Sour-Toe Cocktail. Luckily (or sadly, depending on perspective), other actual toes were donated to the bar where they have been dehydrated and preserved in salt so that the tradition may continue. There's a fascinating history of all eight sour toes offered here.

The Cocktail no longer requires champagne, but is made to the drinker's choice. The Sour-Toe Cocktail Club reports, "The Sourtoe can be had with any drink now (even ones that aren't alcoholic), but one rule remains the same. The drinker's lips must touch the toe. 'You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow-- But the lips have gotta touch the toe.'"

For more information:

• The Downtown Hotel in Dawson City, Yukon
• The Sour-Toe Cocktail Club
• If you liked your lunch and want to keep it, do not under any circumstances type the phrase "Sour-Toe" into a Google Image Search. You've been warned.