The Sourtoe Cocktail, A Quirky Yukon Hotel Drink That Contains a Severed, Preserved Human Toe

In a dactylic episode of Things You Might Not Know, the rather adventurous host Tom Scott travelled to Dawson City in Yukon, Canada, where he stopped in at the Downtown Hotel for a taste of their signature drink, the Sourtoe Cocktail. This cocktail is a fairly typical sour with the big exception of a severed, preserved human toe that sits right in the middle of the glass. Customers are invited to enjoy the cocktail and must touch the toe with their lips, but the toe itself cannot be swallowed, eaten or otherwise consumed. Scott volunteered to try it, but doesn’t drink alcohol, so the toe was transferred to a glass of ginger ale. He drank the soda rather quickly, but left the toe intact.

In Dawson City, a small mining town in the Yukon, sits the Downtown Hotel. Inside there is a tradition that tourists have been trying out for decades: the Sourtoe Cocktail.