They Drink Spit, Don’t They?

Disgusting beverages of the world (Image: Andreas Ahrens/Disgusting Food Museum via AP)

Yes, friends, they do. They drink other disgusting beverages as well, such as wine concocted from child’s feces or from baby mice, and more. All are on display at the Disgusting Food Museum in Malmo, Sweden, which in the past has served up tempting displays of bull testicles and maggot-infested cheese.

The purpose of the display is not to disgust (well, not entirely), but to enlighten. The museum’s curator, Andreas Ahrens, is quoted by the Associated Press as saying, “People are very desperate to get drunk around the world. So whenever we find ourselves in a situation where there is no alcohol, we get quite inventive and we’ve been doing this for millennia.”

How inventive? There’s chicha de muko, a spit-fermented cornmeal beer from Peru and a wine made from overripe oranges fermented in the tank of a prison toilet. (There’s no explanation of why a prison toilet is used or whether any other toilet will do.)

In Iceland, they drink a beer made with whale testicle that’s been smoked in sheep’s dung. Frog smoothie, anyone?

Some of these libations are believed to have medicinal qualities. In the old days, if you broke a bone in South Korea, you were given “poo wine.” Presumably, the country was filled in those days with bones that mended incorrectly.

A chalkboard at the entrance to the museum is used to record how many days have passed since a visitor vomited. In case you’re wondering, it is revised from time to time.

See also…