We Drank Whiskey With A Human Toe In It (Sourtoe Cocktail)

Shae and I had been looking forward to doing the Sourtoe Cocktail for about 7 years.

Just before setting off on what was meant to be a 5 year, 50 state road trip (which subsequently got extended to 7 years), we came across an article about how a bar in the Yukon needed more amputated human toes because someone had come in and swallowed one when doing the Sourtoe Cocktail.

Yep, there’s a lot to unpack in that sentence! Here’s more about why we made a diversion to Dawson City in Canada while driving up to Alaska to ensure our lips touched that gnarly toe.

History Of The Sourtoe Cocktail

The origins of the Sourtoe Cocktail date back to the 1920s and a rum runner called Louie Linken. He and his brother Otto were making alcohol deliveries across the border (this was during the Prohibition era), when Louie stuck his foot in icy overflow and completely soaked his foot.

The brothers were concerned that the police were following them, so they pressed on. However, Louie’s toe ended up getting frozen solid and he had his brother amputate his toe using an axe due to concerns about gangrene.

The two of them preserved the toe in alcohol, with Captain Dick Stevenson finding it in an abandoned cabin in the 1970s. Captain Dick and his friends decided to start the Sourtoe Cocktail Club and a tradition was born.

Where Can You Drink The Sourtoe Cocktail?

The quirky drink is served up in the Sourdough Saloon on the ground floor of the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City.

Dawson City is a small town in the Yukon in Canada, about two hours east of the US/Canada border.

How Many Sourtoes Have There Been?

There’s been a total of 17 toes used in Sourtoe Cocktails since the tradition began in 1973. Per a memorial sitting outside the Sourdough Saloon:

• 5 have been swallowed
• 3 were stolen
• 1 was lost
• 6 were used up
• 2 are still being used

Yes, five have been swallowed which is against the rules and risks a substantial fine and prosecution (more about that later). At least some of those have been swallowed deliberately, but I’m curious if some were swallowed accidentally after people gagged on the toe. In past years, the rules of the Sourtoe Cocktail stated that you had to have the toe actually enter your mouth, but that’s subsequently been downgraded to only needing to have the toe touch your lips.

Six toes have been “used up” in the last 50+ years. Over time and despite best efforts at preservation, the toes naturally degrade and so have to be retired from service.

Where Do The Sourtoes Come From?

Many toes get donated from people who’ve had to have one or more of their toes amputated for one reason or another. For example, in 2019 a British adventurer donated two of his toes to the Sourdough Saloon. He’d participated in an endurance race called the Yukon Arctic Ultra and suffered from frostbite. Three of his toes had to be amputated and he decided to mail two of them to Dawson City for use in Sourtoe Cocktails (I’ve a feeling it’s his toes that were in our drinks when we participated).

Is It Safe To Drink The Sourtoe Cocktail?

Yes! Toes are mummified for ~1.5 months before being used in the bar. In the past they were preserved in salt between drinks, but now they sit in a glass of alcohol.

How Many People Have Done The Sourtoe Cocktail?

At the time of our visit in May 2024, 113,825 people had completed the challenge. We saw quite a few other people doing it after us that day, so I imagine that the total is at ~115,000 at the time of publishing this post.

What Are The Sourtoe Cocktail Rules?

When drinking the cocktail, you’re no longer allowed to put the toe in your mouth, nor can you chew, suck or bite it. If you do swallow it, you’re fined $2,500 CAD (~$1,825 USD) and risk prosecution. You toe-tally don’t want to get nailed for doing that.

Most importantly though, there’s an all-important instruction:

You can drink it fast
You can drink it slow
But your lips have gotta touch the toe

Our Experience Drinking The Sourtoe Cocktail

After checking in at the Downtown Hotel (you don’t have to stay there to drink the Sourtoe Cocktail – it’s open to all members of the public of drinking age), we headed downstairs to the Sourdough Saloon.

Shae and I had discussed ahead of time what drink to have the toe placed in. Shae was planning on ordering Fireball because as she said to me “I can drink anything with Fireball”.

I’m a lover of puns, so I was considering Hornitos tequila because of ‘Horni-toes’. When ordering though, it seemed like the default was Yukon Jack whiskey which, seeing as we were in the Yukon, seemed like an appropriate option and so we both went with that.

Both of us figured we might need something to wash things down with afterwards, so Shae ordered a glass of wine and I got a double of Bulleit bourbon.

We were soon called over by the captain to partake in the legendary tradition.

While he completed his records and prepared the certificates we were about to earn, we fixated on the toes awaiting us. One was sitting in a glass of what looked like whiskey, with the other sitting on a silver platter. It seemed like the toes alternate between usage, so Shae and I experienced different toes.

In addition to their coloring, what was particularly notable about the toes was how long they are. I’d been picturing the toes being small and shriveled up, but both were more lengthy than we’d anticipated. At least one of them was an “index” toe (i.e. the long toe next to the big toe).

Shae went first, with the captain holding the toe in a pair of tongs, waving it around in front of her face while proclaiming the slightly amended instructions:

You can drink it fast
You can drink it slow
But your lips must touch the gnarly toe

After chugging down her Yukon Gold, it was my turn. The experience wasn’t as gross as I’d imagined; I thought I might psych myself out of it, but I didn’t have any problem downing the drink.

My biggest problem was having the toe actually touch my lips. The toe was so long that it got wedged at the base of the glass, so I had to shake the glass until the toe dropped to my lips, spilling a little of the remaining whiskey down my face in the process!

After both completing the challenge, we each received our certificates…

…took a photo with the inimitable captain…

…and picked up an additional memento of the experience.

Video Of The Sourtoe Cocktail

If all that hasn’t already whetted your appetite for partaking in a Sourtoe Cocktail, here’s a video of our whole experience:

Question

Would you do the Sourtoe Cocktail? Let us know in the comments below.