Canada's bizarre mummified toe cocktail
AlamyBorn following a nasty case of frostbite, the Sourtoe Cocktail has become a rite of passage for locals and visitors – and it might just be the world's most unusual drink.
On my second night in Canada's northern Yukon Territory, a bartender at the Eldorado Hotel pulled out a pair of tongs, plucked a mummified toe from a silver tray, plunged it into a glass of alcohol and dropped it into my glass of Yukon Jack whisky with a plunk.
"Whose toe is that?" I asked. "And which toe is it?"
"Not really sure," he said, with a sly smile. "It's a gnarly one, though."
The dehydrated, salt-preserved digit was black and shrivelled. In its heyday, it may have been a well-kept pinky. Or perhaps one of the less celebrated middle toes, finally getting their spotlight.
Warning: This article contains images and descriptions that some may find upsetting.
I was in Dawson City, a 2,300-person former gold mining hub located 330 miles (531km) from the nearest actual city, about to try the famous Sourtoe Cocktail. This two-ingredient drink (a shot of whisky and… a toe) has been a tradition here for more than 50 years. It just might be the world's most unusual libation.
A laminated white flyer on the worn wooden table explained the "Sourtoe Rules", noting that my membership to the Sourtoe Cocktail Club would be voided if I chewed, sucked, bit or otherwise ingested the severed digit. It also exclaimed, in extra-large letters, that there was a $2,500 (£1,884) fine for swallowing it. I was happy to limit toe contact as much as humanly possible.
Most patrons feel the same way. However, there have been accidental swallowings in the past, plus a notorious incident in 2013 where a man downed the toe on purpose and was reportedly run out of town for unsportsmanlike conduct.
"Are you ready to join the club?" the bartender, who identified himself as the official "Toe Captain", asked me. It was too late to back out now. I nodded. He then recited the official "Sourtoe chant", adding to the romance of it all:
"You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch this gnarly toe!"
And with that, I dutifully took my shot of whisky through clenched teeth as someone's former toe kicked me in the mouth.
Yukon TourismA cocktail born in a blizzard
Before Dawson City was famous for its toe-garnished cocktail, it was famous for its gold. When the mineral was discovered nearby in 1896, it became the epicentre of the international Klondike Gold Rush. Within two years, tens of thousands of people descended into the area in search of fortune. The town grew from a network of prospector tents to include saloons, hotels and restaurants – many of which still stand today.
But when gold was struck elsewhere a few years later, the prospectors moved on and the town's population plummeted, leaving the few remaining hardy residents to eke out a living in Dawson City's harsh landscape, 60 miles (96km) from the Alaska border.
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The Sourtoe's origins go back to US Prohibition (1920 – 1933), when two rumrunner brothers, Louie and Otto Linken, got stranded in a blizzard while smuggling booze across the border to Alaska via dogsled in the 1920s. Louie stepped into icy water and soon suffered frostbite. According to legend, they journeyed on, but when it became clear Louie needed an amputation, Otto took out an axe and hacked off his brother's toe in their remote cabin. The brothers kept the toe in a jar of alcohol for posterity.
In the early 1970s, Dawson resident Dick Stevenson (locally known as Captain Dick) found the jar while cleaning out the brothers' abandoned cabin, and for unknown reasons, decided it would make for a great cocktail garnish. Thus, the Sourtoe Cocktail was born in 1973.
AlamyAs the story goes, Captain Dick thought it would be fun to let people become honorary "sourdoughs" (Gold Rush slang for locals) by drinking the Sourtoe. Initially, he dared some friends and saloon patrons to try it. Dawson City's isolated location and history of colourful, rough-and-tumble characters played into the legend of the Sourtoe nicely. Word soon spread, and before long, visitors started sidling up to the bar to taste the toe-flavoured tipple.
A Yukon rite of passage
Today, the Sourtoe has become something of a must-do for visitors who make the long journey to experience Dawson City's Gold Rush history and rugged frontier culture, and some 140,000 people have downed the daunting drink. All automatically become members of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club, and their names are proudly written in a hefty ledger book post-sip.
Terry Lee has served as the main Toe Captain – the bartender tasked with serving the mummified toe to patrons and presiding over the ceremony – for 13 years. During the busy summer season, he works five days a week, making 75 to 100 Sourtoes a night during his four-hour shift. The Sourtoe is served between May and September at the Sourdough Saloon (in the Downtown Hotel), then the rest of the year at the Eldorado Hotel's Sluice Box Lounge.
"It's considered somewhat of a rite of passage. A lot of the locals have done it," said Lee. Since Captain Dick (the original Toe Captain) passed away in 2019, several other people have been trained as Toe Captains, but Lee is the modern face of the toe.
Tourism YukonLee first tried a Sourtoe in 1980 with Captain Dick and immediately fell in love with the history. A few months into his Toe Captain tenure, a customer accidentally swallowed Louie's original frostbitten toe, so Lee was one of the last people to drink with the original appendage.
Over the years, the catalog of toes has grown from one to around 25, which are used in rotation today. The toes arrive in a variety of ways. Captain Stevens donated all 10 of his toes when he died in 2019. A British athlete who suffered frostbite in the Yukon Arctic Ultra marathon donated three of his digits in 2018. An untold number of people have willed their toes to the Downtown Hotel (including the tourist who swallowed one, in an effort to make amends). Sometimes, toes show up in the post unannounced.
Dawson City today
Like much of Dawson City, the Sourdough Saloon looks like it's straight out of the Gold Rush era, with its wooden tables, red wallpaper and swinging doors. The Sluice Box Lounge has a similar vibe, with velvet swivel barrel bar stools emblazoned with the hotel's name.
The town still has no traffic lights or crosswalks. Many of the buildings have been standing since the 1890s. Colourful false-front facades dot the streets advertising businesses like the Diamond Tooth Gerties Gambling Hall, The Dawson City General Store and Bonanza Market. In summer months, there's nearly 24 hours of light. In winter, the Yukon River freezes over and part of it becomes an official government-maintained ice bridge.
Alamy"Because the weather and the environment are so extreme here, it attracts people that are extreme in other ways. You get a lot a big characters," said Tara Kehoe, the exhibit curator at the Dawson City Museum. "Dawson is a weird intersection of people who love living in nature and are artistically inclined, so you get a lot of people with big, strange ideas because of that."
This toe-garnished cocktail is the kind of offbeat creativity Dawson City is now known for. The town has also hosted annual events like the Great Klondike International Outhouse Race, a town-wide Easter egg fight on the frozen river and a spring carnival called Thaw Di Gras.
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"The Sourtoe has become a weird sort of bragging right. Everyone here loves it, even if they haven't tried it. If you have friends coming to town, you have to take them to at least watch other people drinking it," said Kehoe.
She added: "The Sourtoe is so odd that it really sticks in your mind. Even when I've travelled overseas, when I tell people I'm from Dawson City there's always a person or two who says, 'Wait, isn't there a drink with a human toe?'".
In a weird way, the cocktail has become a community bonding experience – and the toe's grip on tourists is only getting stronger. In June this year, The Sourdough Saloon set a new record, serving 156 toes in a single night, the crowds joining in on the iconic chant.
You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow…
Having now done it, I'd suggest drinking it fast.
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