It is hard to imagine that in Russia, during a feast, someone instead of the usual bottles of vodka or champagne will put, say, a bottle with a real snake inside. Meanwhile, for Asian countries it has become almost commonplace for a long time.
What do they drink
The Vietnamese became the discoverers of the scary drinks. It was they who began to add real snakes to bottles with wine, and only then this exotic method of production migrated to other countries of Asia.
Many connoisseurs of alcohol go to eastern countries precisely in order to taste these unusual drinks, because their import is prohibited in many countries of the world, including, for example, the USA.
The recipe for such drinks can be very diverse. It is believed that the best alcohol comes from live reptiles. A snake, say, a viper is placed in a bottle and poured with alcohol - wine or rice vodka, leaving a certain amount of air so that for some time after the bottle is closed, the snake can still breathe and die gradually, releasing poison and other substances useful for the human body into alcohol …
According to another recipe, a cut snake, along with poison and blood, is added to a bowl of rice wine, drunk, and the snake's meat and entrails are eaten.
Often, scorpions, lizards or insects are also added to bottles with unusual drinks. This is done for a purely decorative purpose; these creatures do not impart any special properties to wine.
In Japan, they prepare the drink mamushizake sake, infused with the only poisonous snake that can be found in this country - mamushi. From China to Japan, they deliver the habu sake drink, which contains 13 different herbs and spices and, of course, the habu snake. It is considered to be the best medicine for joints and spine.
How and why they drink
In this case, you should not be afraid of snake venom - it is a protein substance in composition, and the protein is neutralized by alcohol. True, there were times when the snake inside remained alive, and it did not end very well for the owner of a bottle of alcohol.
A resident of the Chinese city of Sizhou, who brought a bottle of snake wine to Moscow, was bitten in the neck by a hungry snake after uncorking it. The poison did not hit the wound, so the Chinese remained alive.
For the most part, such foods are not even alcohol in the usual sense. Most often these are tinctures and balms sold in pharmacies. And you need to drink them not like ordinary alcohol, stack after stack, but very dosed or rub in externally. If you buy wine or vodka with a snake in Asian markets or liquor stores, be extremely careful before consuming this product.
In some countries, alcohol with snake venom is believed to cure almost all diseases. To check it on yourself or not is everyone's business.
