Gargle Blaster

You just need to get used to it!

"Never drink any drink with a paper umbrella in it, never drink any drink with a humorous name, and never drink any drink that changes colour when the last ingredient goes in."

—Mustrum Ridcully, Hogfather

A drink so potent the whole room hushes when someone orders it. The bartender pales and asks, "Are you sure?", and then, after putting on a welding mask and asbestos gloves, takes the bottle out of a locked safe and pours it with tongs. When the stirring spoon is removed, it's been melted away, and the ice cubes jump out with a yelp when dropped into it. And that's just the beginning of the fun.

Consumption often results in a Fire-Breathing Diner, Intoxication Ensues, the Mushroom Samba, or if you're lucky, quick, merciful unconsciousness. If you're UNlucky, all of the above. Except unconsciousness, at least until the least opportune moment.

A common scene involves a character (often a Cloudcuckoolander) downing an entire Gargle Blaster and suffering no ill effects, causing everyone else in the room to be thoroughly confused. Someone else tries it, because obviously it must be weaker than it's supposed to be, and ends up with the usual effects.

Named after the Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster from The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy; drinking one has been compared to "having your brains smashed out with a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick." You may need a Hideous Hangover Cure to recover from it. The Screwball Serum is an explicitly non-alcoholic variant, whose end results may be equally disturbing. Another variant is the Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce, which is served as a condiment, not as a drink. For the opposite, see Klatchian Coffee. May be served with a Masochist's Meal.

Beware of anyone who has this as their Drink Order.

Contrast with I Drank What, when someone drinks something that's not supposed to be drunk at all. Compare/Contrast with Unsuspectingly Soused, when someone drinks a Gargle Blaster without realizing it's alcoholic, and A Tankard of Moose Urine, when beer is just bad without excessive (or necessarily any) alcohol content.

Examples of Gargle Blaster include:

Advertising

• A commercial from 8TV Malaysia's early days involves a skit where a tea lady offers all sort of strange concoctions which everyone except the sane nerd of the office orders. The tea lady then explains that 8TV is different from the other channels, and the sane nerd, still a little unconvinced, ends up ordering wasabi tea.

Anime & Manga

• Sadaharu Inui from The Prince of Tennis is infamous among his peers for making disgusting vegetable juices. He often uses them as punishment for players that fail their training exercises. One drink was even called "Penal Tea". The only two known survivors of these drinks are Tezuka and Fuji, though once even Fuji was KOed by one of the drinks and swore "never again" to be incapacitated by it by winning the next outing event.
• In Martian Successor Nadesico, Megumi's opening gambit in winning Akito's heart through his stomach is an "energy drink" that's one of these, made from a nonsense list of horrible ingredients. She gives it to him as he's begging for something to wash the taste of Yurika's equally horrific Lethal Chef fare out of his mouth. It really, really does not help.
  • In Japanese, the ingredients list is a combination of folk "potency" (prehistoric Viagra) remedies.
• The ungodly "energy drink" seems to be a fairly common trope in anime, and even Super Robot Wars uses it, going so far as to include it as an item with very unusual effects.
• One episode of Oh My Goddess!: Flights Of Fancy had Belldandy pitted against Sayoko in a drinking contest. At one point, Bell is still standing strong while Sie is having trouble speaking coherently... so she decides to bring a bottle of her most potent stuff—and collapses upon opening it and smelling its contents. Sayoko had to be taken away by paramedics, while Belldandy did eventually get drunk... on cola.
• The Ai Yori Aoshi anime has a bottle of liquor that Tina brought from America. It glowed in the dark. Taeko, the resident Meganekko—slash--Dojikko drank a cup straight, and everyone thought it was fine. As it turned out, Taeko is just really good at holding her liquor, and naturally, Hilarity Ensued.
• The suicide sauce from Air Gear. From the ingredients we heard, we know it has ginger ale, coffee with milk, plum-flavored seaweed tea, chestnut juice, raw egg, spicy barbecue sauce (which, it should be noted, caused Kazu to freak out and say "He's gonna kill us dead!"), chipotle mayonnaise, oyster sauce, fish sauce, and habanaro pepper sauce. Then, upon losing a race, Ikki was forced to gulp it down while wearing something that forced his mouth to stay open. Yuck...
• The Kamogawa energy drink in Rinne no Lagrange is deadly to anyone who isn't Madoka.

Comics

• In Knights of the Dinner Table, during a Hackmaster campaign, a particular bar requires first-time patrons to order Gut Busters. They use it to weed out low-level characters; drinking a drink of it does 1d10 damage, which is more than most first-level characters have. Bob's character, after being assaulted by certain patrons, gets a double, forgetting both that he's been injured and that each shot does 1d10 damage. He dies from the drink, to the shame of his party members.
• In the Achille Talon album Viva Papa!, the only product of the Banana Republic of Tapasambal is an alcohol made from cactus juice. The locals seem able to drink it without trouble, but when the hero and his sidekick Lefuneste sip a little, they instantly turn red and produce cartoonish jets of steam. Along with the obligatory Les Tontons flingueurs (see below) Shout-Out: "Cha, ch'est une boichon d'homme, cha!" ("Now, jhat'sh a men'sh drink, jhat!").
• Subverted in one old Hagar the Horrible strip: told that "You gotta be tough to drink in this place" at the bar he's frequenting, Hagar downs something that creates the typical effects... but when he asks for a glass of water afterward, the bartender tells him, "That was a glass of our water!"
• In Nodwick, we have "Skullwhomper Ale". The effects are rarely shown in the comic itself, but its consumption almost invariably leads to some sort of Noodle Incident. The destruction of the local tavern it is served in is a frequent component to these, and when a local Elven/Dwarven war takes over the town, the invaders end up classifying the ale as an incendiary weapon.
  • Skullwhomper Ale was initially brewed by a dragon who did intend to use it as an incendiary weapon. When it found out that people were stealing its concoction for drinking, it was so embarrassed that it gave Nodwick the recipe and completely gave up on its plan.
• The Kickapoo Joy Juice from Li'l Abner, having been described as "more inflammable than jet fuel".

Film - Animation

• There's whatever Honest John was drinking in An American Tail. Seems to do nothing to him but get him drunk, but it does burn holes in the floorboards.
• In The Rescuers, Luke the muskrat is always toting a jug of "swamp juice" which he charitably gives to anyone who looks a little tired ("It's good for what ails ya."), leaving the poor drinker with fire and smoke coming out of his mouth. That, and it gives the dragonfly, Evinrude, a burst of energy—and is used for fuel in a jetski-like vehicle.
• On Monsters vs. Aliens, Dr. Cockroach offers Susan's folks some "atomic gin fizz". It explodes as he's mixing it. Lord knows what would have happened to the poor soul who would ingest it.
• In The Emperors New Groove, Kronk is mixing up Yzma's poison for Kuzco at dinner. As he proceeds to add in the poison, a horrifying pink explosion explodes out of the cup.
• Cactus juice in Rango. A fly drinks it and keels over... and then one of its eyes pops out. It also made Rango breathe fire (after eating a lit cigar).

Film - Live-Action

• The Nutty Professor features the "Alaskan Polar Bear Heater", a drink invented by the lead character and dictated to a barman. Although Buddy drinks it without any noticeable effect, the barman takes a sip and loses consciousness.
• In Back to The Future III, "Authentic Frontier Whiskey" is strong enough to cause the bar to smolder. Doc, who Can't Hold His Liquor anyway, downs a glass and drops like a brick at the most inconvenient time. Also, when they try to fuel the DeLorean with some of the bartender's strongest whiskey, it blows the fuel manifold out of the ass of the car!
• Quint gives Brody a glass of something he made himself in Jaws. Brody can't handle a sip of it without spitting it out, and tells Hooper not to drink it. Hooper downs it anyway, and merely coughs, so maybe Brody is just a lightweight.
• A very famous scene of French movie Les Tontons Flingueurs revolves around the gangsters drinking some Gargle Blaster in a kitchen. (This whole scene was intended as a homage to Film Noir Key Largo.) Some of the best parts, translated, can be found on the quotes page.
• The Disney flick Condorman has the title hero (a comic book writer pretending to be a CIA agent) order an "Istanbul Express" for a Russian spy he's trying to impress — and a double for himself. The waiter, shocked, says, "Nobody orders a double!" He promptly makes it a triple. As a spoof of the trope, the drink is actually served on fire, resulting in a hilarious Fire-Breathing Diner scene.
• Another Disney flick, Snow Dogs, features "soup", which is stored in a hip flask. When questioned about the quotation marks, the maker replies, "Well, there's soup in it."
• Revenge of the Nerds. Another Alpha Beta brother asks Stan Gable to try a drink called simply "Fireball". He has one sip straight from the bottle and promptly spits it out all over. As it turns out, it has a ridiculously high proof, and Haystack later spits it through a lighter's flame and burns down the AB house.
• Star Trek: Romulan ale.^[context?]
• In The Great Escape, Americans Hilts, Hendley and Goff celebrate the Fourth of July by distilling some homemade booze and sharing it with the others. It appears to be powerful stuff.

Bartlett: In the three years, seven months, and two weeks that I've been in the bag, that's the most extraordinary stuff I've ever tasted. It's shattering!
MacDonald: (mildly) Well, I think it's rather good.

Game Books

• Bor-brew ale from the Lone Wolf series doesn't look that threatening and even has a pleasant taste ("malted apples"). It has a fearsome reputation because it's the favored beer of dwarves. The first time Lone Wolf can drink it, he runs the risk of falling unconscious and waking up with a hangover that robs him of Endurance. Later it seems the brew became even more potent; the second time he can drink it, he runs the risk of suffering horrifying hallucinations, falling unconscious, and waking up with a hangover that again robs him of Hit Points. Yes, even the beer is trying to kill Lone Wolf.

Literature

• The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy has the Trope Namer, the Pan Galatic Gargle Blaster. The sixth book, And Another Thing..., written after Adams' death, includes a drink made from dragons' souls.
• "Scumble" from the Discworld books is a particularly potent form of hard cider (it's frequently described as being "made from apples... well, mainly apples" and was said in the GURPS Discworld to have "some qualities of fresh apples in autumn and some of dimethyl hydrazine before liftoff"); typically sold in tiny thimbles because overindulging can cause all sorts of horrible side effects, including seeing horrible green hairy things bursting through the walls. Nanny Ogg's specific version is sometimes known as "Suicider". The following quote details some of the mythology which is typical of a good Gargle Blaster:

"A lot of stories are told about scumble, and how it is made out on the damp marshes, according to ancient recipes passed down rather unsteadily from father to son. It's not true about the rats, or the snakes' heads, or the lead shot. The one about the dead sheep is a complete fabrication. We can lay to rest all the variants of the one about the trouser button. But the one about not letting it come into contact with metal is absolutely true..."

• • As everyone knows, there's no danger of encountering watered-down scumble — because scumble reacts explosively when it contacts water.
  • There's one humorous scene in Mort where, due to his naivety and duties as substitute Death, orders a pint of the stuff (to considerable surprise), downs the whole thing without being affected (to even more surprise), and then walks straight through the door without opening or damaging it (leaving everyone positively stunned).
    • Rendered very amusingly in the "Big Comic" edition where the view cuts to the horrified customers exclaiming "A pint?!?" in hushed tones when Mort places his order.
  • See the Real Life section below for the drink scumble is based on.
  • In Monstrous Regiment, the troll equivalent of a Gargle Blaster, the Electrick Floorbanger, is prepared by dropping silver and copper coins into vinegar; the resultant crude battery temporarily shorts out the troll's silicon brain.
    • Also mentioned is the rotgut brewed by and flogged to soldiers, hangman (one drop and you're dead!)
  • Trolls also have a drink called luglarr, or "Big Hammer", a variant of Troll beer made by adding certain metallic salts to the drink that manages to make it even more dangerous—very hard to do. The result is roughly the same as scumble, to the effect that anyone who can't simply be pushed over minutes after drinking some is considered almost preternaturally resistant to its effects, even by other trolls. To sum up: this stuff etches pavement (and remember, trolls are pretty much made of rock).
  • Thud also mentions fluff, a cocktail made by mixing dwarf beer and scumble (which is the non-troll inebriation equivalent of adding gasoline to a fire).
  • From Sourcery comes "Desert Orakh", which is a mixture of scorpion venom and cactus sap that's been left to ferment in the sun for several weeks. It's actually noted that it isn't drunk as an alcohol, but as a counter to Klatchian Coffee.
  • In Hogfather, Bibulous the God of Alcohol is about to drink a lovingly-described, heavily-garnished, layered cocktail when he gets hit by the side-effects of the Hideous Hangover Cure consumed by Bilious, the Oh God of Hangovers ("Does anyone hear a slide whistle descending...?").
  • An early Discworld book mentions the mountain farmers making a strong real-life liquor called applejack by putting buckets of cider out in the winter and letting everything but the alcohol freeze.
  • In the Tiffany Aching series, there is the often-referred-to "special sheep liniment", a type of moonshine whisky which all the sheep-farmers keep around for cold nights; it is said to put hair on your chest. It is often speculated by people who are unfamiliar with it what would happen if one were to actually give it to a sheep, with the implication usually coming back that they are not sure, but it probably wouldn't be good.
  • The Last Continent features a mild example of this in a beer known as "Funnelweb" (a type of venomous spider). Except that's not it's name, that's the list of ingredients. It actually manages to turn Rincewind into an optimist.
  • In Snuff Willkins has created a non-alcoholic Gargle Blaster for the recovering alcoholic Vimes. Vimes isn't sure exactly what gives it its kick, and isn't sure he wants to.
• Maple mead from Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series is always discussed with trepidation by the main characters. The Dendarii mountain folk, who are backwards even for a backwards planet like Barrayar, don't mess around with their alcohol. In moderation, the drink doesn't have much kick. The first glass or two taste sickly sweet, the next few glasses taste pretty good... and then you wake up the next morning with a killer hangover.
• The Yahtzee novel Fog Juice is named for the Gargle Blaster prepared by the protagonist to solve problems. It is said to be a recipe passed down through generations of university students, which can be summed up as every bottle in the kitchen plus a large mixing bowl. Its main advantage is that when you come round, whatever unfortunate situation you were in will definitely have resolved itself—however, you may have a few new problems, the least of which is working out where you are and how you got there. It also renders you completely immune to all other forms of alcohol in the future, even notoriously evil Pirate Grog. And allows you to access the collective human unconsciousness with an avatar of your inner self. For the main character, this is a terrifying floating mass of tentacles which are themselves made of vomit. The female lead, in disgust, wonders pointedly what this says about him.
• The most popular drink in the title country of the Welkin Weasels series is honey dew, "known to make angels out of hawks and devils out of hickory sticks." (Translation: It's really strong, though it may just be strong in proportion to the weasels, who are very small and presumably can't handle huge amounts of alcohol.)
• The Commissar by Sven Hassel. While behind enemy lines in Soviet uniform, the German protagonists are stopped by suspicious NKVD men. Tiny invites them to take a swig from his bottle. The NKVD men do so, turn pale and collapse. Tiny then drinks from the same bottle with no ill effects.
• In one of the Captain Future books, a character orders some drink which the others describe as something like "one ounce makes you feel like being hit with a meteor, two make you become one". Being an android, the character drinks the entire (ceramic) bottle with no visible effect, and then orders wine with radium chloride—which does make him drunk.
• The title hero of the Sten series drinks an alien brew called stregg, a vile libation named after said aliens' (extinct) ancestral enemy. Since even the Eternal Emperor—a whiskey-swilling immortal gourmand who is centuries old and brews his own 180-proof moonshine in a car radiator—is shocked by the potency of stregg, one can assume that it is literally the worst rot-gut in the universe.
  • In the same scene, Sten proves capable of downing entire glasses full of said 180-proof moonshine like it was distilled water, because after you've gotten used to drinking stregg a mere 180-proof beverage doesn't even get you buzzed.
• In the Night Huntress books, Bones gives Cat a bottle of his special moonshine to drink to persuade a recalcitrant ghost. (It Makes Sense in Context). She ends up drinking the entire bottle when she was only supposed to have a few sips. Bones is amazed that she's alive, let alone that she can walk (barely).
• "You let her drink a Gravedigger?" (The Blood in Anne Bishop's Black Jewels universe have very high metabolisms, especially when their power is deep. This makes it difficult for some characters to get drunk without making use of a Gargle Blaster concoction. Or two. Or seven. On the other hand, if a more mid-powered Blood gets any in them, Hilarity Ensues.)
• The fourth book of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, Wizard and Glass mentions one of these. In the bar in Mejis where young Roland and his compatriots are staying, the bartender dumps the unfinished drinks of all her customers into a keg labeled "Camel Piss", and charges a small sum to anyone who is stupid, brave or desperate for alcohol enough to want to drink it.
• Dragon's Blood in You Fire Me Up by Katie McAlister.

Live-Action TV

• The cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 once invented a non-alcoholic Gargle Blaster in the form of the Killer Shrew, a drink that combined about twelve different types of sugar in a blender (chocolate ice cream, Captain Crunch with Crunchberries, peanut M&Ms, Mrs. Butterworths syrup, circus peanuts, Mr. Pibb, Marshmallow Peeps, Sweet Tarts, vanilla cake frosting, Good'n'Plenty, and "garnished with a wind-up shrew"). Joel had one taste, went into diabetic shock and passed out; Frank, on the other hand, had one sip and went hyperglycemic, singing "Ladies' Night" and attempting to dance with Dr. Forrester.
• On the episode of Married... with Children the Bundys sit around a smoking glass of yellow liquid and Peg and the kids urging Al to drink it by telling Al it's Tang (even though Al points out that "Tang don't smoke").
• Star Trek: The Next Generation featured a just-barely Gargle Blaster on the episode "Relics", where James "Scotty" Doohan was a guest star—it was apparently the only real alcoholic beverage on the entire ship. Data tasted it several times to try to determine its composition, was perplexed, and finally settled for describing it (accurately) as "... green."
  • The big surprise at the end of this sequence—intended to showcase the hard-drinking Scotty's contempt for the weak, pampered, synthehol-drinking inhabitants of the 24th century—is discovering that Picard knows it as Aldebaran whiskey and, in fact, was the one responsible for stocking it on the ship.
  • This was also a Shout-Out to an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series where Scotty engages an Alien Of The Week in a drinking contest (and eventually drinks that alien under the table), and the only description he can give of the final beverage he brings out is, "It's green."
  • "Up The Long Ladder" featurs Worf ordering a syntheholic Klingon drink called Chech'tluth for a Space Irishman who is looking to get drunk. Despite being a champion drinker, one sip of the stuff makes the man tipsy and renders him unable to communicate except in desperate gasps for several seconds.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine features a bar regularly, but the mix that most evoked this trope is the (implied to be aptly-named) "warp core breach".
  • Klingon Blood Wine is so stated to be much stronger than whiskey—so much so that it is used as a test of character for candidates for induction into the Order of Kahless.
• A Lost in Space episode where Doctor Smith is mistaken for a lookalike gunslinger and plays it to the hilt, ordering the gunslinger's favorite drink in a saloon on a Western Planet, inspiring awe among the crowd. IIRC, the bartender actually has to assemble the ingredients wearing heavy gloves.
• Granny's "tonic" on The Beverly Hillbillies.
• Baxter's illegal hooch on Red Dwarf. In Rimmer's words, "That stuff is like 300% proof. A bottle of that will get the entire Greek Navy drunk!" At 300 proof, by the by, the drink is 150% alcohol. On the British scale, 300 degrees proof would be about 171% alcohol by volume. It pulls alcohol from another dimension when drunk. Or Rimmer is just an idiot... wait.
  • Yes, because obviously TV characters in a comedy show aren't allowed to exaggerate for comic effect!
  • In series 6, when the crew were without the Red Dwarf, Kryten brewed up an opaque liqueur which might fool the unwary into believing it looked like margaritas. It was in fact urine recyc, and left stains that needed removing with turpentine and no happy drinkers at all.
  • Another Red Dwarf example: in the episode "Gunmen of the Apocalypse", Kryten asks for "the stuff where you get your eyesight back in three days -- guaranteed." Later, Lister, Rimmer, and Cat presumably try the same stuff, causing Rimmer to throw up in somebody's hat.

Lister: (hoarsely) Very smooth.
Cat: I was expecting something with a little more kick to it.

• On Cheers, Carla is known for making strong drinks with names such as "Leap Into An Open Grave" and "I Know My Redeemer Liveth." The former gets Diane hammered, to which Sam comments, "Oh, Carla, you made her an Open Grave, didn't you?" The latter gets everyone hammered, resulting in Cliff and Norm getting embarrassing tattoos and Carla sleeping with Paul.
• The "Recipe" for moonshine on The Waltons, given the respect it was given by everyone who knew what it really was (unlike the two elderly sisters who brewed it from their late father's, um, recipe). However, no one was ever really shown getting blitzed on the stuff.
• On Greek, the Honors Engineering students whip up a batch of "Aerosol Death Juice" for their party, and have one of the wildest parties ever to grace the Kappa Tau house. And if you consider that Kappa Tau is the Delta House of CRU's Greek Row, that's saying something.
• Top Gear has made what James May dubbed the 'Bloody Awful' (Jeremy Clarkson, who came up with the recipe, called it "a man's V8 smoothie", while Hammond suggested "A Desperate Shag in a Skip"). It consists of several pounds of beef (raw, with bones), a dozen chillies, a half-gallon of bovril, what looks to be about two cups of Tabasco sauce, and, for extra bite, a BRICK. It was all mashed together with a V8-powered 'blender' of Clarkson's design. James May drank some down, because he is A MAN. Apparently, it wasn't particularly pleasant.

Clarkson: That'll put testes on your chest, that will.
Hammond: It's put hairs on my eyeballs!

• In the Australian soap opera spoof Let the Blood Run Free one character's "friends" are trying to corrupt him before his wedding night. After all else fails they resort to a glass of PURE ALCOHOL! (which is steaming ominously). He takes a swig, immediately declares that he's going to get his rocks off with a nearby prostitute, then collapses unconscious.
• In a Murphy Brown episode where the crew is staying in a Mexican hotel, Miller and Frank order one of these. The bartender says "Dios mio." and crosses himself before making the drink.
• Black Books has "Life Cry". Fran shows it to her friends and they fall silent, awed by what is apparently the most potent drink in the Black Book universe. As Fran remarks: "You know you're in for a good night when there's a picture of a polar bear bleeding on the label".
• In one episode of Bottom, Eddie, asked if he has any alcohol, produces a bottle apparently containing a mixture of Brandy, Meths, Pernod, paint stripper, Mister Sheen, brake fluid and Drambuie. ("You've got to put something in for the birds, haven't you?") Richie takes a sniff, recoils, and asks...

Richie: How are you alive?
Eddie: (tapping side of nose) I may very well not be.

• • In another episode, they combine Pernod, Ouzo, marmalade and salt to create a cocktail Eddie eventually dubs "The Esther Rantzen" on the grounds that it pulls your gums back over your teeth.
  • In yet another episode, Eddie makes home-brew in a bathtub. He's not sure if it's bitter or lager, but it's taking the enamel off the tub. After sampling it (in saucepans, since it keeps dissolving the mugs) the verdict is that it is a cheeky little number with a certain robustness that demands attention - possibly medical.
    • And in one of the Bottom stage shows, Eddie accidentally ferments various bathroom chemicals with his own breath (and flatulence) to create "Weapons-grade lager", a drink so potent that a single sip gets you completely drunk. You then fall unconscious for exactly twenty-four hours and wake up at the same time the next day ready to start drinking again.
• In The Young Ones episode "Interesting" Vyvyan drinks a mysterious blue drink that removes his hair and reveals a '666' tattoo, causing the Christian to remark, "Behold the Beast," though whether it was alcoholic was not mentioned.
  • Vyvyan is known to mix his drinks with paintstripper and bleach, resulting in a very strong hangover.
• It's non-alcoholic, but the Milk and Pepsi drunk on Laverne and Shirley may qualify.
• Tom's homemade wine in The Good Life.
• On Parks and Recreation the Swanson family makes their own moonshine 'whose only legal use is stripping paint off of speedboats'. April has a fit after drinking one sip of it and everyone is amazed that Leslie can drink a few glasses as part of a Drinking Contest. Ron's mother and ex-wife are able to drink it without much effect and Ron ends the drinking contest by consuming half a jug in one gulp.
• One episode of ER has Dr. Susan Lewis ordering drinks, and when the bartender gives them to her, they're in martini glasses a foot wide with multiple paper umbrellas.

Bartender: There you go. Two Sacrificial Virgins.
Susan: Oh my God! How much alcohol is in those?
Bartender: Enough to make you forget you're being thrown into a volcano.

• 1000 Ways to Die has the "USSR-Dead" 'case': A Ukrainian immigrant joining the Russian Mafia accidentally drinks sulfuric acid (the same one used to burn his fingerprints so no one could link him to any crimes) while celebrating his initiation. So do his "patrons". They all die when their innards freaking dissolve.

Mythology

• In Haitian mythology, Baron Samedi, the Loa (ie, god) of death loves to drink fiery, home-brewed rum spiced with hot peppers. Not surprisingly, he is often depicted as a drunkard who loves to party.

Music

• Filksinger Tom Smith is particularly well-known among science fiction fans for his song "307 Ale", about a beer accidentally brewed in a tesseract and named for its resultant proof level. (This song probably inspired "357 Vodka" and the other beverages from the example above.)

It bubbled and it burbled and it glowed a fizzly green
And what it did to test equipment frankly was obscene...

• • A Seattle-based filker created an answer song called "307 Hell," about what happens to the drinker under the influence of said ale. It involves puking on a cop, getting tossed in the drunk tank, and having to raise "307 Bail"
• The title brew of George Jones's song "White Lightning" is implied to be about one of these.

A city slicker came and he said "I'm tough"
I think I wanna taste that powerful stuff
He took one g-g-glug and drank it right down
And I heard him a-moaning as he hit the ground...

• The Two Ronnies as Jehosaphat and Jones:

A man went to a barmaid, said mix me up a drink,
A cocktail made up of whatever you think.
She mixed it, he drank it, he went quite cross-eyed,
And three hours later he came to and cried...

• Dos Gringos (a USAF fighter pilot band) gives us Jeremiah Weed:

Chris: Now everyone is curious and they all want to know
Does it make you smarter? Will it make your penis grow?
It won't bring you women, and it won't bring you luck
So why do we drink it?
Every fighter pilot in the room: 'CAUSE IT TASTES LIKE FUCK!

• The Poxy Boggards have a song called "Happy Jack's Undrinkable Ale" (here covered by the Wild Oats):

Our captain once tried a tankard of Jack's mighty potion.
He seemed alright, so we all went off to bed.
We awoke to the screams of our captain way up in the crow's nest.
He tried to fly with the wind -- but he ended up dead!

• That good ol' Mountain Dew probably qualifies, given that the fumes from the still in which it's made intoxicate any birds flying over it.
• Gaelic Storm has a song about "Johnny Jump Up", an especially potent "cider".
  • It's a traditional Irish song that has been done by a variety of performers.
• The Flanders and Swann song "Have Some Madeira, M'Dear" treats the fortified Portuguese wine madeira in this manner, especially for the innocent young thing who imbibes it to excess at the behest of a Dirty Old Man.

Radio

• The aforementioned "Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster" from The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy is described as the best drink in existence. It also says that the effect of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick, and it sums the entire drink up as the alcoholic equivalent of a mugging. That is to say, expensive and bad for the head. It was invented by Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox who, naturally, has had a few. The book noted that there exist a number of twelve step programs on numerous worlds that can help a person begin recovering from the drink. Not recovering from a drinking habit, mind you, just from one drink. Note that, in the TV series, it corrodes a table.
  • Hitchhiker's Guide also features Old Janx Spirit, which in addition to getting people drunk also suppresses their telepsychic powers. (This property is exploited in an amusing Drinking Game, which Ford plays to lose.) An old Orion mining song describes its side effects as: "my head will fly, my tongue will lie, my eyes will fry and I may die". Naturally, it's an ingredient in the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.

Stand Up Comedy

• In one bit, Patton Oswalt talks about the Guinness in Ireland, which he describes as tasting like a "cupcake and handjob smoothie". He goes on to say, "You don't even realize you're getting drunk, until two hours later, when you're punching a fire hydrant."
• Jay Mohr talks about the "gret" beer he had at a pub in Scotland, which he describes as "black, with leaves in it, and piping hot. I took one sip, and instantly shit my pants."

Tabletop Games

• The Gargle Blaster is a common running in-joke among several Tabletop Games groups, featuring such novel notions as alcohol proofs greater than 200 (such as the distilled vodka "357", which is somehow 178.5% ethanol) and a drink known as "Engineer's Entropy", which is so potent, it must be stored separately from other alcohol, handled with tongs, and served in a reinforced crucible. At worst, it causes instant death. At best, irreparable liver damage and a round of applause.
• Warhammer Fantasy Battle's goblin fungus beer allows goblins (more or less a human-child in size) to easily swing around metal balls bigger than them. It also make them meaner and crazier, and you're never sure where they are going to impact.
• Tales From The Floating Vagabond, is a sci-fi comedy RPG centered around a dimensional nexus that's also a pub. The house special is called "The Singularity", which only the Floating Vagabond's bartender knows how to mix without killing the person ordering it. There's a random table you roll on whenever you drink one. Some of the results from that table include "Imbiber instantly goes to maximum intoxication stage", "Imbiber is temporarily taken over by a past life", "Imbiber grows extra limbs", and "Imbiber's clothes come alive and gain sentience".
  • The absolute minimum possible result from drinking a Singularity is +5 Intoxication Points... which in the Vagabond system is the mechanical equivalent of drinking an entire case of beer and then finishing it off with three shots of vodka. The second-mildest result is 10 Intoxication Points. The result above that is "instant unconsciousness". There are sixteen tiers of intoxication above this on the Singularity table.
• BattleTech has the PPC, named after the Particle Projection Cannon, because it can "take your head off". Two shots of Everclear with your choice of either a shot of Peppermint Schnapps (Steiner), Tequila (Davion, Capellan March), Bourbon (the rest of Davion), Ouzo (Marik) plum wine (Liao), sake (Kurita), or MORE Everclear (Periphery)
• In the Tol Galen LARP/tabletop system (played only in the channel islands and filled to the brim with references) there are a few of these, the best established being Goblin Krakk (named for puns and the ballistic missile warhead from warhammer 40k) which is made from adding white powdered substances to berry juices and fermenting in however you can, it causes literal brain rot. Most recent addition to this list is called Surt (after the norse fire giant destined to ingulf the world) that was invented by accident when Blackwatch (a mercenary company with a hideously complex corporate structure that borders on SCP foundation levels of protocol) sent the recipe for its existing gargle-blaster called Reaver (Brewed up by the poison department as a beverage strong enough to hide the taste of the hideously powerful combat drugs Blackwatch constantly trials on its forces, named after the Firefly characters that also inhabit our system as the virus) to its "Alternative power sources" division, roughly translated as the people who want to build weapons that make magic obsolete. The name for Surt is derived from the fact that the recipie was created on the containment site of an Utsuho expy and related materials contaminated the first batch. When the first bottle was opened the artificial atmosphere ignited and almost lead to a major containment breech. To cut a long story short, there is a drink in our system with the same properties as a thermobaric weapon.
• Changeling: The Lost has the Brewer Kith of the Wizened Seeming—basically, changelings who were put to work mixing reality-bending concoctions for the enjoyment of the True Fae. These were the guys who made the cider that knocked out Rip Van Winkle, and it shows—their Kith blessing is the ability to spend a point of Glamour and turn any liquid into an alcoholic concoction. Even at the lowest levels of their power, it's still possible (through very lucky rolls) to create a drink that can knock a man unconscious in one gulp.
  • There's a special Contract only they can get that lets them do this without even touching the drink in question...Which doesn't sound too useful, until you realize that you can do this with ANY Drink you're close enough to (Faerie healing elixirs, a Hunters Buffing Potions). Need to get a guy to spill a secret? Sit across the room, wait for him to take a drink of just about anything, and BOOM, he's spilling his guts.
• The D20 Guide to Alcohol (a third-party AD&D book), has an entire section composing largely of these. One of note is Minotaur Malt Liquor, a beer that can literally put hair on your chest, and horns on your head. Get smashed off the stuff and fail your save? Congratulations, you'll be a minotaur by this time next month.
• The GURPS Dungeon Fantasy supplement Taverns contains special drinks that are either Booze-Based Buff, or this. For example, drinking the Vorpal Brew will cause one point of damage to you unless you already have alcohol in your system, and Wight Wine will give you a level of Fearfulness for a random amount of hours.
• Shadowrun features Hurlg, a beverage described as "a dark, thick ale the consistency of soup, swimming with hops and nutmeg". Humans and elves without special implants or toxin resistence spells suffer from painful stomach cramps when they drink it.

Video Games

• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City features the "Love Juice", the favorite drink of the band Love Fist: 3 fizz bombs, 1 part boomshine, 3 parts trumpet, and 1 liter of petrol. Boomshine itself could be considered a Gargle Blaster. It's potent enough to intoxicate someone on the fumes alone, and if put too close to an open flame, will detonate like a weapons-grade explosive.
  • Boomshine itself qualifies to some degree. One of its ingredients is battery acid.
• Quest for Glory 1 featured "Dragon's Breath", which makes your character spontaneously combust if you drink it. In the fifth and final game, the Dead Parrot Inn has a rotating selection of house special drinks; one is the Dragon's Breath. After four adventures and defeating evil djinns, demons, and an Eldritch Abomination, the hero is finally able to stomach it (but it still turns him fire-engine red and makes him bounce up and down like a Looney Tunes character).
  • The series also features several powerful drinks with such wonderful names as Troll's Sweat and Djinn Sling. Drinking too much has such effects as knocking you out (at which point you wake up outside the bar with your wallet missing), or outright killing you.
• The Monkey Island series of computer games does this to grog. Instead of plain-ol' watered-down rum, it's a drink made with a variety of bizarre ingredients, which may (or may not) include Kerosene, Propylene, Glycol, Artificial Sweeteners, Sulphuric Acid, Rum, Acetone, Red Dye No 2., SCUMM, Axle Grease, Battery Acid, and/or Pepperoni. Needless to say, it's capable of burning holes through reinforced pewter mugs in a matter of seconds. This apparently doesn't stop it from being sold in familiar-looking red-striped soda vending machines, despite the games being set in the 17th century. The unusual composition is no doubt why, in the second game, near-grog is described as being as nasty-smelling and foul tasting as the real thing, sans the alcohol, so even pre-fake-ID Guybrush is allowed to drink it. Or he would be, if the bartender hadn't just sold the last bottle to Captain Kate Capsize, who prefers to be sober when she runs her glass-bottomed boat tours.
  • Hilariously, one Argentinian news channel believed the aforementioned recipe to be genuine, a fact that earned it a mention in Tales of Monkey Island.
• Neverwinter Nights allows the player to engage in a drinking contest, with the final round (before the opponent passes out) being a beverage known only as scurrd. It is, from a game-rules perspective, statistically impossible for any normal human being to imbibe scurrd without losing consciousness; it requires a Constitution score one point higher than what a first-level character is capable of having. A character with magically-enhanced or dwarven constitution can safely drink the scurrd, which results in the opponent passing out, and earns the PC massive respect from his buddies. If you successfully drink it, it temporarily doubles your hit points. It's the game world spontaneously recognizing the sheer BadAssery of your feat.
• Kusuha Mizuha from Super Robot Wars: Original Generation is famous for her "Health Drinks". The exact ingredients are unknown, but what is know is that a single sip is enough to knock adult men unconscious. However, once you recover you feel absolutely amazing. There exists a select few (mostly aliens) who actually enjoy the taste. Most other people run in terror the moment Kusuha offers them a drink, under the cover of flat-out (but politely delivered) Blatant Lies.
  • On Ryusei's route in the first game, Ryusei actually tries to explain to Giado and the others exactly what it is that goes into a "Kusuha Special" (something having to do with ground-up gecko tails and viper venom). Naturally, this doesn't sit well with Giado or his stomach.
  • Elzam and Arado are among the few human characters who can withstand it. Elzam, being a Chef of Iron, isn't intimidated by so-called "bad food" (he went so far as to name all of the ingredients; granted, it was in the Alpha games, who have almost no translations at all), and Arado's undergone so much gene modification that he can consume almost anything that's generally edible. Heero Yui drank it in Alpha 2 without passing out; Of course, he's Made of Iron, so it wouldn't be surprising if he had a cast-iron stomach.
    • Which makes Masaki Andoh's reaction of completely passing out even more hilarious, seeing as how he and Heero share a seiyuu. Divine Wars follows up on this for more hilarity: After using a Cyflash to take out the Divine Crusaders' enemy forces at Aidoneous Island, he is exhausted due to how Cybuster's attacks work (long story). Since Cybuster is still needed, Shiro and Kuro produce a bottle of Kusuha's health drink; Masaki immediately recovers in order to avoid the health drink.
  • Even aliens who happen to be stone-cold badasses are not necessarily immune; Ingram had a few moments of what must have amounted to an alien version of "oh god oh god I'm gonna die".
    • Although, the Divine Wars version of this incident had Ingram sound like he was having a giant orgasm.
  • Lamia Loveless, an android, is incapacitated by the drink. Her first assumption is that they found out she was a spy and tried to poison her. Actually, she suspected as much before drinking it, but was absolutely positive afterwards.
• World of Warcraft has you construct several of these on various quests. How potent they truly are really depends on what level the quest is, although the quest giver will always act like it's the strongest stuff out there. "Dragonbreath Chili" is one of the few foodstuffs in the game that can directly damage your enemies after you eat it.
  • The actual Gargle Blaster of the game is the Sulfuron Slammer. It's so strong, it sets you on fire when you drink it.
  • To quote Harkkan; "Thundermar ale is 220 proof; I don't know how that's possible."
• Whatever Bo Rai Cho is drinking in Mortal Kombat X probably counts. It doesn't hurt him, but one of his Fatalities involves force-feeding it to his opponent, which makes the victim puke his/her guts out, literally.
• Gemstone IV introduced a blackout-inducing drink called Eldreth's Death-rum, based on a real player-made concoction served during a gaming convention room party. Several employees watched as a brave attendee offered to try the stuff, pronounced it "not that bad" and started to walk away with no ill effects—before suddenly dropping to his knees five steps later.
• The potion maker in The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker uses a welding mask as described above when mixing up new potions. The process also involves small explosions and clouds of colored smoke. Link burps up a small puff of colored smoke after drinking one.
• Kingdom of Loathing has a number of potent alcoholic beverages, such as the Pan-Dimensional Gargle Blaster. Drinking it gives you the message "You feel like your head is a gold brick with a slice of lemon wrapped around it."
  • There are a number of suitably dodgy drinks available in the clan dungeon Hobopolis, including fermented pickle juice, and the booze available from the hobo marketplace in the Hobopolis Town Square.
• When the MMO Asheron's Call added brewing as an Item Crafting ability it became possible to brew "Tusker Pus", a beer so horrible it does 9999 damage when drunk, several times more damage than a player character can possibly have hit points.
• If you go to visit the nurse's office in Persona 3 while tired or sick, the whackjob who runs it (who also teaches a class on magic, mind you) offers you a concoction that is made of a number of poisonous substances and some good-luck charms (including rabbit's feet... in a drink). If you choose not to drink it, he gives you actual medicine; if you drink it, it boosts your Courage, because he congratulates you on having the guts to try.
• White Gull is one of the few potions The Witcher can brew that isn't instantly lethally toxic to mortals. It can be brewed from any alcohol available, and makes the ideal base for any other potions. Even with his Witcher resistance to toxins, just one will make Geralt drift across the floor like a bobber on a fishing line, two will get him 86'd to wake up on the cobbles. Non-Witcher humans won't get through one. There is no canonical evidence of how much a dwarf can drink. It's sometimes used as an anesthetic on those already near death.
• Space Quest 6 and the fan-made prequel Space Quest 0 feature "Coldsaurian Brandy," an extremely potent and disgusting liquor (it has a rotting fish in the bottom of the jug). Roger doesn't drink the stuff, but it makes a mean Molotov cocktail, and it's good for poisoning purposes.
• In Atelier Annie, nobody knows exactly what it is in Gillian's drinks, but know that the stench is so powerful it could fell a field of Punies from a mile away, so they (especially Annie and Pepe) don't go near the stuff. Gillian is oblivious to this sort of reaction, and guzzles her own concoctions like water.
• In the video game of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, one puzzle requires you to get Karl Marx hammered, with a combination of several potent liquors, topped off with spoiled chocolate milk.
• Dragon Age: Origins has a list of dangerously potent alcoholic drinks the PC can give to Oghren (or Wynne). The only drinks that don't count as gargle blasters are the watered-down ale and the wine.
  • And the brandy.
  • And Oghren just shrugs it off, he didn't even felt a thing in the joining.
• In Mass Effect 2, the Dark Star bar on the Citadel serves the Commander "batarian ale". The bartender has never seen anyone drink it and remain standing. Shepard, of course, orders another one.
  • Then there's "ryncol", the krogan drink of choice. Said drink is said to have the effect of paint thinner on non-krogan. Shepard is knocked out by it. Then again, Shepard isn't quite human anymore.

This is... it's green.

• • • The aftermath of Shepard's binge-drinking in the Dark Star is undoubtedly the most amusing part, with the Commander waking up on the men's room floor sometime later while a turian relieves himself at one of the urinals. Doubly hilarious if your Shepard is female.
    • Grunt's recommendation on ryncol is "Don't try to act tough -- that stuff'll go through a human's insides like broken glass."
  • A Dummied Out piece of dialogue mentions something called Quarian Thruster Fuel. There's no mention of the effects but given that it's allegedly distilled from raw antimatter we can hazard a guess.
• In Nelly Cootalot, the Barnacle Bar offers several drink with questionable names. Things like Texas Medicine and Admiral Nosehair's Old Unsanitary come to mind.
• Team Fortress 2 is silent about the composition of the Demoman's "Scrumpy", but general fan opinion is that it's some sort of Gargle Blaster, very likely self-distilled (one of the maps is Granary, and one of the Demoman's teammates is a borderline Mad Scientist Engineer from Texas...).
  • Scrumpy is an actual drink, its made from hard cider. And yes, it is. It's Scrumble, from Discworld.
• Brave Soul has a cocktail called the "Lady Killer" which the bartender claims to be almost 100% alcohol. Rudy is knocked out. Alicia claims it tastes like juice.
• Whatever is in Auron's jug is not to be trifled with considering in his Overdrive he spits it onto his BFS, which causes dark fire and black holes
  • Another has Auron creating a whirlwind and then hurling his entire jug in, at which point the tornado turns into a fiery pillar.
  • A level of Fridge Brilliance when it comes to the alcohol: He's already dead, so that's why he can handle it.
• The Fallout series has a number of alcholic beverages and narcotics that give temporary benefits to the player, such as increasing their combat speed, making them more resistent to damage, or raising their carisma (one of the amusing side effects of alcohol). There's a Truth in Television moment in that your character can become addicted, and once the effects of the drugs wear off his stats are reduced until he is either cured of addiction by a doctor, or he takes another hit. It's surprisingly fun to play as a junkie.
  • The Fallout: New Vegas DLC Dead Money introduces the "Sierra Madre Martini", created by Dean, a Ghoul who's been in the Sierra Madre for two centuries and had time to experiment. It's created via brewing the residue of the poison cloud that permeates the place with a bag of potato chips in a rusty tin can. Tastes hideous, highly addictive and gives some pretty nifty buffs.
• In Improbable Island, you can buy one in the pub in the capital city. Those who drink one tend to wake up covered in other people's blood.
• In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the player can enter into a drinking competition with what turns out to be Sanguine, the Daedric Prince of debauchery. The brew is apparently strong enough that the Dragonborn wakes up on the other side of Skyrim with no memory of the previous night, having experienced all manner of wacky adventures.
  • Talen-Jei, the waiter at the Bee and Barb inn, dabbles in making cocktails. The Cliff Racer, a blend of Firebrand Wine, Cyrodiilic Brandy, Flin, and Sujamma, fits this trope closest, but the Velvet LeChance deserves an honorable mention for being garnished with Deadly Nightshade (albeit a nonlethal quantity).
• In Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds, Faith might muse about drinking bottles of fire intended to kill vampires.
• Bottles of liquor found in System Shock 2 are usually somewhere around 250% proof, but they are graded after effect rather than alcohol content, and contain a number of other drugs that simulate the effects of alcohol.

Web Comics

• In the webcomic Freefall, John Jones Monroevian Moonshine: Fine sipping whiskey and high explosive. According to the ingredients list on the bottle, it contains "muskrat squeezings, nitroglycerin, and other additives both natural and unnatural." Also on the bottle is a statement of quality: "If you drink this, you will die." This is, of course, a Shout-Out to the Kickapoo Joy Juice in Li'l Abner (made from ground up dead skunks and old shoes among other things).
• In Girl Genius, Theo's idea of a good home-brewed liquor can be expected to be at least 200 proof, and have other... interesting ingredients. "Hey, he's breathing again!" One cup of Lingonberry Snap will apparently give you hallucinations. "Ah. I'd wondered why they were playing the music backwards."
  • Note that 200 proof is pure alcohol.
    • Also note that under normal circumstances, opening a container of pure alcohol outside of laboratory conditions will cause it to be diluted by the moisture in the air. Maybe part of Theo's talent as a Spark makes him a Mad Moonshiner who can make impossible drinks?
• This strip of Planescape Survival Guide has the drink being handled with tongs, and the hilarious aftereffects of the drink itself.
• From Shortpacked!: Cadbury Egg Cereal. Skips over the entire wild bender and shows us only the result, to great comical effect: the victim has been elected to Congress.
  • When she tries it a second time? She and another Congressman who tried it achieve world peace..
• Stickman and Cube has Una Muerte Con Mucho Dolor, which comes with several hours of warnings and disclaimers and must be served in a diamond glass.
• Life and Death, this comic.
• Something*Positive recently introduced an accidental one, with Davan taking a swig from a flask... not realizing Monette had dumped Everclear in it... and Fred had dumped moonshine in it... and PeeJee had dumped absinthe in it. He instantly started hallucinating imaginary characters from Girls With Slingshots, the comic whose characters' wedding he was attending at the time.
• Questionable Content has Faye's brew of choice, Midnight Hobo.
  • Another time the group asks for a liquor store's "finest whiskey" and gets it. The bottle glows and singing angels can be heard, and just one sip was enough to allow alcoholic Faye to see quantum mechanics. It also glows.

Faye: Everything's...blueshifted...a myriad of quantum states...all of them deliciously intoxicated...
Hannelore: (reading label) "Warning: Consumption of this bourbon whiskey may cause you to get religion, get naked, or get arrested."
Dora: It doesn't say anything about relativistic time dilation. Maybe we should call the hospital. Or a physicist.

• • An unidentified alcohol in a later strip.
• In Wicked Awesome Adventure, one of the Big Three soda corporations fighting over the post-apocalyptic world has made Mule Kick Hallucinogenic Vision Potion. It may or may not be alcoholic, but Mule Kick freely acknowledges (and even advertises) its propensity to give its drinkers mind trips.

Web Original

• SCP Foundation has SCP-294, an "universal beverage dispensing machine" that was once used to deliver a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster. The Hideous Hangover Cure is an entire bottle of Excedrin, which under any other circumstances would have been immediately lethal. Other examples include "the perfect drink", which caused the one who drank it to commit suicide because it was so mind-blowingly awesome, nothing else in life could even hope to compare afterwards.
• Tasakeru: Faun's favorite drink is something called "Dead God Firewater". It's bright red, and the fumes alone are almost enough to make another character pass out. It's a type of whiskey, as the name suggests-with 10 percent unidentified red chemical (I suspect battery acid) and gunpowder to taste.
• Virtual pet site Neopets plays this one as a direct homage with their Pan Galactic Gargle Slushie item—the description even reads "The wisest saying in the galaxy is apparently, 'Never drink more than two Pan Galactic Gargle Slushies unless you are a twenty ton mega-elephant with pneumonial bronchitis.'" While the site is kid-friendly and thus does not actually let pets get drunk, it's one of the rarest and most expensive slushies in the game, which likely says a lot about the staff.
• An episode of Z True Long Island Story had Zack Ryder revealing what an actual Long Island Iced Z is: A mixture of vodka, rum, tequila, diet soda, and protein. His attempt at drinking the concoction ended with him immediately vomiting it into the nearby sink, complete with "He's gonna puke!" sound byte from Beyond The Mat.
• Brog ale in The Gods of Arr-Kelaan, the fermentation process involves sulfuric acid and something like nitroglycerin and even Brogs can only drink one a day. Ronson gets a little numb for a few seconds if he drinks enough of it fast enough.
• In The Salvation War, Satan wrings out an orc into a cup of his wine. The entrails dissolve.

Western Animation

• The above-mentioned asbestos gloves, welding mask, and tongs were used in the Daffy Duck Looney Tunes short "Drip-Along Daffy", with the outlaw Nasty Canasta ordering two of "the usual" (one for him, the other for do-gooder Daffy, whom Canasta was holding at gunpoint) from a saloon bartender: a drink made with such ingredients as "cobra venom", "hydrogen particles", and "Old Panther whiskey". He then drops two ice cubes in it... which immediately jump out as if on fire and head for the coolness of the fire bucket....
  • Don't forget the effect the drink has on Nasty Canasta (it makes his cowboy hat lift off his head and spin around, but that's it) versus Daffy and Porky (it makes them bend their hats into bonnets and prance around giddily while reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb").
    • It also causes Daffy's guns to shoot a hole in the floor, which he falls into and then rockets out of.

Daffy: (parachuting down) I hate you.

• • The preparation of many dangerous drinks in Looney Tunes cartoons usually ends with the mixer withdrawing a spoon whose bowl has been melted (or burned!) off while stirring.
  • One similar, but not quite the same, Looney Tunes scenario, "Show Biz Bugs", has Daffy, tired of being consistently one-upped by Bugs in a vaudeville act, pull together the most incredible drink ever; ingredients include nitroglycerin, gasoline, and gunpowder, and topped off with uranium 238. He drinks it down, jumps up and down to shake, then drops in a match.... After the ensuing explosion, an impressed Bugs tells Daffy that the audience wants more, to which Daffy's ghost replies "I know, but I can only do it once!"
    • This is a recycled gag from an earlier cartoon: a Porky Pig cartoon titled "Curtain Razor". Porky is screening prospects for a talent agency, and a Running Gag involves one character constantly barging in to talk about a "super-colossal" act. When he finally gets to perform the act, he undergoes pretty much the same act (including the devil costume), and while the ingredients may not be exactly the same, the match and result are identical. Porky is stunned in amazement for the first and only time in the cartoon. Then, the ghost of the character walks back in and, like Daffy, says, "I can only do it once."
  • Yet another Daffy example occurs in the cartoon Mexican Joyride. Daffy enters a Mexican bar, and, after an encounter with some of the local cuisine demands something to put the fire out. The bartender hands Daffy a glass of tequila, which he quickly downs - and then stiffens into a rigor mortis like state. The bartender picks Daffy up and chucks him into a nearby pile of similarly frozen patrons.
• In an episode of The Simpsons, Bart and Milhouse drink a Squishee "made entirely of syrup". It is treated exactly like a Gargle Blaster, and even leads to a Drunken Montage.
  • Another episode features the Forget-Me-Shot, a concoction of Jägermeister, sloe gin, triple sec, quadruple sec, gunk from a dog's eye, "Absolut Pickle", the red stripe from Aquafresh toothpaste, and the venom of the Louisiana loboto-moth, stirred with a home pregnancy test (until it gets a positive response). The drink is so powerful it erases the previous 24 hours off of the drinker's memory.
  • And there's the episode where Bart and Milhouse are in the Flanders house unsupervised, and they discover Ned's Beatles collection; they each down a can of 40-year-old Beatles-themed novelty soft drink, and Bart's causes him to briefly hallucinate about Milhouse as John Lennon.
  • One episode has Homer visit a redneck town and develop a taste for "Fudd" beer, as opposed to his usual Duff. When he later on asks Moe if he serves it, Moe replies that he thought it was taken off the market "after all those hillbillies went blind".
• In Tex Avery's The Shooting of Dan McGoo, a character drinks a shot of straight whiskey and promptly shoots up to the ceiling like a rocket. When he lands, he complains, "This stuff's been cut," with Droopy adding, "Whaddaya want for 10 cents, gasoline?"
• Two episodes of the cartoon adaptation of The Mask have gargle blaster drinks:
  • In the season one episode "Split Personality" (where Stanley Ipkiss's mask gets split in two and the evil half is worn by the bully who harassed Ipkiss in high school), Stanley (who's wearing the good half of the Mask) goes to a biker bar where he orders (after being taunted about not having ordered a "man's drink") a "red hot battery acid piledriver with extra formaldehyde in a dirty glass with a black widow spider riding on the olive." The bartender gives Stanley/The Mask the drink, but adds, "We're out of olives." Stanely/The Mask drinks it and breathes fire on the bartender.
  • In the season two episode "Flight as a Feather", The Mask foils a suicide bombing attempt by the Mayor's stripper ex-girlfriend (It Makes Sense in Context) by pulling off her strategically-placed suicide belts, mixing them into a blender, and drinking the mixture (but not before distracting Kellaway and Doyle by flashing Cookie's naked body in front of them).
• In the Buzzy The Crow cartoon, Cat-Choo, Buzzy makes a concoction of mustard, black pepper, hot sauce, and other spicy foods for a "remedy" for Katnip's cold. When Buzzy finishes stirring it, the spoon has completely melted. After drinking it, Katnip's tail shoots out fireworks like a cannon.
• Squidbillies has Early Cuyler's "Party Liquor" or "Glug". it's mostly pine cone liquor, but other ingredients include antifreeze, brake fluid, all-weather coolant, gasoline, hair spray, paint stripper, meth, mint leaves and Early's own ink (which is probably at least 70 proof).
• The Tom and Jerry cartoon "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse" has Tom spiking his saucer of milk with various toxins so as to get rid of Jerry through poisoning when he steals a sip. But it turns Jerry into a hulking brute who thrashes Tom within an inch of his nine lives—temporarily. After it metabolizes, Jerry reverts to his cute small self and has to run for another drink. Jerry is consigned to making up a new batch but he doesn't get a chance to drink it, Tom steals it, downs it all—and he shrinks to flea size.
  • Another T&J cartoon, Chuck Jones' "Is There A Doctor In The Mouse" has Jerry concocting a formula, which when he drinks it, gives him super speed.
• This was a major plot point in a recent episode of American Dad, where Haley drank something so strong that it killed her liver. Her experienced mother and her mother's friend could only handle it after decades of drinking.
• In an episode of American Dad, Roger is trying to find a whiskey strong enough to actually make him drunk, as nothing he has tried manages to do it. A liquor store owner tells him an legend about a four-armed giant with a dragon's tongue who lives on a mountain and brews the most potent whiskey in the world. In truth, the guy is a just a hermit who makes apple moonshine, but it is, indeed, potent. The legend seems to have originated because people have wild hallucinations when they drink it.

Real Life

• The 'Dirty Shot'. Absinthe, tequila and chili powder.
• "Strawberry Surprise": grain alcohol and pepper spray. The surprise is that it tastes nothing like strawberries and everything like PAIN.
• In the Scandinavian countries people drink "Turkish Pepper" shots, which is vodka mixed with crushed "Turkish Pepper"-candies (pepper and salmiak). The Finnish retail version was removed after (false) rumors of fatalities, and the version currently sold has less alcohol content. You really should mix it yourself though, and in this case it can apparently be too strong for Vince Neil.
• The "Four Horsemen" normally consists of one shot each of Jim Beam, Johnny Walker, Jack Daniels, and Jose Cuervo. Some people choose to replace one of the three whiskies with Captain Morgan, which doesn't agree with the tequila in most people's stomachs. To quote an experienced drinker, who was holding a buddy's head up over the toilet at the time:

"You idiot! Captain Morgan is a racist! HE HATES MEXICANS!"

• The "Bear Fight," which is a Jager Bomb followed immediately by an Irish Car Bomb. So called because after drinking one, it feels like there are bears fighting in your stomach
• The "Aunt Roberta", which has caused at least 34 deaths, definitely goes here. It contains:
  • Three shots of vodka;
  • Two shots of absinthe;
  • One shot of brandy;
  • One and a half shots of gin;
  • One shot of blackberry liqueur.
• The theme camp, Spock Mountain Research Laboratories at the Burning Man festival has served a drink called "Hyper-Whiskey" for years. Though the recipe varies, it has usually contained some kind of chili sauce or horseradish.
• "Chuck Norris" aka Jalapeño vodka, made from steeping the sliced hot peppers in vodka until it kicks like its namesake.
• The Drink called an "Adios Motherfucker"—White Rum, gin, Tequila, Blue Curacao, Vodka and a splash of bar lime. Like Jäger, guaranteed to ail what cures you.
• The infamous "Pájaro Verde" ("Green Bird") drink, which is illegally brewed and consumed in Chilean jails. It's strong enough to kill several inmates every year; that might have to do with the fact that the Pájaro Verde is made by fermenting garbage.
• There's a lot of challenge drinks out there, but one of the nastiest is a Prairie Fire—tequila and Tabasco. A game based on this drink is "Russian Roulette"—your group orders one each, one of which has triple the Tabasco in it.
  • Sprinkle Parmesan or Asiago on a Prairie Fire: Boom! Grannie's Panties.
  • Or a Buffalo Sweat; Replace the tequila with overproof rum (151, for example, but several other overproofs are even higher in alcohol content)
• Tequila and tabasco are not an uncommon mix, an ounce of each in a shotglass is known in some places as 'The Devil's Piss'. There are variations with a third ingredient, such as Falun Snakebite (Tequila, tabasco and really cheap bourbon), or Flatliner (Layer sambuca and tequila in that order, add tabasco).
• Most instances of homemade hard liquor -- "Moonshine"—fall under this trope, being as it is generally not only stronger than an irritable rhinoceros but tastes like a combination of industrial cleaners and whatever vessel it was cooked up in.
  • The Other Wiki has a guide to Moonshine by country.
• Chinese peasant liquor certainly falls under this trope. It can best be described as smelling of death, and the experience of a half-shot was not unlike an aluminum baseball bat across the eyes. Due to poor brewing and distilling techniques, it often contains high concentrations of toxic methanol.
• A franchise bar called "The Hub" in Japan has a drink on its menu that's similar to this. It was a shot that is 3/4 rectified spirit and 1/4 absinthe.
• Absinthe is distilled multiple times during its creation, which results in a concoction that ranges from 50% to 70% alcohol by volume, depending on the variety. As such, it's usually drunk after being diluted with ice water three to five times over with sugar. The hallucinations are a myth, as well as the other rumored evil side-effects (blindness, insanity)...unless you drink about 200 glasses in one sitting. It is not, in fact, meant to be set on fire, though lighting the sugar, dropping it into the glass and dousing it with water is the "bohemian" method. It does have the interesting effect of sneaking up on the drinker- to the point where someone can drink several glasses of absinthe and legitimately not realize how drunk they are, until they try to walk away and suddenly find out that their legs don't feel like going anywhere. This is most likely an effect of the ingredients, which have amounts of natural stimulants and sedatives.

Mitch Hedberg: I tried absinthe when I was over in Europe, because I heard it was supposed to make you trip hallucinogenically -- but actually, it's just a liquor, so I was just getting fucked up... I wound up lying on the floor, trying to force the trip: "Why is the floor the lowest I can go?" Didn't work.

• • Absinthe was originally made with wormwood, which caused the hallucinogenic effects and also shortened the drinker's life even more than the alcohol itself. This version of the drink was eventually banned, and the ban was lifted when the toxic component was left out.
• A chemistry trick is to drink 96% alcohol very slowly with an open mouth. Due to the high alcohol content, which is on the absolute border of what is possible under normal atmospheric conditions, the alcohol will evaporate in one's mouth. The trick is to breathe out while drinking, or it will have the reverse effect: alcohol vapor that enters the bloodstream directly through the lungs, skipping the stomach. This is not very healthy, to say the least. But, done properly, one could down an entire bottle of 96% while still reasonably sober.
• Graduate school chemists used to have a cheap way of making insta-gargle blasters. Take the pure ethyl alcohol jug from the lab, run it through a simple distillation to take out other alcohols, dilute with water and add some orange concentrate. The stuff was horrifically nasty and as strong as you felt like making it.
  • Public Service Announcement: Drinking chemical-grade ethanol is extremely hazardous to your health, even in diluted form, as the last stage of purification to get rid of traces of water involves mixing it with benzene, the traces of which in the final product are extremely carcinogenic.
• During this pub-crawl a group go out seeking the worst drinks possible for entertainment value, including such horrors as "the bloody tampon" ... at one point the author appears to be summoning Cthulhu to come put him out of his misery. For bonus points, the Bloody Tampon was made up on the spot.
• This Experiment in which the goal was to get as much alcohol in a Jello shot as possible. Its follow-up experiment managed to get even more in, creating a highly flammable chunk of gelatin that melts into a flaming puddle when ignited.
• A Mobile, Alabama bar serves a Long Island Iced Tea variant called "The Paralyzer", where the Coca-Cola is replaced with Everclear. Some refer to it as the Highlander, because in the end, you will need only one.
  • A standard LIIT is already stronger than most cocktails with equal parts vodka, tequila, white rum, gin, and Triple Sec. Though the liquor is diluted with lemon juice, gomme syrup, and coke, averaging out at a total of about 22% alcohol.
• Both Everclear & Golden Grain, at 190 proof, should be considered small-scale stand-alone Gargle Blasters due to their abilities to knock out anyone in 1-2 shots. More than a few jurisdictions have banned the sale of both products or limited it to the (relatively) weaker 151 proof versions (Which is still at least double the alcohol content of anything else a reputable liquor seller will carry.)
• In Russia, Everclear is Unobtainium. But we've got a product of similar strength, the "Medic": medical alcohol sold in drugstores. It's prescription, but it's cheap.
• Spirytus is also 190 proof, 95% alc by vol. Go from zero to under the table in 1 shot.
• Habu Sake, another Japanese variant. It's awamori (not sake) served with a Habu Viper in it. Yes, a dead snake in the liquor. Supposedly the alcohol neutralizes the venom, but there are sailors who swear the venom is just potent enough to keep your liver from purifying the alcohol from your system for a little longer than normal. Four shots of this, and you're down for the count.
  • There's also the Vietnamese variant of snake wine, made with snake venom, usually from live snakes. Apparently it's like drinking blood wine with electrical current running through it.
    • Sounds a lot like some old-time Wild West whiskeys. Many times, the whiskey was "cut" with various other ingredients to try to extend the barrel life while keeping it potent. Kinds known as "snakeheads" threw rattler heads into the barrel, but other things that could go in ranged from the mostly innocuous (water, pepper, tobacco) to the insane (caustic soda, strychnine).
• Dubovka, a peculiar kind of Russian booze made by fermenting grain with oakwood splinters that was produced illegally during Gorbachev's anti-alcohol laws. It's green, tastes mild but makes you fall after the third shot.
• Anthony Burgess' homemade cocktail, Hangman's Blood. "Into a pint glass, doubles (i.e. 50ml measures) of the following are poured: gin, whisky, rum, port and brandy. A small bottle of stout is added and the whole topped up with Champagne... It tastes very smooth, induces a somewhat metaphysical elation, and rarely leaves a hangover."
• Ordering 100 ml of real Absinthe, straight up, in jurisdictions where real absinthe is legal, tends to get you stares. Also, the Absinthe-based version of the Flaming Lamborghini, with or without the sambuca. Bonus shock points for chasing straight up absinthe with a Flaming Lamborghini and managing to walk away on your own feet.
• In York, there's a bar that used to sell a drink called the Hellshot, consisting of a shot of 89% absinthe and 88% vodka (or something). You had to sign a disclaimer before you had one. Needless to say, the authorities banned it. Five years later, the bar still advertises it as "BANNED" though, presumably for street cred. Another bar has a shelf marked "Dangerous" with all the stronger spirits.
  • The components of the Hellshot are still legal individually, however. Cue Loophole Abuse.
• In Dawson City, in Yukon Territory, Canada, there's a bar in the Downtown Hotel which serves a drink called the Sourtoe Cocktail, which is basically any alcoholic drink... with an amputated toe floating in it, usually donated by a victim of severe frostbite. The toe must touch the lips of the drinker for them to qualify as a member of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club.
• "Kehlenschneider" ("throat-cutter") is a German 80% chili schnapps with a 400,000 Scoville rating.
• This Cracked article details a few alcoholic nightmares that can be quite dangerous to one's health. The worst being changaa, a Kenyan concoction that can contain battery acid or jet fuel.
• Brazilian cane liquor. It's the moonshine version of rum.
  • You mean cachaça. Don't compare it to moonshine, the thing is practically a religion in Brazil, and when properly distilled it tastes awesome. Still strong as hell, though.
• "Scorn": fruit liqueurs aren't usualy too dangerous, unless the fruit in question is Habanero.
• The Discworld's Scumble is based on Scrumpy, a super-potent British cider. According to Terry Pratchett, homebrewed scrumpy has "a kick that lasts for the rest of your life."
  • Scrumpy isn't really that strong. It usually lands around 8-9% ABV, i.e. the strength of weak wine. The kick comes from the fact that the metal details on old cider presses tend to be lead, which reacts with the acids in the apple juice in interesting ways, and the fact that scrumpy is normally sold in pints (an Imperial pint is 568 ml).
• Similarly, applejack is cider distilled by repeatedly freezing the drink while removing any ice that forms. Given that this removes nothing but water, applejack has an incredible kick, especially considering that it has a fairly low alcohol content by brandy standards.
  • A number of beers are also distilled in this fashion, the most notable being several German Eisbocks.
  • The reason Applejack has such a nasty kick is that freeze distilling, while concentrating the alcohol content, also concentrates the methanol and fusel oil content, which are the wonderful things that cause hangovers.
• Real Jamaican ginger beer. That stuff makes Reed's ginger beer (the stuff that instantly clears your sinuses) taste like... ginger ale, man.
• There exists an annual poly/kinky gathering in Georgia, Duckstock, whose name (and original raison d'etre) comes from a mixture known as 'Drunk Duck'. The exact recipe is a closely guarded secret.
• Jeremiah Weed, a bourbon whiskey sold in the United States, might seem tame compared to some of the very-lethal drinks on this page with its mere 100 proof--but it's also an icon of American fighter pilot culture. Despite how awful it tastes.
  • As implied in the lyrics of the Dos Gringos song by the same name (see Music, above), Jeremiah Weed's popularity with American fighter pilots is probably because of how awful it tastes ("something in between Lysol and alcohol, with a touch of gasoline," according to the song...)
• For US Military in Korea Soju is like this for new drinkers. It looks like wine cooler but the alcohol content can vary. Many a soldier or airmen has tired to slam shots only to spend the evening being carried back to the barracks. However it's cheep and comes in many flavors so it's popular with troops and is now available in the US.
• Tactical Nuclear Penguin is one of the world's strongest beers, at 32% alcohol by volume. It's brewed in Scotland and sells for £35. The Brewery also produces Sink the Bismarck, at 41%, in an attempt to reclaim the world title from Germany. It is also £40 for 330ml. Or for the really suicidal, the brewery does a multipack with Tactical Nuclear Penguin. Seriously.
  • Beers beyond 25% ABV tend to be technically either "ice beers" (freeze-distilled after brewing) or fortified (stronger spirits added). When it comes to the strongest all-fermented beer, the current champ is Samual Adams Utopias (about 25% ABV).
• There is a story of a wealthy and possibly quite eccentric landowner, who, for reasons best left unknown, mixed four gallons of whisky with some chloride of lime and gave the mixture to his daughter. She took one sip of the mixture, proclaimed that it was quite delicious and passed out on the spot. This substance is now known as chloroform.
  • For those who don't know, chloroform is produced when ethanol (i.e. "drinking" alcohol) or acetone is reacted with chlorine ions in an alkaline environment (both of which were provided by the bleaching agent).
  • This is a somewhat butchered version of the true story of chloroform's discovery by Dr. Samuel Guthrie. He reacted chlorinated lime with whiskey in copper vessels in an attempt to produce the pesticide "Dutch Liquid". What came out instead turned out to be potable, but contained a small percentage of chloroform, which is 40 times as sweet as sugar. It was locally known as "Guthrie's Sweet Whiskey", but after isolating the chemical and discovering its properties, Guthrie started using it as a medical anaesthetic.
• If you read the label of a bottle of Methylated Spirits, you'll notice that it says that the contents is 95% Ethanol. The other 5% is Methanol (and possibly a dye), which is added to make it toxic so people won't drink it. Of course some people do anyway...
  • That's why it's known as a denatured alcohol—one rendered not safe to drink.
  • In Europe denatured alcohol doesn't contain any toxic additives (like methanol), but only the ones that make it taste horrible (like denatonium).
  • And in Russia, denatured alcohol frequently contains neither denatonium nor toxic additives, but rather the bitter and slightly toxic castor oil. However, this can be relatively easily removed, leaving only a trace amount of castor oil—enough to add a slight bitter flavor and require that you hydrate a bit more than usual (castor oil is a laxative).
  • There are multiple supposedly safe methods of "purifying" denatured alcohol. For example, adding a common bathroom cleaner, decanting, and filtering through a loaf of bread cut in half. Don't Try This At Home, seriously. Similarly, some novel included such a line as: "Did you drink denatured with chicken shit?"
• "Four Loko" - nicknamed "Blackout In A Can" for the speed with which its mix of alcohol (12%) and caffeine renders drinkers (especially binge drinking college kids) non-functional. Banned in late 2010, then reintroduced, only without nearly so much caffeine.
  • In real life, mixing a Gargle Blaster with a Klatchian Coffee has been shown to be dangerous because the two buzzes conflict with each other, preventing your body from knowing when it's time to stop.
• Baijiu ("white liquor"), the primary native alcohol of China. The weakest baijiu is allowed to be is 40% ABV, or 80 proof (standard proof for most Western liquor); maotai (one of the more renowned forms) often clocks in at 53% (106 proof). Many other forms are 60% (120 proof), and a few forms, such as fenjiu and gaolangjiu^[1] can get up to 63% or 65% (126-170 proof), at which point they are literally flammable. Westerners have compared the flavor to that of jet fuel (although if said Westerners had previously visited Kenya and sampled the local changaa, they might have a point). Suffice it to say that when it comes to drinking, the Chinese do not play games.
  • Bear in mind that Communist Party officials are known to down several glasses—sometimes taken as shots—of baijiu at banquets and meetings. All of a sudden the Great Leap Forward makes a lot more sense.
  • This liquor is also sometimes known in the west as "Chinese lighter fluid".
  • Liquor from Shaoxing, usually used for cooking, tends to taste like a cross between burning hair, soy sauce, and sorrow.
• Rocket Fuel: In a large bucket, combine half a liter of Everclear, about an equal portion of food grade dry ice, and a can of frozen juice concentrate of some kind; stir the mixture until the dry ice evaporates out, then serve it with a ladle. The dry ice makes it so cold, the alcohol freezes into a slush, so you don't even taste it until it thaws out, which you won't if you just shoot it. Perfect example of "you don't even realize you're getting drunk".
• Though technically not alcoholic, a kid-friendly version of this would be the Suicide - a mixure of all the available fountain drinks at the local fast food restaurant/convenience store. The dangers assumed for this drink likely come from the possible caffeine overdose such a combination would bring (especially considering how loaded some recent sodas have become). And it could taste just as horrible as a normal Gargle Blaster if you don't mix the drinks in the right combination.
  • Since it's a mixture of all the available sodas, some of which (like most lemon-limes and some root beers) don't contain any caffeine at all, it would actually be less caffeinated than a plain cola or Mountain Dew.
• Science-Fiction conventions and Ren Faires often make and bring homemade Gargle Blasters, creating real-world equivalents to their fictional counterparts that will knock the unsuspecting just as flat as the fictional ones. See the Troper Tales page for examples.
• Alaskan Martinis. Used to defeat visiting Texans waving around excessive ego about their booze capacity. Recipe: Everclear, left outside at 20-30 below zero. Seriously dangerous, from internal frostbite as well as the obvious.
• A group of chemistry post-grads at (I believe) the University of North Carolina used to exploit their knowledge of practical chemistry to create a terrifying drink known as Mech Fuel—artificially produced ethyl alcohol mixed with propylene glycol (i.e. non-toxic antifreeze) as a sweetener.
• This beverage, created in honor of the eponymous Gargle Blaster from Mass Effect 2. With those two simple ingredients it lives up to its namesake and begs the question...WHY?!
  • Doesn't sound too bad actually. 1 oz. absinthe, 1 oz. grain alcohol, that's barely more than a double shot. Probably tastes disgusting though.
• The Cement Mixer, an actual cocktail from the 1980s. 1 shot of Bailey's Irish Cream with 1 shot of Lemon juice. Taken at the same time. The lemon juice will curdle the Bailey's in your mouth, making it stick to your teeth like sugary cement. And people used to pay bartenders to serve them this...
• A mixture of 3 parts Samogan (traditional bootleg vodka, far stronger because it's often badly distilled, so badly that it can still contains fusel oil), 2 parts cask strength Scotch whisky, 1 measure of the strongest available schnapps, shaken with a cut-open chili pepper, poured, then served with pepper sprinkled in it (the pepper binds the oil in the samogan and carries it to the bottom of the glass). This drink is known as a Strike...as in 3 and you're out.
• The Zombie, also called the Bahama Mama, has this reputation among tiki drinks. Equal portions of dark, light, and spiced rum, some variety of fruit brandy for extra flavor, and some juice to cut down on the bite of the alcohol. Unlike some of the above examples, the effect is less "potable lighter fluid" than "tropical fruity goodness concealing a massive hit of rum." For extra fun, it can be lit on fire.
• A restaurant in Quebec City called (the French translation of) "The Goblin's Tankard" serves a drink made of equal parts whiskey and sourpuss, adding tabasco and then heating. For those that think this is too girly, there's the "Holy Grail", which ups the ante on the alcohol content, adds strips of habanero pepper, and is served in a glass whose rim is bordered in paprika. Few people have resisted it.
• Chinese Herbal Tea, like most of Guangdong's delicacies which be rather foul tasting to the untrained tongue. Its bitterness will make you wonder if you are drinking sewer water or something similar.
• In the 2011 Halloween episode of Nerd to the Third Power, UK Native Skyblaze told of the time her mother brought a bottle of poitin (pronounced po-teen), an Irish moonshine made out from, of all things, potatoes, to a Halloween party. The story ended with one woman waking up naked in her home a day later with no memory of the ENTIRE LAST DAY. Podcast host Dr. Gonzo responded to the story with "So your mother basically instigated a village-wide version of The Hangover?"
  • Legal versions of Poitin exist (although it was still Illegal in Northern Ireland untill just recently), and the strength seems to vary on where you buy it. The stuff on the English side of the Irish sea tends to be the low 60% ABV stuff, Irish supermarkets sell a 70% variation and one that seems only available on the ferry between Wales and Ireland rates into the 85% ABV.
• A few submit their taste buds willfully to the terror of hrenovuha, Eastern European drink made by adding horseradish into 60-70 % ABV moonshine.
• Most military functions have their own version of "The Grog." Simply put, each unit brings a different type of alcohol (or other addition) and the various ingrediants are poured into a large pot. Ingredients have included such things as sand from Iraq (along with the boot it was brought home in) and shredded paper.
• The Cheap Date: fill a large glass half-way with juice, then add a double shot of everything that's behind the bar.
• Jeppson's Malört is 35% ABV, but what really puts it on this list is that it not only tastes terrible (apparently like a really foul mix of industrial chemicals,) but actually advertises this as a selling point. The label basically taunts you to man up and keep drinking it until you get used to the taste. Literal Testosterone Poisoning?
  • Interestingly, wormwood is one of the classic Swedish vodka flavorings, The bitter flavor complements the traditional Swedish cuisine, which is usually quite heavy in fat and salt, very well. The Yanks drink it to prove how tough they are, the Swedes drink it because it goes well with food. Also, in Scandinavian folk medicine, wormwood vodka is considered a panacea for ailments of the stomach.

1. ↑ If you've seen Zhang Yimou's first film, Red Sorghum, this is what they're making at that distillery