would you drink it?

A few months ago, an industry newsletter brought news of Baby Mouse Wine and other delicacies oddities from around the world. Since then, the email has been clogging up my inbox, as I attempt to track down this libation. The article was originally in Forbes and had this to say about the mouse wine:

Like the name suggests, this is a rice wine containing baby mice. Best prepare, this explanation isn’t for the faint of heart. Baby mice are taken soon after being born, and dropped, alive, into a bottle of rice wine. The “rules” state that they must be under 72 hours old and their eyes must still be closed. After about a dozen of the little guys are in, the bottle is left to ferment and age for a year. Most people reading this are probably feeling a little uncomfortable right about now, but in Asia, the drink is bound by tradition and goes back centuries. The country of origin is debated to this day. Whether it came from Korea or China, the wine is said to greatly help asthma patients and people with liver disease.

I am simultaneously relieved and disappointed, that I can’t find any of this in the TTB database. If there is a more exotic product out there, I have...

It looks like moonshine.

But it’s not spirits. It’s not even beer or wine, and yet it is 28 proof.

I stumbled on Great America “Carolina Clear” at a gas station in Bardstown, Kentucky, of all places. It was just a couple miles from Jim Beam and Four Roses. I would have assumed the heart of Bourbon Country is roughly the last place for a product such as this to thrive. And yet, the guy loitering and smoking out front advised it is an excellent product and will get one messed up almost as good as the illegal stuff. The display had about 40 jars of the product, in various flavors, a couple days ago. When I went back today, only one jar was left.

And so, if it’s not beer, wine or spirits — what could it possibly be? It took me a few minutes, and a return trip, to sort it out, because this is indeed an unusual product.

The front label describes it as Carolina Clear, Malt Specialty. There is no mention of beer, and there is no TTB label approval, because the product apparently lacks the hops and malted barley required to fit within the U.S. definition of a “malt beverage.”

The back label explains, in the...

This one caught my eye as quite a bit unusual. It is spirits with added mushrooms, sea lettuce, parsnips and other root vegetables. It is Durt-brand spirits, produced by Melkon Khosrovian, and is not to be confused with Root-brand spirits. I don’t see much on the label or on the web to suggest what it tastes like, or how it is to be used, except where the label says “packed full of the umami flavor.” Wikipedia explains that umami is one of the five basic tastes along with salty, sweet, sour, and bitter, and “can be described as a pleasant ‘brothy’ or ‘meaty’ taste with a long lasting, mouthwatering and coating sensation over the tongue.” Not to be left out of the umami-fest, here is a beer with plenty of umami, and a wine/sake “bursting with umami goodness.”