Knowing what to order at a bar can be difficult. As well as wanting to impress your friends with your cocktail expertise or refined knowledge of premium spirits, you'll also want to order something that tastes great and will get you in the mood to party.
There's also the fact that many bartenders these days can be pretentious and snobby, and may look down at you for ordering something boring or "uncool".
If you're dead-set on impressing everyone around you, the best thing to do is to opt for the "wild card" - a drink that will get heads turning, bartenders raising their eyebrows in disbelief, and members of the opposite sex flocking to your raw and untameable nature.
Here are 10 of the wildest beverages that are likely to have that effect:
10. Mezcal
Not to be confused with the psychoactive drug Mescaline, Mezcal is a spirit that hails from Oaxaca, Mexico - and is made from the fermented mash of the agave plant, in much the same way as tequila.
Although fairly common on bar shelves around the world, one thing that makes this potent liquor easily recognizable is the "worm" that floats around inside the bottle.
There are all sorts of stories about the effects of consuming the worm (all of which you can use to impress a date), but the truth is that the worm is actually the larva of a moth that often lives on the agave plant, and which was originally included in bottles of Mezcal during the 1940s as a marketing ploy.
9. Absinthe
Absinthe is an emerald-colored, anise-flavored spirit that has had something of a bad rap over the years. It was originally banned in many countries during the 19th century, due to the hallucinogenic effects of its chief ingredient: Wormwood.
Wormwood (or Artemisia Absinthium) is a plant that contains the chemical thujone, and was accused of causing everything from seizures to hallucinations in those who consumed it.
Absinthe was so maligned that the French authorities banned it in 1914, citing the "social degradation" brought about by the drink. Never mind the fact that great artists like Van Gogh and literary geniuses like Oscar Wilde had cited Absinthe as one of their chief inspirations!
Absinthe is now legal in most countries, although controls still exist on the amount of thujone that can be present in the drink. Luckily, most absinthe contains around 65% alcohol - which means you should be still able to conjure up some inspiration one way or another.
8. The End of History Nothing says "WILD" like taxidermy, and that's exactly what you'll be getting if you order the super-strong ale called The End of History. The drink is produced by Brewdog, a Scottish brewery, and the bottles come encased in the stuffed corpse of a small dead mammal (so far only stoats, squirrels and hares have been harmed in the making of these bottles).
What's also interesting about The End of History is its alcohol by volume percentage: 55% to be precise. That's stronger than most spirits - and is also the reason its makers recommend you sip on it like a fine whiskey, rather than downing it like a pint of your favorite lager.
7. Nuclear Daquiri
Want a drink that goes off with a boom? Then this atomic-sounding cocktail might just be for you! It was created in the aptly-named LAB bar in London, UK - and has, as its primary ingredient, Wray and Nephews' overproof rum.
The drink is given its eerie green hue by adding a measure of Green Chartreuse liqueur, and it's finished off with Velvet Falernum and lime juice.
6. Pizza Beer
I'm not sure exactly who you're likely to impress by ordering a "pizza beer" at your local watering hole, but the idea of mixing my favorite alcoholic beverage with my favorite post-beer food seems like a good idea to me.
Whilst flavoured beers are nothing new (strawberry Fruli is served in a growing number of pubs), you may be hard-pressed to find too many bars serving something as exotic as pizza beer.
In my opinion, the only thing left is to offer a selection of different "toppings" for your beer. I wonder what a "New York Meat Feast" might taste like in ale form...
5. Bacon Vodka
Speaking of meat and alcohol, Bakon is another spirit worth including in the canon of "drinks likely to impress carnivores".
There's a saying that goes, "everything can be improved with bacon" and, just as wrapping sausages in bacon is a great idea, so too is this bacon-flavored vodka! My personal recommendation is to use it in a savory cocktail like a Bloody Mary, but you can enjoy it on its lonesome too!
4. Bubble Bath Martini
The Bubble Bath Martini was invented in London's Lounge Bohemia. This intriguing cocktail is an inspired combination of lychee, lavender and foaming rose bubbles that transform the martini glass it's served in into an ice cold version of a relaxing bubble bath.
To top it off, the garnish for the drink is a small yellow rubber duck that bobs about in the cocktail's murky water!
3. Snake Wine
Now that we've got the cute bubble bath drinks out of the way, it's time to move on to the heavy stuff:
If you ever get a chance to travel through Vietnam, you might want to consider trying the local delicacy known as "Snake Wine'.
The principle is pretty simple, you take some rice wine, and then you let a venomous snake soak in the bottle for a few weeks - until the wine turns a pinkish-color from the leaking snake blood.
If you can't wait that long, though, there are certain parts of the country where it's customary to simply pour out two shots of rice wine, and then to kill a live snake at the table and drain its bile into one glass, and its blood into the other - and down both shots!
2. Seagull Wine
If Snake Wine had your stomach turning, you may want to skip reading about Seagull Wine altogether!
This Inuit drink is even simpler to make than Snake Wine, which is already a point in its favor.
Because Inuits didn't have access to rice wines and other fancy spirits, they had to make do with getting a bottle of water, stuffing a dead Seagull into it (no clue how they managed that!) and then simply allowing the seagull to ferment - creating an alcoholic beverage that, by all accounts, doesn't taste that great, but will probably do the job anyway.
1. Liquid Nitrogen Cocktails
You must, at this point, be wondering what kind of terrible drink would be wild enough to top this list. Well, the truth is that the drink at number one was actually widely available in most bars until fairly recently.
Liquid nitrogen cocktails are simply mixed drinks that make use of "liquid nitrogen", a super-chilled chemical that causes cocktails to foam and smoke like an evil potion brewing in a witch's cauldron.
Although these drinks may seem like something out of The Addams Family, they tend to taste fairly average and, once the liquid nitrogen has been absorbed into the drink, they stop looking interesting too.
The reason they make the number one spot is because they are the drink most likely to kill you on a Saturday night bar crawl!
One recent case to make the headlines was that of 18-year-old Gaby Scanlon, who was rushed to hospital to have her entire stomach removed after accidentally consuming liquid nitrogen in a cocktail.
The cold temperature of the substance ruptured her stomach, and would have killed her, had she not made it to hospital in time!
Since then, many bars have decided to stop serving nitrogen cocktails, simply because no bartender wants to see a patron's stomach explode - no matter how desperate they are to finish their shift early!
There's also the fact that many bartenders these days can be pretentious and snobby, and may look down at you for ordering something boring or "uncool".
If you're dead-set on impressing everyone around you, the best thing to do is to opt for the "wild card" - a drink that will get heads turning, bartenders raising their eyebrows in disbelief, and members of the opposite sex flocking to your raw and untameable nature.
Here are 10 of the wildest beverages that are likely to have that effect:
10. Mezcal
Not to be confused with the psychoactive drug Mescaline, Mezcal is a spirit that hails from Oaxaca, Mexico - and is made from the fermented mash of the agave plant, in much the same way as tequila.
Although fairly common on bar shelves around the world, one thing that makes this potent liquor easily recognizable is the "worm" that floats around inside the bottle.
There are all sorts of stories about the effects of consuming the worm (all of which you can use to impress a date), but the truth is that the worm is actually the larva of a moth that often lives on the agave plant, and which was originally included in bottles of Mezcal during the 1940s as a marketing ploy.
9. AbsintheAbsinthe is an emerald-colored, anise-flavored spirit that has had something of a bad rap over the years. It was originally banned in many countries during the 19th century, due to the hallucinogenic effects of its chief ingredient: Wormwood.
Wormwood (or Artemisia Absinthium) is a plant that contains the chemical thujone, and was accused of causing everything from seizures to hallucinations in those who consumed it.
Absinthe was so maligned that the French authorities banned it in 1914, citing the "social degradation" brought about by the drink. Never mind the fact that great artists like Van Gogh and literary geniuses like Oscar Wilde had cited Absinthe as one of their chief inspirations!
Absinthe is now legal in most countries, although controls still exist on the amount of thujone that can be present in the drink. Luckily, most absinthe contains around 65% alcohol - which means you should be still able to conjure up some inspiration one way or another.
8. The End of History Nothing says "WILD" like taxidermy, and that's exactly what you'll be getting if you order the super-strong ale called The End of History. The drink is produced by Brewdog, a Scottish brewery, and the bottles come encased in the stuffed corpse of a small dead mammal (so far only stoats, squirrels and hares have been harmed in the making of these bottles).
What's also interesting about The End of History is its alcohol by volume percentage: 55% to be precise. That's stronger than most spirits - and is also the reason its makers recommend you sip on it like a fine whiskey, rather than downing it like a pint of your favorite lager.
7. Nuclear DaquiriWant a drink that goes off with a boom? Then this atomic-sounding cocktail might just be for you! It was created in the aptly-named LAB bar in London, UK - and has, as its primary ingredient, Wray and Nephews' overproof rum.
The drink is given its eerie green hue by adding a measure of Green Chartreuse liqueur, and it's finished off with Velvet Falernum and lime juice.
6. Pizza BeerI'm not sure exactly who you're likely to impress by ordering a "pizza beer" at your local watering hole, but the idea of mixing my favorite alcoholic beverage with my favorite post-beer food seems like a good idea to me.
Whilst flavoured beers are nothing new (strawberry Fruli is served in a growing number of pubs), you may be hard-pressed to find too many bars serving something as exotic as pizza beer.
In my opinion, the only thing left is to offer a selection of different "toppings" for your beer. I wonder what a "New York Meat Feast" might taste like in ale form...
5. Bacon VodkaSpeaking of meat and alcohol, Bakon is another spirit worth including in the canon of "drinks likely to impress carnivores".
There's a saying that goes, "everything can be improved with bacon" and, just as wrapping sausages in bacon is a great idea, so too is this bacon-flavored vodka! My personal recommendation is to use it in a savory cocktail like a Bloody Mary, but you can enjoy it on its lonesome too!
4. Bubble Bath Martini
The Bubble Bath Martini was invented in London's Lounge Bohemia. This intriguing cocktail is an inspired combination of lychee, lavender and foaming rose bubbles that transform the martini glass it's served in into an ice cold version of a relaxing bubble bath.
To top it off, the garnish for the drink is a small yellow rubber duck that bobs about in the cocktail's murky water!
3. Snake Wine
Now that we've got the cute bubble bath drinks out of the way, it's time to move on to the heavy stuff:
If you ever get a chance to travel through Vietnam, you might want to consider trying the local delicacy known as "Snake Wine'.
The principle is pretty simple, you take some rice wine, and then you let a venomous snake soak in the bottle for a few weeks - until the wine turns a pinkish-color from the leaking snake blood.
If you can't wait that long, though, there are certain parts of the country where it's customary to simply pour out two shots of rice wine, and then to kill a live snake at the table and drain its bile into one glass, and its blood into the other - and down both shots!
2. Seagull Wine
If Snake Wine had your stomach turning, you may want to skip reading about Seagull Wine altogether!
This Inuit drink is even simpler to make than Snake Wine, which is already a point in its favor.
Because Inuits didn't have access to rice wines and other fancy spirits, they had to make do with getting a bottle of water, stuffing a dead Seagull into it (no clue how they managed that!) and then simply allowing the seagull to ferment - creating an alcoholic beverage that, by all accounts, doesn't taste that great, but will probably do the job anyway.
1. Liquid Nitrogen Cocktails
You must, at this point, be wondering what kind of terrible drink would be wild enough to top this list. Well, the truth is that the drink at number one was actually widely available in most bars until fairly recently.
Liquid nitrogen cocktails are simply mixed drinks that make use of "liquid nitrogen", a super-chilled chemical that causes cocktails to foam and smoke like an evil potion brewing in a witch's cauldron.
Although these drinks may seem like something out of The Addams Family, they tend to taste fairly average and, once the liquid nitrogen has been absorbed into the drink, they stop looking interesting too.
The reason they make the number one spot is because they are the drink most likely to kill you on a Saturday night bar crawl!
One recent case to make the headlines was that of 18-year-old Gaby Scanlon, who was rushed to hospital to have her entire stomach removed after accidentally consuming liquid nitrogen in a cocktail.
The cold temperature of the substance ruptured her stomach, and would have killed her, had she not made it to hospital in time!
Since then, many bars have decided to stop serving nitrogen cocktails, simply because no bartender wants to see a patron's stomach explode - no matter how desperate they are to finish their shift early!