Snake wine

Uncommon card · No. 164783

Snake wine (Chinese: 蛇酒; pinyin: shé-jiǔ; Vietnamese: rượu rắn; Khmer: ស្រាពស់, sra poas; Korean: 뱀술, baemsul) is an alcoholic beverage produced by infusing whole snakes in rice wine or grain alcohol. The drink was first recorded to have been consumed in China during the Western Zhou dynasty (c. 1040–770 BC) and thought in folklore to reinvigorate a person according to Traditional Chinese medicine. It is a traditional drink in much of East Asia and Southeast Asia. The snakes, preferably venomous ones, are not usually preserved for their meat but to have their "essence" or venom dissolved in the liquor. The snake venom proteins are unfolded by the ethanol and therefore the completed beverage is usually, but not always, safe to drink.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Khương Việt Hà, CC BY-SA 3.0