8 Bizarre Hangover Cures from Around the World
July 1st, 2008 by PJSunday morning, after we’d all emerged half-alive from our various resting places (John, under the coffee table? Seriously?), we congregated in the garage…I mean office. That’s where the beer fridge is, making it the obvious meeting place. All in pretty bad shape from a solid 2-day bender, we started chatting about different hangover cures. The classics were presented, like mixing beer & clamato, bloody marry’s, etc. but we wanted to dig a little deeper.
We decided to start researching the strangest hangover cures, and where better to go fact-finding than the source of all truth, the Internet? Here are the strangest hangover cures we found:
#8. Lemon in the Armpits
Apparently some Puerto Ricans (and other citrusy fresh people) swear by this method. While I’ve read a few different opinions, the general belief is that you need to rub a slice of lemon in the armpit of your drinking arm before you start boozing. Out of lemons? Lime’s fine. I’m not so sure about this one, but either way you’ll be smelling fresh and fruity. Nothing attracts members of the opposite sex more than smelling like this fine lady:
#7. World’s Greatest Drunks
Now it’s clearly between the Russians and Irish for being the biggest drunks, so I’ll present a hangover cure from each.
The Russians claim all you have to do is drink the juice squeezed from a cucumber. I don’t know how you go about this, but Vodka literally means water in Russian, so who are we to second-guess them?
The Irish cure? Well they’re said “to bury the ailing person in moist river sand.” It’s not exactly clear if they keep the head above ground, or if this is simply the easiest way to get rid of the weakest drinkers.
#6. Sicilian Sausage
Now I’m pretty hesitant on this next one, but who am I to second guess the people who instituted organized crime? Apparently, Sicilians believe that all you have to do after a wild night of drinking is eat a dried bull’s penis. Yep, that’s it. Plain and simple.
#5. Jog ‘n’ Lick
Word on the street (according to BBC ) is that Native Americans would run around in the morning to get sweaty after a hard night on the village. Next step? Why the only logical thing: lick all that sweat up and spit it out, so you can get rid of all the ‘poison’ you’d just oozed out. Mmm, I can just taste the sticky malt liquor sweat right now!
#4. Kickin’ it old school
Now we all learned in school how much the Ancient Greeks & Romans knew how to party, what with the bath houses, orgies, and epic festivals. Well, after a wild night of debauchery Ancient Greeks were all about a nice breakfast of sheep lungs and two owl eggs.
The morning after, Romans would chow down on deep-fried canaries, which we can only assume were sold in big, family-size buckets.
#3. Voodoo
While most of these require mixing together ridiculous ingredients, this hangover remedy simply requires a complete lack of logic… or lots of magic (magic trumps logic every time). Haitian voodoo people are said to recommend sticking 13 black pins in the cork of the offending bottle. Try it out, let me know how it goes.
#2. Mongolian Mary
The hangover cure for heavy drinkers in outer Mongolia is “a pair of pickled sheep’s eyes in tomato juice.” Not too well-versed in the finer aspects of this region or it’s people, I did an image search for “Mongolian” and this photo showed up:
According to Google, this is how Mongolians dress, so I’m not too surprised by the eyeballs thing. Question: do they put them on a stirring stick like olives?
#1. “2 Cowboys 1 Cup”
What did those lonely cowboys of the Wild West concoct to cure hangovers? A fresh, hot cup of tea? Oh, that’s nice, sounds like a pleasant little remedy. Wait, they put what in it? Rabbit droppings? Yes, the best part of waking up was rabbit shit in their cup.
If you all have any more bizarre hangover remedies, definitely leave a comment. We’re always looking for ways to eat pickled sheep eyes without being ridiculed by peers. I think the next step is testing some of these out for ourselves.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:29 am
I’m a big proponent of the brass monkey, which you all are familiar with. Drink the 40oz down to the label, pour in OJ, enjoy. Nice post!
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:32 pm
actually vodka does not “literally mean water in russian”, water in russian is “vodah” emphasis on the last syllable, although some russians joke that they share
however the term of endearment of water (vodichka) and vodka (vodochka) sound very similar. but still they are not interchangeable and do not mean the same think.
July 8th, 2008 at 8:14 am
Thank you, Mr. Kush, for the edification. Either way, they sure seem to treat vodka like water.
July 13th, 2008 at 1:01 am
I’m a big fan of the pimosa. Half a pint of orange juice, and half a pint of none other than the finest beverage known to man: Pabst Blue Ribbon. Great twist on the brass monkey.
December 19th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Thanks for the rounded view. Hangover cures come in two paradigms: prophylactic and acute treatment. Most alcohol consumers don’t begin drinking with the intention to reach the level at which a hangover occurs. Usually trial and error helps us all learn that limit from wretchedly powerful experience. I totally agree with the quality and blending of alcohols being a big factor in hangover outcomes.. Recently however on a well sourced suggestion i used dehydrated Nopal cactus powder (opuntia ficus-indica) for both hangover prevention and treatment. Wow …amazing….everyone to whom i have passed on this remedy, and has actually tried it was equally impressed. There is even some science behind it. 1-2 teaspoons in water or juice does the trick, and works best when taken before drinking begins. I have found it to also be effective, if i can remember just before bed and thankfully the morning after. I can’t imagine it doing much when you’re so hung-over that nothing stays down, which is best served with an IV, per my paramedic friend’s experience. The best deal on Good quality dehydrated Nopal is at http://www.nopalamerica.com.. They ship PRIORITY for free.
December 31st, 2008 at 7:14 am
[...] 40Cozy gives their list on the eight bizarrest hangover cures from around the world. Booze has been popular for centuries and that is obvious because the ancient Greeks’ recipe for a hangover is to have a breakfast of sheep lungs and two owl eggs. Fellow Romans believed in munching on deep-fried canaries and Haitians insist sticking 13 pins into the offending bottle would completely cure you. The Irish have a strange custom to cure hangovers: burying the person in moist river sand (if not done properly though, this cure may become permanent). And the Wild West was wild indeed because the seriously wasted would down seriously bad-tasting cups of bunny-poo tea. Sicilians didn’t just give the world Mafia, they also gave us the famous hangover cure: dried bull’s penis. [...]
March 29th, 2009 at 8:25 am
I’ve lived and boozed in Puerto Rico for three decades and have never EVER heard of the ‘lemon in the armpit’ story until now.
Whoever came up with that was ‘hablando mierda’ (talking shit) and you can tell them I said so.
March 29th, 2009 at 8:43 am
I wish I would have met VaughnSC while in PR. I am 100% certain that we could have had a blast. Anyway – I agree with him. I never heard the lemon story. The only time I interchange lemon and lime is with Don Julio.
March 30th, 2009 at 9:07 am
JC and VaughnSC, we trust your experience drinking and on all things Puerto Rico. We thought it sounded pretty ridiculous also, but you never know. Just the other day I got burned by a cooking sheet at a party, only to have some older woman put butter on my wound. I didn’t think that made much sense, but then again, how often do you get to have a cougar butter your body? For me, that was only the third time, so I ran with it.
Thank you both for your knowledge, I’ll stop rubbing lemons on my pits henceforth.
January 12th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
[...] In honor of the overindulgence that inevitably piggybacks the holidays, our team cooked up a little promotion for January that we like to call “Cheers to the New Year” trivia… one of our more brilliant ideas, if we do say so ourselves. The first game of the month, which conveniently fell on New Year’s Day, offered our first challenge: Write 15 trivia questions about hangover cures. While we suspected that our collective experience would be enough to write two or three games, we decided to back ourselves up with some hard-hitting scientific fact. We rolled up our sleeves and scoured the internet for time-honored remedies to post-party misery . The result: a game that, in retrospect, could have been titled: “Hangover: The World Tour.” [...]
January 12th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
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March 7th, 2010 at 3:27 am
Well you got my attention with the rabbit raisins cure, I’m not sure I would try it but for sure your day couldn’t get any worse after that breakfast treat.
March 15th, 2010 at 11:16 am
I’m reluctant that the Pit bull desires a specific type of proprietor…these pet dogs, regardless of how ‘tender’ still have teeth, are nevertheless creatures without moral principles and if they DO bite, won’t let go. As in all creatures…some often be far more suseptable to instinctual behavior and time and time once again, this breed tends to complete just that.
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May 7th, 2011 at 5:46 pm
Lemon in the armpits? lmao. That’s classic.
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December 31st, 2011 at 6:21 am
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