Canadian bar which makes a cocktail garnished with a dead toe receives donation of three more toes

A bar in Canada famous for a morbid cocktail made with a shrivelled dead toe has been sent a generous donation of three more toes.

Re-did my #SourtoeCocktail certification WITH A FRESH TOE pic.twitter.com/uVkdjXMlWA

— charlene rooke (@packlight) April 7, 2018

Nick Griffiths, an ex-Royal Marine from Bolton, UK, decided to donate his toes after losing them to frostbite during an expedition in the Yukon Arctic in February.

He knew he’d developed frostbite on his hands, face, and ears after clearing 60 miles of the Yukon Arctic Ultra sled race — billed as the “World’s Coldest and Toughest Ultra” — but had no idea that his feet were beyond wrecked until he met with the medical professionals.

“I wasn’t particularly worried and the doctor came in and had a look,” Griffiths told Bolton News at the time. “He said this is third or fourth degree frostbite. This is as bad as it gets.”

“You are going to lose some or all of your toes.”

Fortunately, the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City, Canada, is always in need of “fresh” meat thanks to its pretty self-descriptive Sourtoe Cocktail, which uses a pickled human toe as a garnish.

Those brave enough to have dropped the toe into their drinks and then downed it are inducted into the “Sourtoe cocktail Club” – which surprisingly has more than 100,000 members. The only rule: “You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch the toe.”

Preparations of the Sourtoe Cocktail (Photo: TravelingOtter/Flickr)

The cocktail shot to fame last year when a self-confessed “drunken fool” returned the bar’s shrivelled appendage after stealing it on a night out, resulting in an appeal issued by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

While the bar is once again in possession of a toe and able to keep the bizarre tradition of the Sourtoe tradition alive, the incident prompted the official tourism department for Yukon to launch the ‘Make a Toenation’ campaign, urging those to sign up to one day donate their toe to the bar.

Griffiths came across the Downtown Hotel’s Sourtoe Cocktail when a nurse showed him the video while in hospital.

“It would be quite a novelty one day … to say ‘your granddad’s toe is in a bar in Canada,” he told the Canadian Star.

Since the toes are preserved in salt, they pair best with tequila, according to bar manager Jonny Klynkramer.

Klynkramer said the saloon is looking forward to Griffiths toes, since they only have two “pointer toes” at the moment.

“We always prefer big toes, they’re the meatiest,” Klynkramer said.