11 Strange Drinking Rituals From Around the World
| March 23, 2015
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Rum and Gunpowder – 18th Century Pirates
Next time you’re sailing the Seven Seas, be sure to have yourself a rum and gunpowder. Suspicious of their officers watering down their precious grog, 18th century sailors would add gunpowder to their rum and light it on fire. Pure rum would burn with a bright blue flame and was deemed acceptable for drinking. Legend has it that Caribbean pirates took this tradition a step further by adding tobacco, human blood and soil (from a freshly dug grave, of course) to their rum after adopting the practice from Haitian voodoo pledge rituals.
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