5 Drinks Discovered While Traveling

While traveling your exposed to so many new things. Sights, sounds, smells, people, places... and drinks. I started seriously traveling shortly after my 19th birthday. My drinking experience had been compromised mainly of beer (stolen from my parents) and vodka (sold to me out of the back of someones car). As a result, I was interested in whatever local concoctions I could get my hands on. Here are some of my favourite drinks discovered while on the road.

Drink: Cuba Libre

Discovered: A bus in Brazil (i think).

I was on a 3 month party bus tour of South America. There was one other Canadian on the bus (Pat from Ontario). He was on holiday and drinking like it. His drink of choice was rum and coke but he had trouble finding it in bars.He soon discovered that asking for a Cuba Libre (rum and coke with a bit of lime) got him much more success. There were also local variations like the Brazil Libre (Cachacha sugar cane rum and coke), or the Peru Libre (Pisco Sours and coke). We enjoyed many different "Libres" over the course of that trip.

Drink: Calimocho

Discovered: Spain (Bilbao to be precise)

After a month or so of travelling around france and spain I ended up staying with a young family in the city of Bilbao. They introduced me to this drink called Calimocho which is somewhat of a local "specialty". Basically it's 50% cheap red wine and 50% coke served in a glass with some ice. After a month spent drinking 1 euro bottles of wine I was hesitant to try another wine drink but i went for it and am glad I did. The coke masked any unpleasant taste in the wine and the result was refreshing and delicious. For the rest of my trip, i'd bust this drink out at hostels and silence the fools who said I shouldn't put red wine in the freezer.

Drink: Irn Bru

Discovered: Scotland

I was sleeping in a park in Glasgow (before i heard that this was the city with the highest rate of stabbings per capita). I woke up one morning, packed up my stuff and went to the local convenience store. My mouth was dry so I went to the soft drinks section and my eye was instantly caught by a bright orange and blue can. Called "Irn-Bru" I decided to give it a try. It was pretty tasty. Hard to pin down the flavour but it was a bit citrusy. Apparently it is a huge deal in Scotland and one of the main competitors to Coke. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Drink: Pisco Sours

Discovered: Some sand dunes in Peru

I also encountered this drink while on my tour of South America. One of our stops was some sand dunes in Peru. We started off by jumping in these dune buggys and ripping around the dunes. Up and down, very similar to a roller coaster but with less safety features. Next we tried our hand at sandboarding. After that, we made camp for the night and our hosts/guides brought out Peru's national drink. Called "Pisco Sours" these potent little cocktails came in a variety of different flavours and packed a punch. Basically the contain strong grape barndy (Pisco), lime juice, simply syrup, egg white, and bitters. Everyone got pretty slunky and had some great adventures in the sand dunes. Check out the wikipedia article for more info and instructions on how to make them http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisco_Sour

Drink:Everclear

Discovered: University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

I'd always wanted to experience the University "lifestyle" but had never been able to commit to all that school work. So one day shortly after new years, me and a friend decided to visit our mutual friend at the University of Calgary. One hairy, scary 13 hour drive later we got there and the party started. We were introduced to a drink called "Everclear". This wasn't available/legal in B.C. so we were excited to try it. Basically it's death/pure awesomeness in a bottle. Clocking in at 95% alcohol, Everclear goes "straight to the dome". Definitely an experience and a good reason for more road trips to Calgary in the future.

That's all for now!

It's getting late and I'm getting thirsty so I'll wrap it up here. One of the joys of traveling is discovering new (to you) things and places. Please feel free to leave a comment below with one of your favourite travel drinks or experiences. Also check out my blog http://www.thetravelpacker.com/blog for more great articles.

cheers,

Mitchell

By: Mitchell Scott

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Check out the Travel Packer Blog for more great articles. www.thetravelpacker.com/blog The Travel Packer is a web app created by 2 friends living in Whistler B.C. Canada. It's a comprehensive packing checklist designed to make getting ready for your next adventure easy and fun. It features an easy to understand interface and incorporates travel tips and advice.