IT’S a tradition that’s been around for almost 50 years. The sourtoe cocktail has become a must-try at the former Yukon gold mining town of Dawson City and it’s exactly what is sounds like: a human toe preserved in salt, used to garnish shots of whisky. The first toe belonged to a miner and rumrunner named Louie Liken, who had his frostbitten appendage amputated in the 1920s. Fifty years later, in 1973, Yukon local ‘Captain’ Dick Stevenson found the jar containing the toe and took it to the Sourdough Saloon where he started plonking it into punters’ drinks. And now it was my turn. The motto for Canada’s Yukon province is ‘North of Ordinary’ and after joining the Sourtoe Cocktail Club I could see why.
Of course, there’s more to the Yukon than just slamming shots in bars and I was here to experience the area’s amazing wilderness and unique Indigenous and gold rush history. Ok, and the odd whisky bar.
Town and country
After a long flight from
