British Ex-Marine Donates Frostbitten Digit To Canadian Hotel Specialising In 'Sourtoe' Cocktail

An ex-Royal Marine has gifted a hotel with his severed toe – after losing it to frostbite.

And what’s more, the remote Downtown Hotel in Yukon was delighted to receive it.

Nick Griffiths lost his big toe after competing in an extreme winter marathon last year.

As he lay in his hospital bed following the amputation, Griffith suddenly remembered spotting an advert at a northwest Canada hotel he had been in.

“It said: ‘Had frostbite? We want your toes’,” Griffith told the Guardian. “I thought it was a bit of a joke really.”

For the hotel’s speciality tipple for the last 40 years has been the Sourtoe Cocktail, which as you have probably gathered, contains a mummified human toe served with Yukon Gold whiskey.

If you succeed in this challenge, you receive a certificate from the hotel – but participants must follow the rule: “You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch the toe…

While he was recovering in Bolton, Griffith made the decision to donate his toe to the cause, posting it a jam jar via Royal Mail.

Hotel manager Adam Gerle told the BBC: “We couldn’t be happier to receive a new toe. They are very hard to come by these days and this generous ‘toe-nation’ will help ensure the tradition continues.”

The hotel has also offered to pay for Griffith to return to the Yukon and try the cocktail with his own toe in the summer. But until then, he’ll have to use his imagination.

David Ellis sampled the drink himself in 2014.

“Time stands still as I raise the glass to my lips and close my eyes. There’s a slight medicinal odour, I taste salt and a liquor burn, there’s a bump against my mouth – then it’s all over,” he wrote in the Southern Highland News.