Your first encounter with snake wine in Asia will probably be a glimpse of some attractively shaped glass jars and bottles lined up on a roadside stall near some tourist hotspot, at a local market or maybe even inside a modern shopping centre or pharmacy. As you move closer for an inspection and peer inside these transparent jars, you’ll notice that there are in fact snakes (and perhaps other creepy-crawlies) inside the jars, immersed in some kind of liquor. These eye-catching displays are mostly showpieces for the tourist market but some locals do also consume the stuff for its imagined virtues and medicinal qualities.

Snake wine can be found throughout China and many Southeast Asian countries, being especially common in the Mekong Delta areas of the latter. We’ve seen it being exhibited to western tourists during one of those very popular day tours of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam and we again encountered scores of bottles of snake wine in small tourist villages on the outskirts of Luang Prabang in Laos. We haven’t been there but the night market on Huaxi Street in Taipei, Taiwan is supposedly a prime location for snake products of all kinds.

It’s unclear just how much of the trade depends on tourism but it is readily available to anyone who seeks it out, being easily obtainable online on sites like ebay. It is generally a legal substance to bring home for westerners, although there must not be any endangered species inside the bottle for it to be allowed through customs.

As for its taste, we haven’t tried it and would be quite hesitant to do so unless pressured. We’ve seen the reactions of people who have tried it and they mostly found it vile tasting, reporting that it was also very bitter.

History & Traditional beliefs regarding snake wine

The idea of steeping snakes in alcohol is not a concept entirely confined to Southeast Asia as the practice was common in Ancient Greece and in modern day Brazil a similar practice still exists where snakes are steeped in fermented sugar cane juice (cachaca) and sold in markets as a cure for various ailments.

The tradition of snake wine has existed in Southeast Asia and in Chinese traditional medicine for centuries but the trade received a significant boost with the influx of western tourists to these regions.

The traditional belief surrounding snake wine is that by consuming snake wine, one will be imbued with the ‘essence’ of the snake, thereby increasing one’s virility, masculinity and potency. The alcohol presumably only plays the role of neutralizing the harmfulness of the venom. The more venomous the snake, the more potent the concoction is believed to be. Although venomous snakes are the most desirable, frequently non-venomous snakes such as yellow-spotted keelbacks are used instead, having been stretched and pulled to deceptively resemble hooded cobras.

Science tells us that the proteins in the snake venom are denatured by the ethanol, thereby changing their characteristic structure and rendering the venom harmless. How this can result in the vast array of purported medicinal benefits is unclear and there is little research on its clinical effectiveness. It may in fact be an eastern equivalent of‘snake oil’, a product peddled as a cure-all by salesmen in the wild west but with results not living up to its marketing hype

The purported benefits include “rheumatism,” arthritis, lumbago, leprosy, excessive sweat­ing, hair loss, dry skin, farsighted­ness, exhaustion, flu, fever, pain and migraines, and as a general all-round tonic. It’s also widely believed to be an aphrodisiac because snakes are often associated with male potency and masculinity in Vietnamese culture.

Preparation methods

Snake wine comes in two main varieties, the steeped variety and the mixed variety. The preparation methods differ for each.

Steeped variety

The steeped variety of snake wine is prepared by essentially drowning a snake or several snakes in a strong alcoholic solution, usually grain alcohol or rice wine. Sometimes other alternatives are used such as vinegar, ethanol, rubbing alcohol or even toxic formaldehyde. Medicinal herbs and other venomous creatures such as scorpions or centipedes may also be added to the infusion.

The process normally starts by securing the snake near the head and removing its entrails and draining its blood.

The snakes might be rinsed and washed first in another solution before being placed in the final solution to infuse. A skilled handler can quickly lower a snake or several snakes into the jar using a pair of tongs or even by gripping the snake using the bare hand behind the head. Once the snakes are immersed in alcohol inside the jar, the stopper or cap is placed on the jar to seal the snakes inside.

The snake is then left to steep in the alcohol for several months to make a strong infusion.

Mixed variety

In the mixed variety of snake wine, the snake’s bodily fluids are mixed with the alcohol and the wine is then consumed immediately. The two main kinds of this snake wine are snake blood wine and snake bile wine. With snake blood wine, the snake is cut along the belly or across the body and the blood is drained into the alcohol. With snake bile wine, bile is obtained from the snake's gall bladder which is then mixed with the alcohol.

Once snake wine is ready for consumption it is usually drunk in small shot glasses or small cups because the alcohol used to prepare it is too strong to drink in large amounts.

Potential hazards

It’s important that the jar is airtight or the snake could survive for several months inside the jar in a sort of ‘hibernation’ state. People have been bitten by snakes that were kept inside improperly sealed jars, snakes that they thought were dead, but that must have been merely ‘sleeping’.

Another potential hazard is that of parasites such as salmonella in the wine, which could happen if the snakes were not properly gutted and cleaned before infusing them in the alcohol. Correct preparation is the key to keeping the wine parasite-free.

The downside of the snake wine trade

Although the money from the trade brings much needed revenue into local economies, it does have some serious downsides.

The major obvious downside of the snake wine trade is that many millions of snakes (including some endangered species) are killed every year, only to be drowned and infused in alcohol in order to make a beverage of dubious medicinal benefits. This could have unintended consequences such as increases in rat populations, which could in turn damage rice crops.

The process used to prepare the concoction is also very cruel; drowning the creatures in alcohol presumably causes some degree of suffering even to a snake or a scorpion. It seems morally wrong to use snakes as a cash-generating commodity, but then, the world is not seemingly driven by high moral values these days.

Other similar products

There seem to be many variations on the snake wine concept. Often you’ll see other creatures immersed in the alcohol such as scorpions, geckos, centipedes .and sea horses. These other creatures are often immersed in the wine along with the snakes. In China you might also find things like snake penis wine and snake meat soup.

Final thoughts

Snake wine is a certainly a curious and somewhat repulsive novelty product to many of us westerners and a large part of the market has probably come to depend on tourists at this point in time. We probably should refrain from buying the product and any other similar products, knowing the unverified claims that its success hinges on and knowing the amount of unnecessary suffering it causes to snakes. Not to mention that the trade further reduces the populations of already endangered snake species and probably causes increases in rat numbers.

We’d love you to let us know of your experiences with the world of dubious snake products. Have you ever tried snake wine or seen it being prepared? If so, tell us all about it, we’d love to hear any stories you all may have!