“I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day,” said Frank Sinatra.

Of course, Sinatra did it his own way. But let me be honest here – I also do love a morning chaser, a lunchtime glass of bubbly and an evening tipple. In particular, wines and spirits are close to my heart and, if I’m not careful, liver. And if there’s a weird cocktail on the menu, I’m usually the first to get to know it – then I take a photo of it and upload it on my Facebook wall, just to see my friends’ reaction.

That said, I don’t venture out of my comfort zone and tend to stick to drinks which are normally found at the local bar.

But then, every country has its own idea of what is normal and what isn’t. In Malta, we drink prickly pear liqueur, which other countries might consider alien. In Canada, they have the Caesar, which is basically a Bloody Mary with Clamato – a drink made of tomato juice and clam broth – instead of straight up tomato juice. Just think of tomatoes with a hint of fresh fish – not my favourite drink.

These concoctions are fun but they don’t really surprise me. To truly push the envelope of what is downright drinkable, we have to travel much deeper into the global culture of getting tipsy than I have dared go before. But beware – what lies ahead is not for those with a weak stomach.

Moonshine, USA

If, like me, you have brewed your own private brand of liqueur or wine in the garden shed, you could be branded a moonshiner. But to really earn this title, you need to refine your fermenting and distilling technique until you have something known as white lightning. or moonshine. This illegal liqueur was first poured as a black market alternative during the USA’s prohibition era.

Traditionally, moonshine is made from cornmeal but today some moonshiners use commercial pig feed because it’s mostly made of corn and is easy to buy without attracting a lot of attention.

It is still distilled in the backwoods of Appalachia where shiners evade the law and, hence the name, brew their alcoholic concoctions by the light of the moon.

Pulque, Central Mexico

Pulque is a milk-coloured, viscous alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the Maguey plant. The drink’s history extends far back into the Mesoamerican period, when it was considered sacred and its use was limited to certain classes of people.

However, after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, the drink became secular and its consumption rose. You can still find a glass of pulque if you look hard enough in small street bars but its consumption has dropped hugely since the introduction of beer.

Agwa de Bolivia, Amsterdam

Coca leaves are best known as the source of the drug cocaine, but Bolivians chew the leaf in its natural state because of its apparent energy giving properties. The coca leaves used to make Agwa De Bolivia are shipped under armed guard from Bolivia to Amsterdam where they are de-cocainised before being infused with alcohol and 36 other natural herbs and botanicals including guarana and ginseng. The result is a 60-proof electric green liqueur.

Mamajuana, Dominican Republic

Mamajuana is made by steeping tree bark and herbs in a bottle with rum, red wine and honey. You can buy mamajuana as a bag of the key ingredients (leaves, twigs, shellfish and the private parts of a sea turtle). If you buy it this way you have to add your own rum and honey and take care of the curing and maceration process yourself. Or you can buy a bottle of the finished product, either from traders in the Dominican Republic or, since 2005, from online retailers which comply with international standards.

Seagull Wine, Arctic Circle

We finish with a drink that tops all the rest in terms of sheer nastiness.

Limited somewhat by their chilled environment, the Inuit in the Arctic Circle don’t have much to work with when they want to create a fine vintage. So the recipe for this wine is simple – stuff a dead seagull into a bottle of water, leave it in the sun to ferment for a good while and bingo, you’ve got yourself some seagull wine. Now all you have to do is travel to the very depths of despair in order to drink it.