Hangover. Our least favourite word next to warts, Trump, corked, diarrhoea and Isis. Like cancer, there’s still no scientifically proven cure for hangovers, but a convenience store chain in South Korea claims it has now introduced a hangover cure – an ice cream bar.

Go on, we’re listening.

According to Munchies, South Korea, Asia’s hardest drinking country, the hangover cure is a US$125 million per year industry unto itself, with pills, cosmetic products to hide the effects of a night of boozing, and, of course, stomach-calming foods like hangover soup. 

Reuters reports that South Koreans will soon be able to eat away their hangovers with the Gyeondyo-bar, a grapefruit flavored ice cream bar with a small amount of oriental raisin tree fruit juice. (Yes, that’s its official name.) The raisin juice is the active ingredient, and has been considered a Korean hangover treatment since the 1600s, when it was listed in a medical book as a way to smooth away hangovers. There’s some science to back that up: A study from 2012 in The Journal of Neuroscience found that raisin tree extract could reduce effects of intoxication in rats.

The Gyeondyo-bar’s name translates to “hang in there,” which “expresses the hardships of employees who have to suffer a working day after heavy drinking, as well as to provide comfort to those who have to come to work early after frequent nights of drinking,” the convenience store chain Withme FS, which is releasing the bar, said in a press release.

And if it really works, the little bar could potentially help out a ton of hungover South Koreans. South Koreans drank 12.3 liters booze a year, leading to nearly $8 billion in lost productivity, medical costs, and early deaths in 2013. Hangovers are such a big deal in South Korea that Psy and Snoop Dogg actually made a music video together for a song called “Hangover,” which features lyrics like “hangover, hangover, hangover, hangover, hangover.” The video features another popular hangover remedy, a drink called Hut-gae Condition.

The grapefruit-flavored dessert contains 0.7 percent oriental raisin tree fruit juice, a traditional hangover remedy cited in a Korean medicine book from the 17th century that is included in popular hangover potions.

So what’s a punter to do? Just hang in there.

Like this? Read about 11 other hangover cures

Save

2