Stone-cold sober: Could this ice cream cure your hangover?

Overdone the gin? No matter how good our intentions, we’ve all been there – and we all have our own tried and tested ways of attempting to combat the resulting hangover. Well, now there’s a new one.

A convenience store chain in South Korea it has started selling an ice cream bar that it claims can cure the symptoms of over-drinking alcohol.

The grapefruit-flavoured Gyeondyo-bar, which translates as “hang in there”, contains oriental raisin tree fruit juice, a traditional Korean hangover remedy that is cited in a 17th century medicine book. More recently, a scientific article in the Journal of Neuroscience in 2012 found that the juice reduced symptoms of intoxication in rats.

WithMe, the store chain who launched the bar, claim it’s the world’s first ice cream bar to be marketed specifically as a hangover cure.

South Koreans are the biggest drinkers of hard liquor in the world and Asia's biggest per capita alcohol consumers, and the country has a thriving market in hangover cures – from pills and drinks to cosmetics.

And it’s not just South Korea that’s looking to eradicate hangovers – as we reported earlier this year, its neighbour North Korea recently claimed (rather dubiously) to have invented a hangover-free alcohol…

But when it comes to this new product, while we’re never ones to turn down an ice cream, we have to admit that the best way to avoid a hangover is probably just not to drink too much in the first place. Especially when it comes to gin, we’re all about quality over quantity!