Every week at Swigshot, we’re going to try highlighting an unusual type of alcohol you may not have heard of.

For our inaugural entry, we’ve chosen: Aguardiente.

Roughly translated, this means “firewater”, and boy, does it live up to that claim.

A roommate of mine recently left an opened bottle of aguardiente on the lower shelf of my bar cart, and one night when we were running low on other forms of liquid inebriation, I thought I’d take a quick sip.

Dear God.

If an alcohol could taste like drunken asparagus, this would be it.

This unusual liquor is made using distilled sugar cane, but don’t be fooled by thinking it’s an innocent liquid candy.

My advice?  If you’re going to try this, start with the teensiest sip.  It’s potent as hell and without a shadow of a doubt, you wouldn’t be able to pronounce it after a full shot.