|
This could have just been some innocuous question left unanswered and satisfied with a wave of the narrative hand: “It’s a smell that vaguely reminds you of cured meats, but leaves you with an uneasy feeling that it's not quite that.” But, oh no, this was not meant to be. Nat, the designer of our merch, chirped in with: “Did you know the Victorians used mummies as medicine?” As Pandora who once opened the jar, there was no putting this evil back under the lid. The idea would not die, it could not be put to rest. Not only did we need to know what a mummy smells like, but what can it possibly taste like?!?
This led us down a 10 month long rabbit hole where we learned about why and how Egyptians mummified their dead, the extensive trade network spanning the Mediterranean, the silk road and the Indian Ocean and the horrifying history of the pillaging of mummies for their magical restorative properties. Which ended with us, facing a camera, shot glass in hand tasting the ingredients used in mummification. Because though some merchants sold the desiccated corpse, the most discerning medieval doctors preferred the tar like substance that covered mummies and filled their internal cavities. And as we mentioned in the video, there was a bit of rot in our mummy, and there was no way we would subject ourselves to that level of danger.
So the question remains, how bad does mumia taste. BAD! It’s one of these tastes that just clears conscious thoughts from your mind and leaves you with a blue screen and a forced reboot. Much like smelling salts, it’s overpowering and all encompassing. There are aftertastes of cinnamon, pine, lemon lip balm and incense all accompanied with the burn of the alcohol the mixture was dissolved into. But the initial hit is just an overpowering blank bad taste that is hard to explain. So yeah, don’t try this at home kids, we’re what you’d call “professionals”!
|