Hangover cures come and go faster than fast fashion and most of them don’t work, but there’s finally a hangover cure that feels so right: “Gyeondyo” a grapefruit flavored ice cream from South Korea with a name that translates to “hang in there.”
It’s the most on-brand name for a hangover cure yet. The name “expresses the hardships of employees who have to suffer a working day after heaving drinking, as well as to provide comfort to those who have to come to work early after frequent nights of drinking,” the company that released the ice cream said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
The secret ingredient is oriental raisin tree fruit juice. The Journal of Neuroscience backed up the healing claims of the raison juice in a 2012 article titled “Dihydromyricetin As a Novel Anti-Alcohol Intoxication Medication.” The study the article was based on found that extract from the raisins eased intoxication symptoms in rats.
But the trust in raisins goes much further back. A medicine book from the 1600s lists oriental raisin tree fruit juice as a hangover cure. Turns out regretting the amount you consumed the night before is nothing new. Today, Korea is the heaviest drinking country in Asia-Pacific, according to a 2014 World Health Organization report.
All that drinking means a need for hangover cures. The hangover cure business in Korea generates $126 million in sales every year, from hangover soup to pills to ice cream.
Gyeondyo just hit the shelves in South Korea, and isn’t yet in the U.S. Until it gets here, you’ll just have to manage your hangover with coconut water.
