At this festive time of year, thoughts naturally turn to the holidays and the use of, shall we say, "ethanolic" assistance in the partying.

Inventors are no exception, and have found many ingenious ways of Christmas-theming a wide range of products based on our old friend CH3CH2OH.

Russian inventor Nadezhda Urivayeva and colleagues created a fearsome-sounding craft vodka containing extract of reindeer antlers, larch needles and peppermint (Russian Patent No. 2394097), which would surely lay Father Christmas out during his passage through Russia.

To recover he should try what sounds like a wonderful and, literally, heartwarming concoction created by Chinese inventor Tong Song; a cinnamon-flavoured fortified wine which promises, in the words of the Espacenet English abstract, to "warm channels and dredge collaterals", as well as providing "beauty maintenance of young women" (Chinese Patent Application No. 107375523).

So with that in mind, may your channels be warmed, your collaterals completely dredged, and your beauty maintained this holiday season and throughout the New Year!

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