Trying to help Frances in her search for alcoholic rhymes, I bumped into a section in the Chambers book of Crossword Lists called ‘special drinks’. Oh ho, I thought, that sounds interesting.
There are five entries: ava, kava, soma, haoma and
ayahuasco. I’m afraid I need to
transcribe the definitions of all of these.
Ava and Kava are the same thing: an aromatic
plant of the pepper family (piper methysticum); a narcotic drink prepared from
its roots and stem.
Soma (leaving
aside mad Aldous Huxley’s appropriation) is a plant (perh. an asclepiad), or
its intoxicating juice, used in ancient Indian religious ceremonies, and personified
as a god. Remarkably, there is
apparently a proprietary prescription drug which is marketed as Soma®. Wouldn’t mind scoring some of that.
Haoma: a drink prepared from the
haoma vine, used in Zoroastrian ritual. (see also soma)
Do you start to see a pattern
here?
And finally,
the magnificent Ayahuasco: a S American vine of the family Malpighiaceae; a
drink made from the roots of the vine, having hallucinatory properties.
Special? Pwaff.
Chambers compilers? Amateurs. I’m off to watch Magical Mystery Tour. 
I didn't get the pattern very quickly but I guessed the Ayahuasco was South American. Only I thought it was the Peruvian national dish. (The potato one, not roasted guinea pig)
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