No worm in the tequila?
 

Some friends just got back from Cancun, and brought me a bottle of Mezcal, however, there is no worm in the bottle, but rather, a scorpion.

Are they just putting whatever crawls in tequila these days?

I have seen that before where it's a scorpion... can't remember the name of it

Scorpion brand maybe?

What's the purpose of putting bugs in booze anyways?

what size? pics? :pimp

Are you going to eat the scorpion? :D

I think it is to test how drunk you are.

This is what I've come to know about it. Mescal (mezcal) tequila is made from the agave or "century" plant. "The worm" is actually the agave worm, it lives under the plant and has a kind of symbiotic reletionship with it, so much so that when the plants are harvested and used to make the mescal the worm is included... because it is in effect part of the plant.

There's more to it than that, and the Mexicans have a kind of ritual they go through with regards to eating the worm and what it's supposed to do for you etc.

They tell us gullible tourists that if you eat the worm and drink the last shot of the bottle to wash it down you will be "3 days sexy", or irresistibly attractive to the opposite sex for 3 days.

Works for me every time. :D

As you know, my camera isn't the best, and shooting inside glass . . . well . . .


http://a1der-babe.com/sco627.jpg

http://a1der-babe.com/sco628.jpg

http://a1der-babe.com/sco629.jpg

I am not sure that I am even going to open the bottle, it was meant as more of a decoration for my bar.

THE WORM
Another interesting error is an urban legend related to a worm. The worm-in-the-bottle myth is old and tired. The truth has been broadcast and expounded for years by the cognoscenti of tequila, in newspapers, magazines and on the internet. Yes, it?s true, some American-bottled brands put one in their bottle to impress the gringos and boost sales, but it was a marketing ploy developed in the 1940s, not a Mexican tradition.

Sometimes however, there is a worm, properly a butterfly caterpillar, in some types of mezcal. You may also get a small bag of worm salt and chile powder tied to a mezcal bottle. There are two types of worms in mezcal: the red, gusano rojo?considered superior because it lives in the root and heart of the maguey?and the less-prized white or gold gusano de oro, which lives on the leaves. The red gusano turns pale in the mezcal, the gold turns ashen-gray. Both larvae are commonly eaten as food and are sold in Zapotec markets.
Yes, you?re supposed to eat the worm in mezcal. Don?t worry: it?s quite well pickled and free of pesticides (they?re often raised just for use in mezcal, cooked and pickled in alcohol for a year). But dispel any idea it has any magical or psychotropic properties, that it?s an aphrodisiac or the key to an ?unseen world.? It?s merely protein and alcohol?but it?s very rich in imagery.

thnx for pics baddog :thumbsup

a scorpion?!?! wtf lol

i've gotton a few from mexico with the scorpion too, still tastes the same

no problem, how are you feeling?

Never knew of the tradition before,thanks...Cabo Wabo doesn't have any worms :glugglug

better thnx... slowly spending more and more time on computer and out of bed :thumbsup

Eat the worm... it will fuck you up completely :thumbsup! I miss Tequila...

Geez, there's a scorpion in that bottle! eww

you got one of the cheap bottles, will look good on the bar etc, just don't try drinking it....

Why is there a worm in bottles of tequila?

First let's get a few things straight. There's no worm in tequila, or at least there isn't supposed to be. Purists (hah!) say the worm belongs only in a related product, mescal. Strictly speaking, mescal is a generic term meaning any distillate of the many species of agave (or maguey) plant, tequila included. Today, however, mescal is popularly understood to mean a product bottled in the region around the city of Oaxaca. For years this stuff was basically home-brewed firewater consumed by the locals, but in 1950, Mexico City entrepreneur Jacobo Lozano Paez hit on the idea of putting a worm in each bottle as a marketing gimmick. Stroke of genius, eh? I don't get it either, but that's what separates us from the visionaries.

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990702b.html

Oh yes, there is NOTHING sexier than a man eating pickled worms.:1orglaugh

Ha ha... yeah, I wonder what amazing and wonderous things that scorpion venom mixed with cheap mexican firewater would do to your mental stability?
(assuming one had any to begin with)

TeKILLya.

They say it works for women too. :D

that's my reaction too but that makes it taste good. :thumbsup

I think a scorpion in my bottle of tequila would be a little too creepy. The worm is one thing... but it doesnt have a stinger.

Wikipedia tells it a bit different...

The worm: The originator of this practice was a man named Jacobo Lozano Páez. In 1940, while tasting prepared agave, he and his partner found that the worm changed the taste of the agave.


Also, with regard to the scorpion:
The scorpion is another marketing gimmick that is associated with Mezcal. However unlike the worm the scorpion does not change the flavoring of the Mezcal. The scorpion is edible as the stinger and all the posion is drained before being put into the bottle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mezcal

cool... :)

When I went to Mexico last year one of the natives that my girlfriend and I were hanging out with told us to eat the worm in his pants and we were both like oh okay......

I would think snake would be more appealing than worm.

I have a Jamaican friend who had a very old bottle of Ta-Kill-Ya ... so old the worm had actually disintegrated!

They were the raunchiest shots I'd ever done ... was seeing double after 4 shots. Not sure if the shrapnel wormie had anything to do with that

shit those pics look like you been drinking that stuff bro :winkwink:

Those things run rampant down in the Florida Keys like roaches do in the rest of Florida. They get big enough where you have to crush them with a phone book. The first time i saw a huge one run across the floor i almost shit my pants. Then one time i woke up and felt something brush against my legs under the covers. Sure enough it was a huge scorpion. I think i scared it as much as it scared me. I was pretty lucky that i didnt get stung. Two of my friends down there did. The stings from those things do some pretty bad damage.

To make a long story longer...those pics creeped me the hell out. I couldnt even have that in my house.

but you should drink it...