Lollipops! Vodka & Insects

These gifts were presented to me by Agent F, who said ‘ ‘ know only one man in Dublin who would appreciate these enough’…

Got a rather interesting gift last week… or rather, two.
Two lollipops… one vodka, one tequila. The former contains a scorpion, the latter a worm. Described by the giver: ‘I know only one man in Dublin who would appreciate these enough’.
I’m saving them for a special occasion, so I’ll report later on the experience of actually eating them, hopefully while settling down to watch Naked Lunch.

‘I think it’s time for you boys to share my last taste of the true black meat; the flesh of the giant, aquatic, Brazilian centipede.’

Maker’s website (under ‘insectivore’) »
BBC: ‘Waiter, there is an ant in my mash’ »
About Tequila/Mezcal Worms:
People were asking me about the whole worm in tequila story…. so here’s what I found…
Worms in tequila? Well, no, since worms are not on the list of ingredients allowed in tequila by the Mexican government. Worms in mezcal, yes, sometimes. The worm is an agave worm, or gusano.There is a lot of folklore surrounding the worm, with rumours that the worm is hallucinogenic, or a source of great heroism, or simply that the pickling of the worm is a proof of potency of the spirit. In any case, the eating of the worm is often made into a ritual of machismo. However, the worm isn’t particularly traditional; it’s a modern marketing gimmick.
More »
In 1940 Jacobo Lozano Páez moved to Mexico City from Parras, Coahuila, Mexico to study painting in the National School of Arts of San Carlos. He got a job at the historic liquor store “La Minita” affiliated with “La Economica” in downtown Mexico City . This experience changed his artistic aspirations to those of a successful bottler and trader of mezcal, an activity initiated in the same liquor store. Jacobo met his future wife working there. In 1942 he started a small bottling facility and entrusted into it his wife’s hands. They collected used bottles and cleaned them for their operation. The couple bought mezcal from the Méndez family in Matatlan, Oaxaca.
In 1950 the then inexperienced entrepreneur, now owner of Atlántida, S.A., a small alcoholic beverage bottling company located downtown, AND a (self-proclaimed) connoisseur of the mezcal’s production process (?) discovered in tasting, that the maguey (agave) worms gave the mezcal a different flavor, since when the plant was cut for cooking a lot of these creatures remained in the heart during production (a bad choice of plagued magueys).
THIS is how he got the idea to give his product a distinctive marketing touch; adding a worm to the beverage and including with the bottle a small sack with salt, seasoned with the same larva, dehydrated and ground. Ultimately these ingredients determined the identification of the mezcals “Gusano de Oro” and “Gusano Rojo.”
The worm story is found in:
Carmen Valle Septien, Editor, “MEZCAL, elixir de larga vida” – CVS, Publicaciones, S.A. de C.V, 1997

Source »

daev

Chief Bottle Washer at Blather

Writer, photographer, environmental campaigner and "known troublemaker" Dave Walsh is the founder of Blather.net, described both as "possibly the most arrogant and depraved website to be found either side of the majestic Shannon River", and "the nicest website circulating in Ireland". Half Irishman, half-bicycle. He lives in southern Irish city of Barcelona.