Monte Alban Mezcal, 70cl

Product Information

To begin with, the Mezcal worms are caterpillars and they are a plague of the agave. They may be white ( Meocuilines) or red ( Chinicuilies), and both are an ancient food and taste good. Usually, Meocuilines are cooked in exotic dishes and Chinicuiles are added to Mezcal or mixed with salt (called Sal de Gusano). Origin of Mezcal with worm.

Tequila and mezcal both originate from Mexico and are made from agave, a form of succulent that grows in the Mexican desert. Both are widely popular throughout the world, but they aren’t the same thing.Aged one to three years, añejos are smooth and rich, with more flavour contributions from the barrel. The fun we had sneaking worms into shots of mezcal for one and other. Living on diets of mezcal and worms. Those were the days.

They are also environmentally friendly, they plant 10 new agave plants for every 1 they harvest and invest 10% of there profits into ecological and social sustainability programmes Mezcal is a spirit we’re seeing more and more of in todays western world. But a lot about Mezcal still seems to be somewhat of a mystery. Questions like, is Mezcal Tequila? where does Mezcal come from and what makes Mezcal Mezcal? are constantly being asked. The fact is that tequila is one of the healthiest options you can drink. Agave is really good for you and although I’m not saying the best way to get agave is through tequila, its still present. There is a myth that has some truth in it which is drinking tequila and only tequila will not give you a hangover due to the liver flushing quality of agave.An even simpler way to think of it is that Mezcal is like whisky. Whisky is an umbrella term that covers a whole range of styles, Bourbon is not the same as Scotch but it still falls under the term whisky. In that likening, whisky is mezcal and bourbon is Tequila. Turns out, you’ve been misled. Yes, tequila worms are real. And yes, you can still find them in bottles. There are a couple of things you need to know, though. Although on the surface they seem very similar, they are quite different. For one Mezcal can be made with a variety of 25 different agave species, while Tequila has to be made with a certain species of agave. Which technically means - All Tequila is Mezcal but not all Mezcal is Tequila. Just like how all Jacuzzis are hot tubs but not all hot tubs are Jacazzis… Origins to why it’s there in the first place are pretty murky but there are two stories that make sense. The first of which is simply a marketing ploy. Which to be fair, works wonders. When staring unknowingly at a shelf of mezcal it can be difficult to choose one. When there's a drowned worm in the bottom of the bottle that stands out, promotes curiosity and hence makes you want to buy it. After you have just polished off a bottle of mezcal and had a strange bug that everyone around you was telling you was going to make you hallucinate. You probably are most likely going to fool yourself into thinking it's true.