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Worms may possibly be banned from mezcal
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20041230-9999-1n30...
By S. Lynne Walker
December 30, 2004
SANTIAGO MATATLAN, Mexico ? Worms are a delicacy in the southern state of Oaxaca. An expensive delicacy, at that.
They're blended into salsa. They're rolled into tacos. They're even mixed with chilies and ground into salt.
But the Mexican government is threatening to draw the line at allowing worms to be dropped into a smoky-flavored liquor called mezcal.
Once a backyard brew of dubious origin, mezcal's claim to fame is the worm at the bottom of the bottle. However, now that the government is getting
ready to certify mezcal, distillers will be forced to meet strict standards about what they put into the liquor.
That goes straight to the issue of the worm.
Mexican regulatory officials believe the worms' little bodies release globules of fat in the alcohol. So the worms are scheduled to be banned when the
law goes into effect Feb. 10.
Oaxaca's mezcal producers, who pickle the worms before popping them into bottles, are trying to wiggle out of the problem. As part of their campaign
to get the regulation changed, they've submitted scientific studies showing that worms don't diminish the quality of the drink.
"If there is no worm, there will be no sales," said Graciela Angeles, whose family owns Mezcal Real Minero, which ferments mezcal in old-fashioned
clay jugs. "It's our culture. It's part of the identity of Oaxacan mezcal."
The tiny mezcal industry has been trying for 20 years to win government certification for the drink, which is distilled from the hearts of cactus-like
plants known as agave. But producers never imagined certification would mean eliminating the worms.
Instead, the goal was to set a legal standard for the amount of agave in each bottle of mezcal. With standards in place, mezcal producers believed
consumer confidence would rise and they could halt their plummeting sales by exporting more of their product.
"The image has been that mezcal is rot-gut," said Douglas French, a New York native who has been producing the liquor in Oaxaca for 10 years. "Now
there's an institution to protect the name. For us, this law is like the birth of the industry."
Under the new law, mezcal can contain no less than 80 percent agave, making it purer ? and arguably more potent ? than tequila. Although tequila is
also made from agave, it can legally be diluted up to 49 percent with sugars and water.
"We want people to see mezcal as a high-quality product," said Jacob L?pez, director of the Mexican Regulatory Commission for the Quality of Mezcal.
"We want buyers in other countries to know they are getting 100 percent mezcal."
But many of the wholesale buyers who come to Oaxaca in search of the perfect mezcal say it's not the agave that attracts foreign customers. What they
want, the buyers say, is a worm in their bottle.
In the United States, consumers see worm-spiced mezcal as a novelty item. In Australia, wormy mezcal appeals to rugged, Crocodile Dundee-type
drinkers. In Japan, buyers want several worms because drinkers there consider them aphrodisiacs.
Without the worm, Oaxaca's producers fear mezcal will be seen as just one more bottle of booze.
"The only reason mezcal has a presence anywhere in the world is because of the worm," French said.
Because Oaxaca is one of Mexico's poorest states, and because it produces 60 percent of Mexico's mezcal, it has a huge stake in the product's success
abroad.
Agave farmers, who already grow considerably more than the industry demands, earn as little as $2.50 a day. In five years, they will harvest seven
times the amount of agave they currently produce. Many farmers have given up on the crop and found work in San Diego and other U.S. cities.
The 'good stuff'
Douglas French envisions an entirely different future for mezcal, a future that doesn't depend on a worm.
He sees mezcal as a complex, layered alcoholic beverage with flavors as varied as the 18 kinds of agave that grow in this arid, mountainous state.
"Mezcal is like wine grapes. You have all of these different varieties of agave and every one of them has a different flavor," said French, who
produces a triple-distilled mezcal in Oaxaca's capital.
To improve the varieties and get better yields, French has sprouted 100,000 agave plants through seed germination.
"I'm trying to be the Johnny Appleseed of agave," he said.
Although tequila dwarfs mezcal production, with 53 million gallons a year compared with mezcal's less than 1 million gallons, French calls tequila "a
simplistic product."
Tequila is made with only one plant ? the blue agave.
"They did us the favor of opening up the market," he said. "Now we can go in with the good stuff."
French is aging his "good stuff" in oak barrels for seven years. Then he's bottling it in fancy, imported French bottles and shipping it to the United
States, where it will sell next Christmas for as much as $220.
There aren't any worms in this upscale booze, because French has found a new way to wiggle into the market.
He drops a scorpion ? FDA-approved, of course ? into every bottle.
"Worms are for wimps," he said.
Then he issued a challenge.
"Are you macho enough to eat a scorpion?"
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Mexitron
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I'm looking forward to more high end mezcals....they are soooo good(nothing like Cusano Rojo et al). Dropping the worm is tragic...interesting that
the FDA won't allow worms, but does allow scorpions!
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JESSE
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I am intersted to know who is the goverment agency stupid enough to be responsible for this stupid law.
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surfer jim
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The worm has turned....
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woody with a view
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yeah, mezcal is awesome. after drinking tecate for days (and nights!!!) on end a handful of limes and a jug of mezcal go a looooong way towards
keeping that "baja state of mind".
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cristobal
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CUSANO ROJO ....
I was in HUSSONGS cantina in ENSENADA, summer 1972 when my girlfriend brought me a shot glass of MEZCAL with a worm in it .....
I went to the bartender MARGARITO who told me it was BUENO ....
That was my first of many CUSANO'S ...... 
I had my picture taken with MARGARITO and the photo was up on the wall for over 10 years ....
Those were the days .....
  
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bajaandy
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The poor and lowly worm... shall it never be respected?
subvert the dominant paradigm
"If you travel with a man, you must either fall out with him or make him your good friend."
JBL Noel
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JESSE
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El P-nche worm borracho
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