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Gusanos (maguey worms)
This is the ultimate gateway bug. It's found in alcohol, and we know that drunk people will eat almost anything and call it dinner. Especially when gusanos taste a little like French fries or umami (that moreish Japanese ‘fifth taste’).The grubs lie at the bottom of mescal bottles, as though in science-lab pickling jars from another century. Mescal is made from the maguey plant, and gusanos are grubs that feed on the aloe-vera-like leaves. They're added to the mescal bottles as a gold (sometimes red) seal of authenticity; to get just a few gusanos, the maguey plant has to be killed off.