Sangria

My parents told me that they recently bought a bottle of already made sangria, but that it was not good. That trivial bit of conversation reminded me that a few years ago, I was a fairly regular drinker of sangria. It was back when I was a uni student: at our kitchen parties, or simply at our gatherings, we often made sangria. Ironically, my friends then were mostly Italian. We bought some cheap wine, some fizzy soft drink, fresh fruits, fruit juice and a bottle of spirit, either tequila, gin or vodka. And we mixed it in the biggest bowl we could find. That's how our evenings started, usually. My Spaniard friend would say: "All right guys, we're gonna make sangria." And we did. I don't remember it tasting nice, but we drank plenty of it. I don't remember getting drunk from it, but one of my Italian friends got sick on sangria at the end of the infamous Saint Paddy's kitchen party of 2,000. Infamous in our circle of friends at the time anyway. Shehad decided to finish the bowl when everybody but three people were gone, after my other friend and I were downing beers. I still tease her about it. But yeah, after my uni years, I don't think I ever drank sangria again.

The worm in the tequila

This afternoon, after work, I went to my local pub. I haven't been in a while and I was missing the place and the drinks. I must have drank half my weight in beer, but it was all real ale, so that's okay. Had I consumed all my weight in beer, then I would have been drunk. I was not expecting to drink that much, but as I ordered yet another half a pint, the barrel was almost empty, and as a generous gesture the landlady gave me what was left in it. So I had a pint for the price of a half. But that is not the topic.

In this local pub, you can buy a tequila shot with the legendary worm in it. The worm has the reputation of having hallucinatory qualities. I don't know, as I have never tried. Somehow, the idea of swallowing a worm disgusts me. The landlady (again) said that she witnessed in the very pub people feeling the alleged hallucinatory effects of the worm. I think this has more to do with common drunkenness than anything else. This urban legend reminds me of a method to get rid of slugs in gardens: you place bowls full of beer around, bowls in which the slugs will sink and die. It might seem cruel, but the slugs will die happy. So does the worm in the tequila, I am quite sure of it.