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Coffee Tastes Sweeter with Giant Mechanised Beasts
Posted by Mark Wilson at 2:00 AM on October 10, 2008
We down 2-3 cups of coffee a day at Gizmodo Midwest HQ (my tiny apartment consisting of just me), but rarely do we put thought in the labour that brings us beans (fair trade, I swear!). Luckily, BoingBoing corresponded with the 2008 US World Barista Champion to take a look at coffee harvesting in Brazil. Because otherwise, we'd never have known about giant harvesting vehicles that engulf whole trees or the juxtaposition of automated and traditional drying, roasting and packing techniques that follow collection. If you like coffee, you'll enjoy the 6-minute clip. [boingboing]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
RE-L
Posted 3:36 AM 10/10/08
BEANS! BEANS! not Cherries! There is the pulp of the coffee bean and then the bean inside, but it's not a cherry! This is the first time I hear anyone calling it a cherry. It just sounds wrong.
RE-L
KStrike155
Posted 3:24 AM 10/10/08
He said "belt conveyor" instead of "conveyor belt".
I've never heard it said like that... regional dialect?
KStrike155
closhedbb
Posted 3:21 AM 10/10/08
That would be nice if they had those things in a large number of coffee plantations in Brazil, or maybe it wouldn't. Most of the coffee there is picked by locals. Every morning a large truck drives through town picking up anyone who wants to work for cents an hour picking coffee. If you have no job, need money really bad to survive, and don't mind working out in the sun all day with no breaks, jump on. some of the ladies who do it have kids they have to take care of. What I have seen some of them do is give their kids "pinga", a near 100% alcoholic drink, so their kids pass out under a bush and stay quiet all day. I've seen this done to infants...
closhedbb
os_2
Posted 3:19 AM 10/10/08
@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->: It's Colombian, and they don't speak spanish down Brazil.
os_2
Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->
Posted 3:13 AM 10/10/08
So wait, where's the guy and the burro?
+ Watch video
Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->
ripfire
Posted 3:11 AM 10/10/08
Damn, I gotta go to Brazil. Although I have yet to find the coffee to top my favorite: Kona Joe's trellis grown.
ripfire
Polybius
Posted 3:11 AM 10/10/08
HA... thought that said Giant Mechanized Breasts... WTF?!
Polybius
CountryDevil
Posted 4:08 AM 10/10/08
@Roast Beef: Ed Zachery!!! Coffee is a fruit in it's natural state. (Coffee Cherry). The "Coffee Bean" is a by-product (seed) of the Coffee Cherry...
CountryDevil
KhaiJB
Posted 4:05 AM 10/10/08
"We down 2-3 cups of coffee a day at Gizmodo Midwest HQ"
thats all?
I must be abnormal... *brews 2nd jug of the day* I drink 2-3 jugs a day, just me....
KhaiJB
ice_cold_irony
Posted 4:01 AM 10/10/08
@Polybius: Holy crap me too, got the whole way through to your comment before checking that it wasn't.
Reminds me of a novelty bra idea that me and my brother had, essentially combining the fun of aerosol whipped cream and the form factor of boobies.
ice_cold_irony
Roast Beef
Posted 3:52 AM 10/10/08
@RE-L: But the fruit is called a Coffee Cherry (or Berry). The "bean" is just a seed.
Roast Beef
Phenostar
Posted 4:27 AM 10/10/08
@KhaiJB: 2-3 jugs a day? Psht.
/inserts caffeine IV into vein.
Phenostar
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Posted 4:57 AM 10/10/08
@Phenostar: 2-3 cups?? That's just what I have before breakfast...
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
Posted 4:48 AM 10/10/08
@Polybius: And if such mechanized marvels existed they'd probably squirt oil too....
Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude
godwhacker
Posted 4:36 AM 10/10/08
@Mark Wilson
"We down 2-3 cups of coffee a day at Gizmodo Midwest HQ (my tiny apartment consisting of just me)"
so, is that a person in your pocket, or are you just happy to see you?
godwhacker
Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->
Posted 5:27 AM 10/10/08
@closhedbb: Isn't "pinga" the word for penis? Also, where can I pick up some of this magic knock-out juice?
Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->
closhedbb
Posted 5:41 AM 10/10/08
@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->: The Brazilian slang for penis is "pinto", which technically is a little chicken. But you can see why Ford never had a go at selling the Ford Pinto down there! I doubt the Ford Dick would have ever caught on.
Pinga is basically locally-made, dirt-cheap cachaca, extra-fortified with 100% USRDA of alcohol. If you made cachaca in your bath tub out of sugar cane, and fermented it to have near 100% alcohol, you'd have pinga. The closest thing you can get up here is Bacardi 151.
Best of luck to ya!
closhedbb
Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->
Posted 7:45 AM 10/10/08
@closhedbb: Wouldn't Everclear be closest, at 190 proof? That makes some great cherry bombs if you soak cherries in it.
Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->
Bokusatsu_Tenshi
Posted 9:13 AM 10/10/08
@closhedbb: Yep, Brazil has lots of poor people and some rich too.
There are big coffee farms like that, and small farms with slave job and other crappy stuff...
Also, Brazil has lots of farms, but has big cities too.
It's too big a country, so no generalization will ever give a clear image of it.
We do have good strong coffee, but we also have some crappy ones. I've gotta say that I tasted some very good coffee at Starbucks (we have very few of them in Brazil).
Another interesting thing is that people mainly drink pure black coffee. We do have a couple of variations, but nowhere near what Starbucks has to offer (maybe only on fancy restaurants and stuff).
Unfortunately, due to some stomach problems, I can't drink much of it anymore. But yeah... tasty dirty water.
Reminds me of that Dexter's Laboratory episode...
Bokusatsu_Tenshi