After Joao Neto stopped using pesticides on the coffee plantation, insects began to appear that had been absent for a long time. For example, bees pollinating plants, followed by birds, began to sing under the window of the owner of a farm planted with coffee trees.
Like other manufacturers from the areas of the main coffee exporter in Brazil, São Paulo, Neto has been using chemicals on the monocultural plantation Fazenda Santo Antônio for decades. Changes in housekeeping have attracted insects that are dangerous to the farm: crickets, beetles and ants.
The find of the planter
According to Neto, all living things who returned to the farm after abandoning pesticides are important for the “natural restoration of balance disturbed in the process of caring for the monoculture.” Therefore, noticing the accumulation of ants near the trees, he did not destroy them. And once, walking along the hacienda, I saw seeds of berries (coffee beans) peeled from the pulp scattered around the trees. Then Joao looked closely and realized that the ants knock coffee berries from the trees and take them to the anthill to feed the flesh to the larvae, and then throw the seeds, that is, coffee beans, out of the house.
Exploration of Loch Ness: what makes Fort August unique
Panayotov has denied the rumor that he will represent Russia at Eurovision 2020
The ants left behind enough beans to fill a large coffee grinder, Neto gathered them in a bag to carefully examine and study. He talked about the find to a long-time client and friend Katsuhiko Hasegawa. The Japanese, who has been purchasing coffee from Neto since 1990, wanted to find out what kind of taste "ant beans" have.
Unique Coffee
Ant coffee is not the only drink produced through interaction with representatives of the fauna. Some varieties of the world's most expensive beans are first partially digested and then defecated by civet (creatures similar to cats living in Indonesia), Jacques birds (native to Brazil) or elephants in Thailand. The digestive enzymes of animals change the protein structure of coffee beans - they remove part of the acid from coffee and make the drink less tart.
Neto and Hasegawa did not know whether the coffee beans that had been in the anthill were capable of such transformations. To find out, Neto decided to fry for himself, relatives and friends who were on the Santo Antonio plantation that day, several kilograms of coffee beans, as the ants set up a mini market near each tree. To do this, he used an amateur roasting pan, which he acquired many years ago.
People condemned a man who called the police on a 9-year-old nephew of a thief
Australian made a table with holes. Seeing the result, people called him a genius
The result of deep bedding: our sheets are dirtier than they appear
Hasegawa, according to Neto, in the process of roasting grains, treated them as carefully as if dealing with a rare kind of gem. Neto liked this drink because it had a pleasant and unique acidity. Everyone who tasted the drink agreed that the acidity of the coffee improved, and the taste acquired a floral aroma with notes of jasmine. In order to find out the commercial potential of the drink, Hasegawa took several ounces of coffee beans to Japan to roast and taste them with a group of coffee lovers.
Group reviews
Hasegawa operates the Paulista Cafe, named after the Brazilian state, from which coffee beans were originally imported. It is located in the area that is considered the most fashionable in Tokyo. The cafe was opened in 1911 by the Japanese entrepreneur Rio Mizuno, who was the first to deliver immigrants to Brazil to work on coffee plantations. Since Hasegawa inherited the cafe from his grandfather, who acquired it from Mizuno, he maintained the tradition of close interaction and partnership with Brazilian farmers.
What laws will come into force on March 1, 2020: fees and cashier checks
Greta has reinforcements: teens say protests are more important than one day of school
Andrei Leonov plans to recover from three ticket services 1, 500, 000 rubles
Therefore, when Neto collected “ant coffee” set off to conquer Japan, this reflected the century-long relationship between entrepreneurs. According to Hasegawa, the Japanese barista before the breakdown of the drink were excited and intrigued by the story of the discovery of the “new type of coffee” and they liked it. Some felt that the drink acquired unique characteristics of acidity, while others thought that the ants added sweet notes to the taste of the drink.
Problems with sales of "ant coffee"
Although coffee lovers approved the drink, Hasegawa was not able to accept orders from private clients for the preparation of “ant coffee, ” since the production of such beans on the hacienda is limited.
With a new organic approach, Neto’s coffee output was reduced from 230 hectares to 40 (from 570 acres to 100). In the most fruitful year (2015), he collected 60 pounds of these ant beans. Neto does not lose hope for the commercial success of a drink with a refined taste, which will allow small amounts of raw materials to be sold to regular customers, but so far the entrepreneur is distributing beans in the form of samples.
Not only is the production of coffee beans "small ant work" - a local expression in Brazil means that "the result is worth a lot of effort." In addition, the creation of "production links" (cooperation) between insects and coffee trees requires a lot of time.
Singer Yuri Loza jokingly explained the popularity of Alexander Petrov
We make an original flower stand from papier-mâché: it turns out very stylishly
The prospects of coffee symbiosis
Renner and graduate student Guillaume Chomitsky observed a similar symbiosis in Fiji. (For this study, scientists climbed trees and tracked the chain of interactions of insects with plants).
The results of the study were contrasted with the prevailing opinions on the Internet that coffee grounds repel ants. Some types of insects, for example, Solenopsis geminata (fire (stinging) ants), Monomorium pharaonis (brownie, ship or pharaoh ant) and Tapinoma indicum (small dolichoderin ants), on the contrary, attract.
