What? No Starbucks in Brazil?

It had to happen sooner or later in one of the worlds largest coffee producing and consuming countries. Starbucks just announced they would open there first store in Brazil in November.

Although they did not say in which city, it will most likely be over 2,500 miles away in Rio or Sao Paulo.

After lunch it is 95 degrees out and the humidity is so high it fails to register a percentage on my humidity indicator. But there I was in the kitchen making hot coffee for our guests. At first it was hard to drink hot coffee when it was hot out, but now it seems normal. Iced coffee is unknown here.

I am not sure that the Brazilians at the house we were visiting believed that Wayne really was going to drink his coffee black and without sugar. Coffee here is served very hot with lots of milk and sugar. On the other hand, although I satisfied them that not all Americans were crazy when it came to coffee for I like a lot of milk and sugar, they just couldn't understand why I would drink a mug full when a rather small cup is the norm. Definitely, my average sized American thermal mug (which are not available here) was a curiosity, both for its size and function.

Brazilians drink it morning, noon and night. Adults and children alike drink it. Called cafezinho, which means little coffee it is always served in very small cups, very hot and with a lot of milk and sugar.

Wonder how Starbucks will adapt their grande?

A few facts about Coffee and Bazil:

Annual per capita consumption of coffee exceeds that of the United States.

The world's largest coffee producer is Brazil with over 3,970 million coffee trees and 30-40% of the worlds total output. Two of the trees are in my backyard.

By 1816 there were 1 million slaves in Brazil, comprising 1/3 of the population, more than half of them working on coffee plantations
from dawn to sunset, eating once a day.

The coffee crash in Brazil occurred only a few weeks before the 1929 economic crash. Some claim Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas committed suicide over coffee politics in 1954.

Brazil, the world's largest-volume producer of coffee, has seen steady growth in its coffee consumption and now is the main consumer of the coffee it produces. Coffee here costs about 75 cents a pound (3.75 for 5 pounds) and is generally only available ground,vacuum packed in about one
pound bags.