#vaeken

[bericas]

violet knows theo raeken.

well, okay, she knows of theo raeken.

the supernatural world isn’t exactly a small pond (nor is theo exactly supernatural), but the dread doctors are big fish, and they deal mostly through their little pet. violet thinks it’s kind of funny, the idea of splicing animal and boy and telling him down and fetch!

garrett thinks it’s sick.

a little part of violet is jealous of theo having the claws of a monster without being bound to their rules (mountain ash would get so pesky), but she teases garrett instead of arguing, scratches at his face with her acrylics. he rolls his eyes but laughs, trying to swat her away, and she ends up in his lap with her effort to keep bothering him, and he ends up forgetting that he’s annoyed once she kisses him instead.

he remembers when she digs her nails into his neck once he lets his guard down, smiling that rueful smile he always does when she gets one over on him. he gets his revenge as she laughs at him, grabbing her by the waist and throwing her down on the couch, which is fine, because she’s happy to be underneath his weight. 

that’s the difference between them. 

when garrett wins, they both do.

when violet wins, she wins alone.

::

violet dies. garrett dies.

violet comes back, but she comes back wrong.

garrett stays dead.

she isn’t jealous of the claws anymore.

she tries to convince herself to be jealous of garrett.

::

she ends up halfway across the country from beacon hills, a college in a city that doesn’t have enough forest to hold a nemeton, and she disappears into it. 

violet is still violet because violet had not been born violet the way garrett had not been born garrett; they’d given their names to each other. it’s the only thing she has left of him, so she’s going to keep it.

she’d named garrett after her garrote. she doesn’t have that anymore, either.

she keeps a low profile. she makes friends for the sake of people knowing her, just a handful of other students she can stand to be around. no blondes, no blue eyes, and no sentimentality—blending into an environment means she has to try, but it doesn’t mean she has to care.

::

a couple of years pass. violet finds herself caring.

worse, she finds herself comfortable with it. her circle stays small, but it stays, and they don’t know who she’d been before, but they know who she is now.

sometimes, when she thinks about it, it feels like she’d tricked herself into believing her own lies, and it sends her into hysterics, laughing until she cries and crying until she sobs, sometimes to the point of nausea. 

she doesn’t like being alone. 

she doesn’t want a roommate. 

she wants garrett.

she wonders, sometimes, if he’d gotten to her, what might’ve happened. if they would’ve both made it out, maybe, once they were together, they’d been good together, but maybe he’d be like her instead. a nagual.

maybe he’d still be dead. they hadn’t had a code, not like hunters, but they’d had promises they’d made to each other. he hadn’t wanted to become a monster. she’d promised she’d kill him and he’d promised he’d leave her alive.

in a way, they’d both kept their promises.

::

violet doesn’t have her garrote anymore, but she isn’t defenseless. she keeps a knife too large to not be suspicious, but it makes her feel safer than a smaller one, and she finds an inconspicuous holster. she’d used to wear it everywhere, like a baby with a blanky, but she only brings it to parties now. she likes drinking enough—and knows enough about wolfsbane—that she’d figured out a way to still get a buzz, but she doesn’t like drunk guys.

the knife is one of garrett’s. tied around the handle is the friendship bracelet she’d taken off of garrett at the morgue. he’d worn it every day since they were eight. 

they’d been the only things she’d taken with her when she’d left.

::

violet knows—knows of—theo raeken. she knows what the doctors do. she knows what he does. they’d always reminded her a little bit of the ghost riders—once they have someone in their sights, it’s almost impossible to outrun them.

violet’s instinct is fight, not flight, so that works just fine for her.

she follows him back to his dorm, garrett’s knife strapped to her thigh.

[michaelfallcon]

Is Madagascar Bat Spit Coffee The Next Kopi Luwak?

A bat biting a coffee cherry infusing it with its bat spit.

Bat spit coffee is a thing that exists, and it requires actual bats to get their actual spit into coffee cherries—and it’s super expensive! But is it good? Or is it the next kopi luwak?

As reported by the New York Times, bat spit coffee is a fairly recent phenomenon coming out of Madagascar, a country not traditionally known for any sort of high-end coffee production. After growing low-grade Robusta for years, some farmers switched crops to the Bourbon Pointu variety, a rare descendant of the Bourbon variety seen more often in cafes. The Bourbon Pointu alone was fetching a price of around $100 per pound. But let a bat make out with it for a little bit and that’ll get you a 10% jump in price.

Why bat spit coffee comes with the additional premium (other than novelty, which is the actual answer) isn’t entirely clear. The article states: “wild bats chewing on ripe coffee berries results in a reaction between their digestive fluids and outside air that gives a uniquely smooth flavour, say customers.” I’m not sure why the NYT is asking customers to give even a cursory explanation of what makes this coffee different, but sure. Should there be any actual qualitative difference between this and the non-bat-spitted version, the reason is something more familiar to those who know the origins of kopi luwak. Per the article, farmer and agricultural entrepreneur Jacques Ramarlah noticed bats “nibbling the best beans” from his Bourbon Pointu trees, which he presumably then collected and noted a taste difference.

And what is that taste difference? According to Ronald Van der Vaeken, a local Belgian hotelier, “Normal coffee, after two minutes, you forget the taste—but this coffee stays a very long time in your mouth. It’s not acidic… it’s very good.” That ever so slight hint of rabies really tingles the tongue, y’know.

It is at this point I would like to note that acidity is by no means a bad thing in coffee and in fact, it highly sought after by many, many coffee professionals and consumers alike.

To help increase production, Ramarlah is now working with 90 producers in the area who send them their beans for “processing and marketing.” He hopes to increase this year’s two-ton crop by an order of magnitude for 2021, allowing for some of the bat coffee to be exported out of the country, primarily to “discerning markets like Japan.” Currently, most of the coffee is purchased locally by high-end restaurants and hotels.

And for that sliver of the Venn Diagram who both wants to pay $110/pound for bat spit coffee and worries about contracting rabies from drinking said coffee, don’t worry, you’re probably fine? While bat bites are the most common source of rabies in humans, the disease requires direct transmission. So maybe just don’t rub raw bat spit coffee pulp in an open wound and you should be fine. Other than your desire to drink bat spit coffee, that’s definitely not fine.

Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

Is Madagascar Bat Spit Coffee The Next Kopi Luwak? published first on https://medium.com/@LinLinCoffee

[rafaelthompson]

Is Madagascar Bat Spit Coffee The Next Kopi Luwak?

A bat biting a coffee cherry infusing it with its bat spit.

Bat spit coffee is a thing that exists, and it requires actual bats to get their actual spit into coffee cherries—and it’s super expensive! But is it good? Or is it the next kopi luwak?

As reported by the New York Times, bat spit coffee is a fairly recent phenomenon coming out of Madagascar, a country not traditionally known for any sort of high-end coffee production. After growing low-grade Robusta for years, some farmers switched crops to the Bourbon Pointu variety, a rare descendant of the Bourbon variety seen more often in cafes. The Bourbon Pointu alone was fetching a price of around $100 per pound. But let a bat make out with it for a little bit and that’ll get you a 10% jump in price.

Why bat spit coffee comes with the additional premium (other than novelty, which is the actual answer) isn’t entirely clear. The article states: “wild bats chewing on ripe coffee berries results in a reaction between their digestive fluids and outside air that gives a uniquely smooth flavour, say customers.” I’m not sure why the NYT is asking customers to give even a cursory explanation of what makes this coffee different, but sure. Should there be any actual qualitative difference between this and the non-bat-spitted version, the reason is something more familiar to those who know the origins of kopi luwak. Per the article, farmer and agricultural entrepreneur Jacques Ramarlah noticed bats “nibbling the best beans” from his Bourbon Pointu trees, which he presumably then collected and noted a taste difference.

And what is that taste difference? According to Ronald Van der Vaeken, a local Belgian hotelier, “Normal coffee, after two minutes, you forget the taste—but this coffee stays a very long time in your mouth. It’s not acidic… it’s very good.” That ever so slight hint of rabies really tingles the tongue, y’know.

It is at this point I would like to note that acidity is by no means a bad thing in coffee and in fact, it highly sought after by many, many coffee professionals and consumers alike.

To help increase production, Ramarlah is now working with 90 producers in the area who send them their beans for “processing and marketing.” He hopes to increase this year’s two-ton crop by an order of magnitude for 2021, allowing for some of the bat coffee to be exported out of the country, primarily to “discerning markets like Japan.” Currently, most of the coffee is purchased locally by high-end restaurants and hotels.

And for that sliver of the Venn Diagram who both wants to pay $110/pound for bat spit coffee and worries about contracting rabies from drinking said coffee, don’t worry, you’re probably fine? While bat bites are the most common source of rabies in humans, the disease requires direct transmission. So maybe just don’t rub raw bat spit coffee pulp in an open wound and you should be fine. Other than your desire to drink bat spit coffee, that’s definitely not fine.

Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

Is Madagascar Bat Spit Coffee The Next Kopi Luwak? published first on https://espressoexpertsite.tumblr.com/

[shebreathesslowly]

Is Madagascar Bat Spit Coffee The Next Kopi Luwak?

A bat biting a coffee cherry infusing it with its bat spit.

Bat spit coffee is a thing that exists, and it requires actual bats to get their actual spit into coffee cherries—and it’s super expensive! But is it good? Or is it the next kopi luwak?

As reported by the New York Times, bat spit coffee is a fairly recent phenomenon coming out of Madagascar, a country not traditionally known for any sort of high-end coffee production. After growing low-grade Robusta for years, some farmers switched crops to the Bourbon Pointu variety, a rare descendant of the Bourbon variety seen more often in cafes. The Bourbon Pointu alone was fetching a price of around $100 per pound. But let a bat make out with it for a little bit and that’ll get you a 10% jump in price.

Why bat spit coffee comes with the additional premium (other than novelty, which is the actual answer) isn’t entirely clear. The article states: “wild bats chewing on ripe coffee berries results in a reaction between their digestive fluids and outside air that gives a uniquely smooth flavour, say customers.” I’m not sure why the NYT is asking customers to give even a cursory explanation of what makes this coffee different, but sure. Should there be any actual qualitative difference between this and the non-bat-spitted version, the reason is something more familiar to those who know the origins of kopi luwak. Per the article, farmer and agricultural entrepreneur Jacques Ramarlah noticed bats “nibbling the best beans” from his Bourbon Pointu trees, which he presumably then collected and noted a taste difference.

And what is that taste difference? According to Ronald Van der Vaeken, a local Belgian hotelier, “Normal coffee, after two minutes, you forget the taste—but this coffee stays a very long time in your mouth. It’s not acidic… it’s very good.” That ever so slight hint of rabies really tingles the tongue, y’know.

It is at this point I would like to note that acidity is by no means a bad thing in coffee and in fact, it highly sought after by many, many coffee professionals and consumers alike.

To help increase production, Ramarlah is now working with 90 producers in the area who send them their beans for “processing and marketing.” He hopes to increase this year’s two-ton crop by an order of magnitude for 2021, allowing for some of the bat coffee to be exported out of the country, primarily to “discerning markets like Japan.” Currently, most of the coffee is purchased locally by high-end restaurants and hotels.

And for that sliver of the Venn Diagram who both wants to pay $110/pound for bat spit coffee and worries about contracting rabies from drinking said coffee, don’t worry, you’re probably fine? While bat bites are the most common source of rabies in humans, the disease requires direct transmission. So maybe just don’t rub raw bat spit coffee pulp in an open wound and you should be fine. Other than your desire to drink bat spit coffee, that’s definitely not fine.

from Sprudge https://ift.tt/36stRHG

[mzyclk-blog]

Sevdiklerimizin kiymetini bilelim... Vakit vaeken sımsıkı sarsılalım...

[bericas]

black sheep, come home.

there’s a big, wide world outside of beacon hills, and theo and violet keep finding each other in it. 

the first time is right after garrett died (was murdered, taken from her); violet is a fugitive and theo has some friends that can make her uncatchable. he sells her a story about power and how it’s something that has to be taken and she almost buys into it until she sees the things.

(she’s learned from beacon hills; there are some things you can’t kill. so she runs.)

the next time running means into theo is a few years later. violet hasn’t used her garotte since the fbi recognized it as her weapon of choice, so it’s with the gracelessness of a knife that she stabs him, and it’s against her better judgment that she lets him heal. 

violet’s been laying low; theo is doing the same. she’s doing it to avoid getting caught now that there’s no one to come get her (she’d learned her lesson from theo and his doctors, how much harder getting away is when you’re doing it alone); theo claims he’s doing it because he’s changed. she doesn’t believe him. but...

 well. she’s never liked being alone.

(prequel here)