日本一老人发明用大蒜做的咖啡

When you think about coffee alternatives, garlic is probably one of the last things that comes to mind, but that is exactly the ingredient that one Japanese inventor used to create a drink that looks and tastes like coffee.

当你想到咖啡替代品时，大蒜可能会是最后一个出现在你脑里的东西，但这恰恰是一位日本发明家用来制作一种看起来和尝起来都像咖啡的饮料的原料。

74-year-old Yokitomo Shimotai, a coffee shop owner in Aomori Prefecture, Japan, claims that his unique "garlic coffee" is the result of a cooking blunder he made over 30 years ago, when he burned a steak and garlic while waiting tables at the same time.

74岁的横井清史是日本青森县的一位咖啡店主，他声称自家独特的“大蒜咖啡”的灵感来自于自己在30多年前的一次烹饪失误，当时他在招待客人时不小心把牛排和大蒜烧焦了。

Intrigued by the scorched garlic's aroma, he mashed it up with a spoon and mixed it with hot water. The resulting drink looked and tasted a lot like coffee.

由于被大蒜的焦香味所吸引，这位店主就用勺子把大蒜捣碎，然后将其和热水混合。混合出的饮料，看起来和尝起来都很像咖啡。

Making a mental note of his discovery, Yokimoto carried on with his job, and only started researching garlic coffee again after he retired.

当时横井清史只是把这一发现记在心里，便继续工作，直到退休后他才开始研究大蒜咖啡。

Committed to turning his bizarre drink into a commercial product, Yokitomo Shimotai spent years optimizing the formula, and about five years ago, he finally achieved a result he was satisfied with.

一心想将这种奇特饮料转变为商品的横井清史，花了数年时间优化配方，大约五年前，他终于调出了自己满意的配方。

To make his soluble garlic grounds, he roasts the cloves in an electric oven, and, after they've cooled off, smashes them into fine particles and packs them in dripbags.

为了制造出可溶大蒜泥，他先将蒜瓣放在电烤箱里烘烤，在冷却之后，将蒜瓣捣成微小颗粒，然后将其放入挂耳包中。

"My drink is probably the world's first of its kind," the garlic coffee inventor told Kyodo News. "It contains no caffeine so it's good for those who would like to drink coffee at night or pregnant women."

这位大蒜咖啡的发明者向共同社透露：“我的饮料在全世界来说应该是首创。这里面没有咖啡因，所以适合那些想在夜里喝咖啡的人或怀孕的女性。”

"The bitterness of burned garlic apparently helps create the coffee-like flavor," Shimotai adds.

横井清史补充说道：“烧焦大蒜的苦味显然使其更接近咖啡的口感。”

The wacky inventor claims that, although his garlic coffee does give off an aroma of roasted garlic, it doesn't cause bad breath, because the garlic is thoroughly cooked.

这位古怪的发明者还表示，尽管他的大蒜咖啡确实散发出烤大蒜的香气，但并不会在嘴里留下不好闻的味道，因为大蒜已经充分烘烤过了。

And if you can get past the smell, the drink apparently does taste a lot like actual coffee.

如果你可以接受这种气味，该饮料的味道确实和真正的咖啡很像。