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bringing the championship to Belo Horizonte did mean fewer competitors were able to participate since it's a bit of a trek to get there from the São Paulo metro area (the largest in the country) and Alves said not many baristas were able to take time off from work in the middle of the week to travel. Even with the whirlwind of all of the activities and competitions, though, it's pretty easy to find the overriding theme for many of the attendees and organizers at International Coffee Week (the umbrella name encompassing all of the events held during the week at the ExpoMinas convention center), and it's something like this: How do you turn Costco into a boutique shop? OK, it sounds like a weird question, one that could probably be answered by saying, "Why would you want to?" Here's what you have to remember: Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world. It's the kind of place where you can find the latest in combine tractors on the tradeshow floor, with names like the Case Coffee Express 200, a giant, red, behemoth of a machine that can pick clean the nearly endless rows of coffee plants found on Brazil's largest plantations, just around the corner from another booth selling AeroPresses, Hario brewers, and other slow-brew equipment for handcrafting one cup of coffee at a time. To put the size of Brazilian coffee production in perspective, consider this: While Central America has been ravaged by rust this year (and will feel the effects long into the future), the C-market continues to sink. Why? Primarily because Brazil is projecting record harvests. Commodity traders feel Opposite page, top: A slice of Belo Horizonte's skyline. (Opposite page – bo om) A Tuesday night la e art throwdown brought out enthusiastic Brazilian baristas and international coffee folks. (Above) A huge statue of soccer legend Pelé greets visitors to his hometown in Minas Gerais. www.baristamagazine.com 29