World Café
Travel the World Café at Elizabethtown Public Library
Elizabethtown Coffee Company is the heart of the World Café program at Elizabethtown Public Library and helps to advance our mission. The vision of the World Café is to increase awareness of authors, cultures and realities from around the globe. We want everyone to be able to discover new places and different ideas that expand our thinking and our minds.
Each month the Library selects a different location. Sometimes its a region within the United States. It might be a coffee or tea growing country and it may even be a body of water that houses sea creatures and mythical beings. You can sign up to participate in this year-long program and complete your World Café passport for a year of exploration and a chance to win fun prizes.
March highlights Brazil!
Location & Geography
Brazil is the largest country in South America, the southern hemisphere, and is the 5th largest country in the world. Brazil’s eastern border is coastline along the Atlantic Ocean, while the north, west, and south of the country shares a land border with almost every South American country. Starting in the north and going counterclockwise, these are French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay. The only two South American countries that do not share a border with Brazil are Ecuador and Chile.
The equator cuts through the top portion of Brazil, and the Amazon River runs horizontally through the country a little south of the equator. Much of Brazil is dominated by the Amazon Rainforest, but it also has dry grasslands, hills, pine forests, and a long coast coastal plain along the Atlantic Ocean.
Brazilian Crops
Brazil is the home of cassava, where it was first domesticated roughly 10,000 years ago. This crop is the 6th most important crop in the world, and the 3rd highest source of carbohydrates in tropical regions. Cassava, also know as yuca, can be prepared in many was, such as being processed into a flour or used to produce tapioca. No matter how it is enjoyed, it has to be prepared properly because it is toxic to humans in its natural state.
Coffee is another major Brazilian crop. Unlike cassava, coffee is not native to Brazil. It was introduced by colonizers in the early 18th century. Not long after introduction, Brazil became a major producer of coffee. Since the mid-19th century, Brazil has been the largest coffee producing country in the world, and currently supplies roughly a third of coffee today. At its height of production, Brazil supplied over 50% of the world’s coffee. Since Brazil is a major producer, the yield of the crop typically affects coffee prices throughout the world.
There are a wide variety of coffees from Brazil with different flavor profiles. Arabica and Robusta beans are grown in the country and most of the beans are unwashed and dried in the sun. Since Brazilian coffee is widely available, it is found in many blends.
The next time you visit the Library, you can try our single origin Brazilian coffee that we roast on site. Pictured to the left are the green beans and the medium roasted beans of our Brazil coffee.
Amazon Pink River Dolphin
This month’s craft celebrates the Amazon Pink River Dolphin. Using watercolors, you can paint these unique mammals in their habitat.
Young dolphins start out gray and turn pink as they age. There are a variety of colorations, which are partially dependent on the clarity of the water. If the water is dark and murky, the dolphin will more likely have a brighter pink coloring, while clear water typically results in the dolphin being more pinkish gray.
This river dolphin is the largest freshwater dolphin in the world. Adult males reach sizes of up to 9 feet in length and weigh up to 400 pounds. They are also an apex predator in their environment, eating a number of fish varieties, including piranhas. They are considered playful and mischievous mammals. When the river floods, these dolphins nimbly zoom through the newly submerged limbs of trees.