All reviews about the film Black Swan

Black Ivory is the most expensive coffee in the world

The elephant center in Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand produces what is probably the world's most expensive coffee, Black Ivory Coffee.
One cup of this delicacy costs about 50 dollars. What's so special about it, you ask? Find out by reading our article. 10 PHOTOS

1. Don't let this photo scare you. This is not a joke by the FullPicchi editors, this is one of the most important stages in the production of Black Ivory coffee. (Photo: PAP/EPA/Narong Sangnak)

2. Canadian Blake Dinkin had a brilliant idea to “pass” coffee beans through the digestive system of an elephant. That is, first feed him with them, and then collect undigested grains from... his excrement. (Photo: PAP/EPA/Narong Sangnak)

3. Coffee treated with elephant digestive enzymes loses the proteins responsible for its bitter taste, and it also acquires a “floral” aroma. (Photo: PAP/EPA/Narong Sangnak)

4. To get 1 kilogram of Black Ivory coffee, an elephant needs to feed... as much as 33 kilograms of coffee beans. (Photo: PAP/EPA/Narong Sangnak)

5. Elephants are fed their favorite coffee beans, Thai Arabica. (Photo: PAP/EPA/Narong Sangnak)

6. Blake Dinkin, founder of Black Ivory Coffee, shows elephant-digested coffee beans. (Photo: PAP/EPA/Narong Sangnak)

7. Blake Dinkin estimates that they plan to produce about 300 kilograms of Black Ivory coffee per year. (Photo: PAP/EPA/Narong Sangnak)

8. The cost of a kilogram of Black Ivory coffee is a whopping $1,100. (Photo: PAP/EPA/Narong Sangnak)

9. Gourmet and “producer” rolled into one... or one face. (Photo: blackivorycoffee.​com).

10. Black Ivory Coffee. For buyers of such expensive coffee, one of the advantages of purchasing it, despite the high price, may be the fact that 8 percent of the proceeds from the sale goes to the elephant conservation fund. (Photo: PAP/EPA/Narong Sangnak)

Product range

In Magnit stores you can find a wide variety of products. This brand does not have an official website and it is impossible to find it on the Internet. That’s why the entire range is presented in stores. Depending on the manufacturer and the raw materials used, the taste and aroma of the product differ. Therefore, descriptions may be inaccurate.

The company's product range includes the following products:

1. Freeze-dried coffee. This product is sold in a black pack. It can also be packaged in glass containers. They are accompanied by a black label. The drink is characterized by a sweetish caramel aroma. At the same time, the taste is pronounced and there is a noticeable bitterness. For many people, the product resembles a drink made from barley or chicory.
2. Granulated coffee. This product is sold in red soft packaging. Such coffee is collected into lumps under the influence of steam. Black Swan products are characterized by heterogeneity of granules. People who have drank the coffee drink claim that it is not strong.
3. Ground coffee. The product is sold in foil soft packaging. It is distinguished by a red-brown hue and is complemented by an image of ground coffee. The product is characterized by low acidity parameters. There are chocolate notes in the taste. The drink has a pleasant aroma. It belongs to the Robusta variety and is distinguished by its universal grinding.
4. Black Swan coffee beans. The product is sold in a large white package. It does not have a degassing valve. The composition contains different-sized grains of different colors - from light to dark brown. Often there are broken and deformed grains in the packaging. The variety and type of coffee is unknown. There is not even information on the package regarding the country of delivery. At the same time, the manufacturer notes that the grains must be ground before making the drink.

There is a possibility that the company's product range may change. This is due to the fact that coffee is made to order from the retail chain. Therefore, the presence of other drink options on the shelves does not indicate counterfeiting. This rather indicates a change in the product range.

The product range changes periodically

Range

Since there is no official website for Black Swan coffee, and it is not sold in online stores, we can only describe what we found in stores. The flavor and aroma characteristics of the drink vary depending on the manufacturer and composition, so our descriptions, based on reviews of specific products, may not be accurate.

• Black Swan freeze-dried coffee, in black packaging or glass jar with a black label. The smell is slightly sweet, caramel, the taste is sharp and bitter. Many people taste like a barley or chicory drink; many write that “it’s not coffee, neither in taste nor in smell.”

• Granulated, in red soft packaging. Granular, in fact, is the same cheap powder, only the powder gathers into lumps under the action of steam. The granules are heterogeneous. Consumers note that the drink is “weak.”

• Ground coffee Black Swan, foil soft pack of red-brown color with a print of ground coffee. The manufacturer promises low acidity and a chocolate flavor along with a pleasant aroma. There is not a hint of Arabica on the pack, which means it contains Robusta. It is clear that the aroma and acidity of Arabica cannot come from anywhere. Universal grinding.

• Black Swan coffee beans are in a large white pack, there is no degassing valve. Various-sized grains of all shades - from very light to dark brown. Customers' photos often show twisted, broken grains. A mixture of unknown varieties and species, even the country of delivery is not indicated. But the manufacturer carefully writes that the grain must be ground before cooking.

It is possible that the range of brand products may change, since they are produced to order from the supermarket. If you see other options on the shelves, this is not a fake, but the assortment has simply changed.

History of origin

The Golden Domes company decided to create its own brand of coffee. The creator of the brand was , created in 1997. At that time, it was a medium-sized food industry enterprise in Russia (Moscow region, Odintsovo district), producing grocery products, most of which were roasted nuts. Coffee was produced, but the company did not have its own production. After a while, the “Black Card” appears.

Coffee gained its popularity quite quickly, but due to the fact that the company experienced a crisis and, at the same time, an acute shortage of funds, it was not possible to develop further. “Black Card” did not achieve a leading position and had an average price; it was these parameters that attracted the Strauss Group. At that time, the international company was trying to test the paths of development in Russia and other CIS countries, so they liked this brand.

The main direction is focused on “coffee out of home”, i.e. deliveries are sent to bars, cafes, and restaurants. Strauss is also famous for such coffee brands as TOTTI, FORT, Ambassador, Le cafe. The “Black Card” is represented in all continents of the globe; coffee culture is most actively spreading in the countries of the East.

Raw materials and production

Everything is very interesting with Black Swan coffee producers. Magnit does not have its own factory, and the production of products is ordered from a variety of enterprises, mainly in the Moscow region. Here are at least four options we came across:

• in Mytishchi - produces many different brands of instant coffee for a variety of customers);
• Outspan International in Moscow – imports raw materials and packages locally;
• in Domodedovo - they also produce the Alta Roma drink and many other brands on order;
• SEDA International in Yakhroma, MO - purchases raw materials from SEDA in Spain and packages them themselves.

It is clear that with such a variety of manufacturers, it is impossible to talk about a stable taste of the product. Therefore, the packaging does not indicate where the grains come from or what variety. There is not a single inscription on the packaging that it is Arabica, only “selected grains”.

Russian-made Black Swan coffee is an almost random composition of beans, produced in an almost random factory.

Black Swan instant coffee

I’m not a big fan of coffee, I can do without it, but I have friends and acquaintances who prefer this particular drink, and sometimes “coffee mania” comes over me, when I just want to cheer up with a cup of aromatic coffee with sweets or whatever. Why not think, it’s precisely for such situations that I buy coffee for home, so that I have something to drink for my friends, and also to satisfy my desire from time to time. I buy either 3 in 1 coffee, or I take what is cheaper, because I really feel sorry for spending large sums on this drink, which is far from the healthiest.

I specifically went to Magnit, noticed this one, and since I was very limited in finances that day, but this coffee was cheaper than the others, and I liked the packaging - I decided to take it! My modest purchase that day :D

The price is 149 rubles, now I understand that it is not so cheap, I recently noticed much more profitable offers in another “magnet”.

Weight - 95 grams

As I already said, I liked the packaging, I prefer to take coffee in a container, although not always, but if I take it in bags, then I still pour it into a glass container. Looks stylish, at least I think so. The lid is screw-on, underneath there is a golden-colored protective foil:

Information from is the enchanting aroma and strong, rich taste of excellent invigorating coffee made from selected beans. Caring for traditions and high-quality equipment allowed us to preserve for you the luxurious taste of natural coffee. Take a break from the hustle and bustle with a cup of hot coffee and allow yourself a moment of pleasure. Enjoy the warmth that warms your soul and the taste that gives you strength and vigor throughout the day. An atmosphere of peace and tranquility envelops you like delicate silk with every drop of Black Swan coffee.

"Black Swan" - "Black Swan"

The presentation of the coffee is gorgeous, you must agree! When I read everything written on the packaging, I was very impressed by the manufacturer’s ability to advertise!

Compound:

100% natural instant freeze-dried from selected coffee beans.

Cooking method:

put one teaspoon of coffee in a cup. Add hot but not boiling water, as well as sugar, milk or cream to taste.

After opening the foil we see this:

Coffee in small granules!

The smell of coffee is not very pleasant! It smells like something burnt or scorched, I just don’t smell the aroma of delicious coffee!

Taste. Um, I can’t consider myself an expert in this area; I haven’t tried many types of this drink, but I can well describe my personal feelings from trying it. I didn't like the coffee. Even with a small portion, it is bitter and it is very strong! The manufacturer indicates that a teaspoon of coffee is needed for preparation, but when I add only a third of a teaspoon, I sometimes cringe from the strength and bitterness! The taste is bitter, burnt, not pleasant, and since I drink coffee without sugar, I can hear these shortcomings very clearly. The only way out is to eat some delicious sweets in addition, then the taste is really nothing, but you won’t be able to just relax with a cup of hot coffee, since it won’t bring any pleasure, but on the contrary. In general, I didn’t dare treat my friends with this coffee, I recently bought another one, also inexpensive, but I hope that I’ll like it more, but if I’m disappointed again, I’ll buy something more expensive, but so that the taste suits both me and so that I’m not ashamed was to serve to friends!

I don’t recommend this coffee and I’m asking for your advice, maybe you know some coffee that’s not too expensive, but delicious?

Grain

If whole grains are a fundamental condition for purchase, then currently on store shelves you can find at least three noteworthy items from the budget segment.

Paulig Classic

Despite the fact that Paulig appeared on the Russian market relatively recently, these products have already become super popular. To produce the drink, high-quality raw materials are used, namely South American Arabica coffee beans with a medium roast.

The beans are easy to grind, perfect for both brewing in a Turk and a coffee machine. Such pleasure in the specified packaging costs only 250 rubles. for 250 g.

5 cheap powders that wash much better than expensive ones

Movenpick Caffe Crema

At the same time, the beans were roasted at level 4, which makes the taste of the finished coffee very intense. And the low caffeine content in the product allows you to consume it more often than 1-2 times a day. Well, the price of the issue is 1040 rubles. per kilogram, that is, 100 rubles per 100 grams.

Jardin

This option is no less interesting, because for only 250 rubles. The buyer is offered 250 g of a rich, aromatic product consisting of 100% Arabica beans. In this case, we are talking about a kind of hodgepodge, consisting of Ethiopian, Guatemalan and Colombian grain, and all the material is subjected to different processing methods from the first to the last fifth level.

Real black tea bags - 5 reputable producers

The main thing is freshness!

If it’s, say, the beginning of 2021, then the red price for such crackers is 300 rubles/kg

In fact, all shades of taste of specific varieties, types, types are relevant only in the case of freshly roasted coffee. In the professional world, it is believed that coffee is best consumed no later than 2 weeks after roasting. Two months is the deadline, after which the grains lose most of their taste characteristics and begin to turn into the average rancid crackers. After six months, the grains can be safely thrown away.

But professionals are somewhat fanatical people. For a simple consumer, you can outline something like this:

1. Ideal – 2-3 weeks after roasting
2. Excellent – ​​up to a month
3. Quite good – up to 2 months
4. Acceptable – up to 4-5 months
5. Up to a year, you can drink it, but hoping to distinguish some notes or shades is stupid.
6. Further, buying any coffee more expensive than the conventional “Jockey” is absolutely devoid of any reasonable meaning - throwing away money.

Manufacturer's description

The owner and manufacturer of the product is . This is a large chain that produces its own products. Thanks to this, the organization sells the product at a lower cost. The product is produced using leased facilities. There are several main workshops that produce the drink. These include:

• “Intercafe” – located in Mytishchi;
• “Almafood” – located in Domodedovo;
• "Outspan International" - located in Moscow;
• SEDA International is located in Yakhroma.

Coffee is produced under the Magnit brand.

Raw materials and production of coffee

Magnit does not have its own factory. Therefore, he manufactures his products at various enterprises. They are mainly located in the Moscow region. Thus, Intercafe, which is located in Mytishchi, produces many different types of instant drinks for different customers, including Magnit. , located in Moscow, imports coffee beans and packs them locally. The Almafood factory, which is located in Domodedovo, produces many brands to order. These include the popular product Alta Roma. There is also a plant in Yakhroma, Moscow region - SEDA International. They buy raw materials for the production of their drinks from SEDA, which is located in Spain, and package it themselves. The variety of manufacturers does not allow achieving excellent taste of products. Therefore, it is impossible to find information on the variety or origin of the grains on the packaging. The pack doesn't say it's Arabica. The only information available indicates that the product is made from selected grains.

Consumer Reviews

Numerous reviews of Black Swan coffee are very contradictory:

1. Galina: I can’t say that coffee has a distinct aroma. Rather the smell is below average. The drink has a medium strength. I can say that for such a price the product is quite good. Of course, you can’t call it exquisite, but you can drink it.
2. Alena: I recently bought Black Swan ground coffee from the Magnit network. I can't say that this is an ideal option. But for that kind of money it’s a completely acceptable solution.
3. Victor: I didn’t like the instant coffee of this brand at all. In taste and smell, it rather reminded me of a chicory drink. I will not buy this product again.

Black Swan coffee is a popular product in the affordable price segment. It can be purchased exclusively in the Magnit chain of stores. The brand's assortment includes several product options, each of which is characterized by certain features.

Soluble

Coffee gurus are accustomed to calling instant drinks nothing more than garbage and a surrogate. Indeed, for a long time the quality of such products left much to be desired. But today there are more and more manufacturers who tirelessly prove the opposite.

5 brands of Russian sweets without palm oil - what about the taste?

Moscow coffee shop on shares

This Russian-made freeze-dried coffee has adequately withstood rigorous independent testing by experts: this drink turned out to be completely safe, in addition to everything else, it has excellent organoleptic properties and fully corresponds to the labeling indicated on the packaging.

In addition, half a kilo of such wonderful coffee will cost just 385 rubles, which in itself is unique.

Ambassador Platinum

All nine items considered are not capable of disappointing even the most capricious gourmet (at most, leaving them indifferent), and let alone ordinary lovers.

All reviews about the film Black Swan

Revised. And, it seems, he understood why adults turn their noses up at him. Aronofsky made an aesthetic emo movie. And, sorry, not about ballet, the pursuit of perfection, beauty, sacrifice and other high matters of art. This is a movie about a girl and about a girl. A movie that teleports the viewer into her perception of reality, into how she breathes, where she looks, what she is afraid of. That is why the devil knows what is going on around. It's not even a matter of the heroine's madness or maternal power. Kamon, these “I’m not 12 years old anymore!” and nervous slamming of doors - they are traditionally teenage. “Black Swan” is a film about the extreme coming of age of a little man who should have grown up differently. The pupated butterfly breathed the stale air of a cozy girl’s room, suffocated in teddy bears and communicated with the world in the communication “little girl is a huge scary world trying to break me.” Wrapped in thoughts, closed into herself, pushing out all sorts of demons somewhere into the depths, she used the crystal infantile (forgive this word, but it is important in this film) world built from birth. She knew every room in it, every step, every tapestry hung in the rooms and on the stairs. Perfect. Her world is a “perfect movie” of a girl, innocent, “childish”, as if still a virgin, who is only a short step away from becoming a woman. But it was not in her power to accomplish it, because her world is very empty, cold, glossy. A world where she had never loved anyone before. Aronofsky realized that Natalie Portman's character, with her childlike vision of the world, fit perfectly into the world of ballet, with its graphic convex "good" and "evil", black and white, innocence and experience. The marble sculpture of Nina grew to her age under a glass bell. Honing her movements, knowing the sound of a ballet shoe, the power of the light directed at her, she physically did not know another world. And he doesn't want to know.

The second time, I was no longer offended by any vulgarity, crookedness, crookedness of the cinematic world, pretentiousness and some kind of naivety of what was happening, because I understood for myself what/who Aronofsky was filming about. And it was impossible not to look at the person he was filming about - on the fingers of one hand you can count the frames filmed separately from the character, outside of her. Most of the scenes are the grid of the world, visible to her, and only to her. And through her perception it comes to us on the movie screen. And the infantile understanding of sacrifice, hyperbolization and the unthinkable, to the point of nausea, simplicity of metaphors - they are from Nina’s girlishness. She is not able to understand otherwise - like an adult - she sees like this, and feels like this. It's the feeling of an immature girl who has much more in common with a 15-year-old emogirl than with her corps de ballet colleagues. Well, how do infantile young people think? Yes, that’s what they think, straightforwardly. Put yourself on the altar of art? - Every word is worth its weight in gold: put it down, put it down. To really turn into a swan and dance so that everyone gasps, the heroine thinks in the depths of her soul. Need a dark half? We'll get it now. How to get it? Jerk off in the morning? I'll jerk off and the demon will come out of captivity. Nina, perhaps, doesn’t talk herself down and whisper at night in order to pull her dark self out. This is a very fabulous understanding of everything that the teacher tells her. Magical. Simple and mythical. Like black and white, like blood and mirrors, like dark doubles. She grew up within fairy-tale coordinates, and she sees and thinks in the same categories. “Black Swan,” by the way, has more in common with gothic and decadence than with the entire cinema of the 20th century. With “William Wilson” by Poe, with “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Wilde. And the early Hoffmann, who was obsessed with the purity of art and the blurring of the boundaries between theatrical reality and reality. And everything that seems to the modern viewer to be giallo techniques or a game of postmodernity is pure postmodernity, of course, but only really existing in the head of a child. That's how she sees it, yes. Dark Swan, white Swan, transformation for real, transformation - so physical. From the screw, in short.

The ideal soundtrack for Black Swan would be classic Depeche Mode records. Cold, polished, glossy, hyper-emotional and youthful music - when it seems that you are dancing on the shards of a broken mirror in a closed room - desperately and hopelessly. And this emo vulgarity, and sharp nervous transitions, and the pathetic final part - all of this is not at all for the sake of genre and form. Well, I was waiting, for example, for a cigarette to appear, well, of course: a cigarette is growing up! Chatting with boys in a cafe and dance-dance-dance – cool! Locking yourself away from your mommy and your girlfriend and showing off in your underwear is a teenager’s dream. “Black Swan” is an emo movie because it talks about a completely infantile understanding of reality, art, beauty, theater and the dark side of personality. Nina grows up in a couple of months on autopilot, she needs it for business, to play. But she can't do anything. In the same place, at the beginning, Kassel says that in order to pull the princess out of the swan, love must happen. And what kind of love does Nina have here, don’t tell me. She still plays with dolls, only on the ballet stage. This is such an aesthetic version of a Barbie house. In general, Nina, of course, has no time for love.

And the movie is not even about the love of beauty (although despite its formal ugliness, it is an incredibly beautiful movie, really). A movie about an explosion. About a small, growing, long-lasting explosion occurring inside a heroine who urgently needed her own demon. A demon that she doesn’t want, that she fights off with all her might, but that she needs—“for the sake of art.” And this growing hum, as if breaking the sound barrier, is transmitted to the viewer. This nervous storm that breaks the girl (literally transforming and destroying the ideal creation), in the final part it simply devours her (and me as a viewer) from the inside. As the film continues, you can directly feel how and when the heroine overcomes barrier after barrier in herself, destroying the inner self that has been created and cherished so far, fragile, complex, introverted, closed, closed in on itself. Beautiful and elfin. The first border, the second, the third... And where the pilots meet the dark ghost, Portman’s heroine hits the mirrors in impotent rage. Because all her childish, naive attempts are smashed against the plaster ceiling of a “proper girl.” And then what was supposed to happen happens - Mach3, blood and “dancing on broken mirrors.” The girl wheezes, goes crazy, cuts the air with fragments, and now, it seems, the highest level of mastery is already available to her, where it is clean, light, where it is easier to breathe, and the star shines brighter.

Well, you can, of course, say that the movie is about madness (formally, that’s what it turns out to be). But, I think, it’s more about madness generated by the burning collision of Psyche’s delicate velvet butterfly body with the need to part with all this childishness. And the fact that Aronofsky placed this simple story in a mystical, bewitching giallo scenery and cut it into an aesthetic scrapbook - this, in my opinion, is his genius. So, no one has ever filmed anything about this, about what many teenagers and young people go through, using symbols and pop motifs, allusions and genre features. He decomposed a simple story into elementary mythological components, phenomena and phenomena of the collective unconscious, and thereby, in my opinion, exposed, turning inside out, the soul of the heroine. Every movement of the soul, a dash of apprehension, a dash of fear, a drop of love, a dash of jealousy and the wound of a struggle with a competitor (in fact, with oneself - only “completely different”) are visualized here in specific images. And why, it would seem, the hackneyed image of a “completely different” girl, her second, from somewhere out there, from the darkness, from a tower or from a deep and still locked well. But - “Black Swan”, “Swan Lake”, Tchaikovsky. Thank you, the authors said, there is no need to invent anything, it is enough to refract these facts of art in the consciousness of an innocent girl, mesmerized by the “songs of experience,” listening to the latter with bated breath. Cut gothic and decadent into emo pieces with glass pieces

This is how I finally understood the film (I don’t insist on understanding, to each his own) when I saw the final transformation. Well, of course! Viewers accuse Darren Aronofsky of childish vulgarity, of some kind of funny symbolism, recording unnecessary special effects, giallo techniques, and a failed thriller story. But, in my opinion, they don’t understand that the ending itself is, rather, not Darren Aronofsky’s, it’s Nina’s. It all looks infinitely touching and pathetic when a girl, in fear that she won’t cope, in rage at herself for screwing up, acts this way and not otherwise. And then, then, like in a fairy tale, yes, like in some music video from the 1990s, she will run onto the stage to dance, as she considers, a masterpiece, and everyone will applaud her, and she will just smile, arching up like a beautiful sigma, will greet the audience with a wing. And he will fall wounded, like somewhere in Hoffmann, or even better in Hans Christian Anderson, to deafening applause from the public, yes! If only the pink petals from the ceiling would fall beautifully onto the white feather bed! "Like in the movies". Having not matured one bit, and having never brought her true soulmate to reality, she comes up with a mystical “completely different” one in order to stab her portrait or fight with her one-on-one on stage. For 100 minutes the girl played all this, slowly but surely going crazy, taking the rules of the game completely seriously. And she, however, was certainly perfect in this game, as she whispered to herself in the finale. Yes, perfect girl. The butterfly flew out, but not from innocence into the experience of adulthood, but from the game into the terrible, deadly white blinding light of the spotlights.

Honestly, the second time it was almost physically painful for me to watch the last 10 minutes. My eyes wouldn't see this.