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.

提到咖啡替代品时，你怎么也不会想到大蒜，但一位日本发明家正是用大蒜创造出了一种看起来和尝起来都像咖啡的饮料。

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. Intrigued¹ by the scorched² garlic’s aroma³, he mashed⁴ it up with a spoon and mixed it with hot water. The resulting drink looked and tasted a lot like coffee. Making a mental note of his discovery, Yokimoto carried on with his job, and only started researching garlic coffee again after he retired⁵.

74岁的Yokitomo Shimotai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。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。混合出的饮料外观和味道都很像咖啡。当时他只是把这一发现记在心里，继续工作，直到退休后才开始研究大蒜咖啡。

Committed to turning his bizarre drink into a commercial product, Yokitomo Shimotai spent years optimizing⁶ the formula, and about five years ago, he finally achieved a result he was satisfied with. To make his soluble⁷ garlic grounds, he roasts the cloves⁸ in an electric oven, and, after they’ve cooled off, smashes them into fine particles and packs them in dripbags.

一心想将这种奇特饮料转变为商品的Yokitomo Shimotai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。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，然后将其放入滴水包（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告诉共同社说：“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 apparently⁹ helps create the coffee-like flavor,” Shimotai adds.

Shimotai补充说：“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 thoroughly¹⁰ cooked. And if you can get past the smell, the drink apparently does taste a lot like actual coffee.

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。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。

If decaf isn’t good enough for you, and you’re in the mood for something new, you can try Yokitomo Shimotai’s garlic coffee at his shop, in the city of Ninohe, Iwate Prefecture, or buy your own dripbags for just 324 yen¹¹ ($2.8).

如果你不喜欢脱因咖啡，并且想尝试新鲜事物，你可以去日本岩手县二户市，到Yokitomo Shimotai的咖啡店品尝一下他的大蒜咖啡。你也可以购买大蒜咖啡包，每包价格只需324日元（合19元人民币）。