
A candy man revolutionized the sushi industry - pshaw
https://www.bloombergquint.com/pursuits/2017/08/30/how-an-angry-candy-man-revolutionized-the-modern-sushi-industry
======
jpao79
Here's a fun one:

Japanese fully automated restaurant

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yICVmyySHmE&feature=youtu.be](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yICVmyySHmE&feature=youtu.be)

As a side note, it's funny in that there are many parallels to this fully
automated restaurant and this short thought essay that was mentioned on HN a
few months ago about the slow and steady future progression of AI:
[http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm](http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm)

~~~
aqme28
Not _fully_ automated. They may not be "chefs" according to the video, but
there are clearly people assembling food.

~~~
jpao79
True - its definitely got a manual component to it. It's interesting to see
the sushi rice machine in use in the first half of the video.

What's interesting about restaurant automation is that it could go either way
in terms of making existing franchises more of a monopoly or enabling the
little guy compete against them.

I tend to actually lean toward the later because the biggest issue with
restaurants is managing/coordinating a team of people (interviewing, payroll,
scheduling, healthcare, HR, diversity). But if automation can enable the
independent restaurant owner to work with a skeleton crew and focus on
delivering value and a differentiated product the consumer will win in the
long run.

I feel that we as entrepreneurial engineers need to make robots that will help
make the independent proprietor capable of competing with the larger
franchisors like McDonald. Something like an artisanal grass fed beef
hamburger restaurant robot to help the food truck compete against McDonalds.

~~~
im3w1l
> What's interesting about restaurant automation is that it could go either
> way in terms of making existing franchises more of a monopoly or enabling
> the little guy compete against them.

Whoever can make his restaurants 0.05% more efficient than the next guy will
take over the entire market as scaling up will be so easy.

~~~
sokoloff
Do you believe that Burger King, McDonalds, and Wendy's are all within 5bpp of
productivity of each other? Because none of them have taken over all of the
market, not by a wide margin.

I seriously doubt their productivity numbers are anywhere near that tight a
spread and yet we've seen no clear monopoly emerge.

~~~
im3w1l
I think automation will change the game though. Because the variance that
comes from the human factor will be gone. If one chain is a tiny bit better,
then every single restaurant will be a tiny bit better. The 0.05% advantage
will not drown in the random noise of good and bad employees. And policy
updates can happen immediately, the lag from having to retrain will not be
there.

One source of variance that will remain is location. The local branch of Very-
Slightly-Better-Chain may be poorly situated, which could put them at a
disadvantage.

~~~
skybrian
I'm skeptical. This "tiny bit better" might not be noticeable by customers, so
it could easily be swamped by better marketing or by having a more convenient
location (which will never be consistent).

------
smilekzs
Can't help but admire Japanese people who automate everything that can be
automated since 1970s! Working with soft and loose material such as rice is a
huge PITA for machines, but I'm not totally surprised they eventually found a
way to make it work reasonably well. Perhaps this in turn imposed limitations
on the water/rice ratio and cooking time, which might compromise the taste.

~~~
stephengillie
What is the argument against automation? We have had people putting cans on
shelves for thousands of years. Where is the shelf-stocking robot?

~~~
degenerate
Humans are easy to find, fully assembled, break less, and are more easily
replaced. We are amazing machines.

~~~
etplayer
Those are reasons not to automate, but they're not arguments against
automation. If there is too much automation in an economy (across industries)
then there are fewer people available to buy products that are being made.
From a Marxian point of view, purchase of automation machinery is part of the
cycle of capital crises, and contributes to the tendency for the rate of
profit to fall for the employer of automation, because he extracts less
surplus value, as machinery embodies dead labour and only has the running cost
of 'replenishing' this labour by replacement of its parts or general
maintenace of it, these costs coming out of the surplus value extracted
anyway.

There's a wonderful little essay by Ernest Mandel on the effects of automation
on the amount of wage labour employed in his own time (the 80s), why this
occurs, and how capitalism deals with automation versus how a Socialist mode
of production might do so:
[https://www.marxists.org/archive/mandel/1985/xx/future.html](https://www.marxists.org/archive/mandel/1985/xx/future.html)

Edit: a relevant little quote follows.

"Japanese socialists [7] have tried to study the effects of new technologies
especially on the automobile industry. Also stressing qualitative aspects of
the changes (loss of skills, increase in accidents, emergence of new layers of
workers and of skills etc.), the authors find a reduction of shop floor
workers of around 10% at the most highly ‘robotised’ automobile plant in
Japan, Nissan’s Myrayama Plant, between September 1974 and January 1982,
accompanied however, by small increases in white-collar personnel. Even the
Japanese ‘company unions’ seem worried by these developments, ‘life-long
employment’ still the rule in Japan notwithstanding (Japan Economic Journal,
February 21, 1984)."

~~~
stephengillie
Why does this remind me of the famous Henry Ford quote about doubling his
employees pay, so they could afford to buy the cars they made?

~~~
ge96
This reminds me of that time I asked in an economics class how you make money.
In the case of Ford he pays his workers who turn around and give it back to
him? So you need money coming in from external sources right ie. Other
countries.

What I was asking about is the process of taking something that costs x and
charging 3x to make the profit. Where does the 2X come from doesn't that
result in debt. I understand you're paying for time that you didn't
spend/resources. But it's like swishing water around in a bucket right without
external input?

Probably a dumb question but also doesn't help my professor barely spoke
English and I stuttered over the word "Inevitably" haha

~~~
tene
I'm not at all an economist, and I expect I'll make some mistakes here, but I
can think of two things that might be relevant to your question here. First is
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deflation#Scarcity_of_official...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deflation#Scarcity_of_official_money)
which is that as you can produce more value for lower cost, with nothing else
compensating, then things become cheaper. It's the _value_ of things that's
"made" in Ford's factory, not the money. If, hypothetically, you had a
completely fixed money supply, then you wouldn't get money from nowhere;
instead the price of everything else in the market just goes down. There are
some reasons to not prefer deflation, so to counteract this the government
prints more money. For another example (I think?), look at Bitcoin, where
there's been massive deflation because the growth in _value_ has far outpaced
the rate of new bitcoins added to the economy by mining.

I'm less certain about the second thing, but I think that debt (and banks?)
increase the (effective?) money supply. If you borrow money from a bank (or
debt directly from a company for goods or services) to build a new house, then
you've acquired a valuable new asset, the laborers you paid acquired new
currency, so the total economy can exceed the number of bills that have been
printed and are physically in circulation.

There's a lot there that I'm not sure about, and there's plenty of further
fascinating questions that follow on from there that I don't know anything
about, but I hope that helps you understand some things about how production
and the money supply work!

~~~
varjag
From a bank's perspective, a loan is an investment/asset, so should probably
be a part of what is called M2 or M3 money.

EDIT: Wikipedia seems to agree:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_supply#Fractional-
reserv...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_supply#Fractional-
reserve_banking)

> Whenever a bank gives out a loan in a fractional-reserve banking system, a
> new sum of money is created. This new type of money is what makes up the
> non-M0 components in the M1-M3 statistics.

------
veb
I don't really know much about sushi, but this was a fascinating read.

The entire time I kept wondering what the difference would be between the
machine made sushi and the stuff made by the guys in the documentary, Jiro
Dreams of Sushi[1] Would I be able to tell the difference?

[1]
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772925/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772925/)

~~~
mikekchar
First: Yes, if you are the kind of person who pays attention to your food, you
will be able to easily notice the difference.

Sushi is vinegared rice. There are 2 main types of sushi you will eat in a
sushi restaurant: nigiri sushi (formed with the hand) and maki sushi (rolled
in a sheet of seaweed). There are other sushi dishes, but you won't get them
in a sushi restaurant.

Sushi is made by cooking the rice, simultaneously cooling the cooked rice and
reducing the moisture content, cutting in the vinegar/sugar/salt mixture and
then finally forming the rice into a shape. Some of these things can be done
well in an automated process, some of them can not.

To make very good sushi, you need to understand the rice. Rice is all slightly
different and it will contain more or less starch, have more or less bran
still attached to the kernel, etc, etc. When you start you need to inspect the
rice, wash it appropriately and choose the correct amount of water to cook it
with. How well you do this step makes a surprisingly large difference in the
end product. If you don't wash off the starch well enough, it will end up
gluey. If you don't polish off the bran, you will get rancid flavours. If you
don't choose the correct amount of water, you will get mushy rice. The list
goes on and on (I'm by no means an expert, but I've failed to make great sushi
on enough occasions to at least enumerate some of my failures ;-) ).

Generally speaking, if you buy sushi at a kaiten sushi place -- or even just a
place that just isn't very good, they aren't going to get this step right
because it takes experience and attention to detail. Big kaiten sushi chains
are going to select a forgiving rice. They are going to wash it exactly the
same way each time. And they will get a relatively consistent, but not very
good result.

The next bit is cooking. This one is perfectly suited to automation. If you
get the rice to water ratio correct, modern rice cookers cook rice virtually
perfectly. From Jiro Dreams of Sushi, I know they use their jury rigged
pressure cooker setup, but TBH, I'm a bit skeptical that it makes all that
much difference. He says that he has to do it under pressure because of the
rice variety, but I'm not sure why he can't use a normal pressure cooker --
probably because that's just not the way he does things.

Anyway, once the rice is cooked, you need to cool it to a precise temperature
while at the same time reducing the humidity. This is really hard to do well.
If you get it wrong, you will either get too hard a texture, or more likely
mush. However, it's the kind of thing that machines are _really_ good at.

The next step is really hard to do well with a machine, I think. While
maintaining the correct temperature, you need to mix in the vinegar mixture.
The technique you use to mix the vinegar, the speed that you mix it, the
amount that you use -- all depends on what the rice is doing that day. It
depends on the ambient temperature and humidity. It depends on how well you've
washed the rice. It depends on how perfectly you got the water/rice ratio when
you were cooking. If you get it wrong, you will range from crumbly, falling
apart sushi to glue. Machines do this very poorly, it seems. They uniformly
under-vinegar the rice. I think it's because when they are extruding the rice
(in the next step), they need the rice to be firmer than you would if you were
doing it by hand.

First you need to keep the sushi rice around before use. You can't really have
a continuous cooking process, so you need to cook in batches. However, as the
rice cools, the starch forms crystals. This causes the rice to taste dry and
to have a rough texture. You need to maintain a consistent temperature -- not
too high because it will continue cooking, not too low because it will
crystalise. You also have to maintain the proper humidity. There is nothing
that makes this harder or easier for automation, but it depends on how you are
moving the rice from one place to another.

Finally, you have to form the rice. As I said, there are two main kinds of
sushi that you will have at a sushi restaurant. The one that many North
Americans are most familiar with is maki sushi. This one is dramatically
easier to make. You spread the rice on a piece of nori seaweed and roll it up.

To understand how to do this well, you have to understand that rice has a
flavour. It is a very subtle flavour, but a flavour nonetheless. Japanese
meals are not like western meals. You don't have "main dishes" with fillers
like potatoes and bread. Instead, the main dish is rice. Everything else is a
"side dish" and is meant to accentuate the flavour of the rice. This is why
Japanese food is so delicately flavoured, without strong herbs or spices. It's
also why you eat the rice without salt or some kind of sauce.

With maki sushi, you have a piece of roasted nori that adds some crispness and
earthiness. Then you have a filling that should accent the rice. The problem
is that if the rice is mushed up together, it tastes like glue (umm... well,
it literally _is_ glue at that point). To get the flavour of the rice to come
out, the most important point is _air_! Each kernel of rice needs to have air
around it. At the same time, you need moisture, so that it has a good texture,
sticks together, and creates a kind of sauce in your mouth (mixing the nori,
rice and filling together). It's that balance of rice, air, water, filling and
nori that is important to getting something that has nice flavour and then
dissolves in your mouth, with a satisfying, mouth feeling texture and flavour.

Like I said, maki sushi is dramatically easier to do than nigiri sushi. That's
because you spread the rice on the nori. This automatically creates both
places for air and water to exist. Then you add the filling and roll up the
nori. The nori then protects the sushi from drying out. Machines are extremely
good at making maki sushi, IMHO.

Nigiri sushi is _much_ more difficult. With nigiri sushi, you wet you hands
(just enough), take a small handful of rice, form the rice into a rectangle,
add wasabi (if you are going to do it) and then apply the topping (usually
sashimi -- raw, sliced fish). Getting a machine to produce nigiri sushi _at
all_ is a triumph of engineering. However, it is uniformly awful. Instead of
making a 2 dimensional object and then rolling it (to trap both air and
water), you need to make a 3 dimensional object, with water surrounding the
rice kernels and air in between. It has to be compressed just right so that it
sticks together, while at the same time retaining the air pockets and water
pockets. Then you have to apply the topping so that it sticks to the rice, so
that when you bite it, it seems like one thing as opposed to falling apart in
pieces in your mouth.

Good nigiri sushi seems to melt in your mouth. The flavour of the fish mixes
with the flavour of the rice and washes down your throat. There are many
different ways nigiri sushi can be bad, but the main ones are "piece of fish
sitting on a pile of glue" and "a bunch of random junk that falls apart in
your mouth in a sticky, mealy way". Machine made nigiri sushi tends to be the
latter.

Having said all that, there are some caveats. The convenience stores sell
"onigiri", which are triangular shapes rice balls wrapped in nori, with some
kind of filling. They are universally awesome, even though they are made by
machine. There are onigiri restaurants where they make everything by hand and
they are admittedly better, but not nearly as much as hand made nigiri sushi
vs machine made nigiri sushi.

And finally, I've taken some friends to very, very good sushi restaurants in
Japan before (I live in a fishing village and we're lucky to have a couple of
good sushi restaurants). Usually they are blown away. Occasionally they are,
"Meh. Fish on rice. I don't really see the difference other than the price
tag". So without knowing you, I can't tell for certain that you would care
about the difference.

~~~
CaptainZapp
Thanks for the writeup. What a fantastic read.

You also, implicitly, very well explain the reason why it's sacrilegious to
dunk a piece of really good Sushi into a mixture of soy sauce and ersatz
wasabi. If you invest so much care into the rice this is an insult to chefs
studying the process for years.

I have a question, which you may be able to answer. I'm off to Japan in ten
days and would like to try some good sushi, without completely breaking the
bank.

The problem with top level places, apart from paying 400EUR for a 30 minute
meal (which, admittedly must be out of this world) is to get in in the first
place. Web sites (if they have any) are in Japanese and most such places only
take reservations by phone, which, for a gajin is pretty much a deal breaker.

Do you have any tips about second tier sushi places, which serve a good
product without totally killing off the budget? Where to find them, how to
spot them and what to look out for? Any other important tips you can think
about for a 3 1/2 weeks trip through Japan? (By train, Tokyo to the South and
then up to Hokkaido)

I hope this is not imposing, but that was such an interesting and insightful
writeup that I just had to ask.

Thanks!

~~~
mikekchar
I've gone to several sushi places in large centres, but nothing compares to my
favourite place in my home town. It's kind of opposite to my initial gut
feeling, but it makes sense in a strange way. In large cities, there are
enough people to sustain mediocre restaurants. The top restaurants command
really high prices, but you can survive if you are willing to charge less. In
small towns, nobody has much money and they all eat at home. If you want to
survive, you have to be amazing.

So if you find yourself in a small port town, chances are the local sushi
restaurant will be amazing. The other really important thing to realise is
that really, really great food is often available in incredibly unassuming
places. The restaurant will be 50 years old, will be onto it's third
generation of master, and will be falling apart on the outside. But the food
will be incredible. So it's super hard to tell where to go.

A couple of things might help. First you should know a few kanji: 営業中 means
"open for business". 準備中 means "preparing" (not open at the moment). The
easiest way to distinguish it is to look at the first character. If it looks
like a fat guy with his hair on fire, that's open :-)

Next, quite a lot of great eating establishments are also drinking
establishments. Especially if you want to eat and drink at the same time
(which I recommend highly). The thing to look for is 居酒屋 (izakaya -- bar/pub).
Not sure how to remember it. Write it on your hand :-). People will be
impressed if they see it! Often this will be written on an orange paper
lantern outside the establishment. Stay away from things called "pub" or
"snack". Those are drinking establishments, but are really hostess clubs and
the food is terrible.

Another thing to look for is a noren. Here you can see an image of one [0].
When shops are in business, the noren will be displayed out like that. When
they are closed, they will either be taken down, or displayed behind a closed
window.

The best thing to do to find good restaurants is to ask for recommendations
from the hotel where you are staying. It's important to indicate that you are
looking for an actually good place and not one catering to tourists. It may be
slightly difficult to communicate that. The main concern is that because you
don't speak Japanese, you won't be comfortable in a Japanese establishment --
especially if you can't read the menu. If you can't manage to get an answer
from the hotel staff (often they are afraid to make a mistake), the way to go
is simply to have courage and wander into likely looking establishments.

Extremely good restaurants don't cater to tourists. They won't have menus with
pictures on them. They won't won't won't have menus with English. They won't
speak English. They spend all of their time thinking about food, not sales.
You have to break down the barrier with your own courage. It'll be fine, don't
worry :-) And if it isn't, they will be very polite as they usher you out the
door ;-).

Some very quick useful Japanese: When you enter, it's useful to say, "Aite
imasuka?", which means "Are you open?". If they cross their arms in an X
pattern, it means it's no good. Otherwise it's probably OK :-) If they are
willing to seat you they will say, "Nan me sama?" (How many people?). Just
hold up the appropriate number of fingers. Again, if it's no good, they will
cross their arms in an X pattern.

When ordering, draft beer is "Nama". Sake is "Nihonshu". Something stronger is
"Shochu". But you can probably get away with ordering "Whiskey" or "Wine",
etc. Carbonated fruit flavoured alcoholic drinks are called "Sawaa" (sour) or
"Chuhai". If you want to stay away from alcohol, the mainstay is usually
"ooloncha" (oolong tea). You can also order "cora" (cola), etc.

For food, just ask for a suggestion: "Osusume wa nan desu ka?" (What is your
recommendation). Whatever they say, respond with "Hai. Onegai shimasu". ("Yes,
please") It'll be great. Even if they just asked you a question, by responding
with "Yes, please" you will establish that you have no freaking clue what they
are saying and that they should just give you food.

As you eat, it's good to smile and remark "Oishii!" (Delicious!). Shop owners
are _very_ concerned when foreigners enter because they don't know how to
please you. If you are visibly happy, they will also be happy. It diffuses a
lot of problems. Usually they will give you a lot of special free food (or
sometimes they will give you a lot of special, expensive food that you will
pay for ;-) But they will love you!) Unless you have food allergies _do not_
ask for substitutions or customisation!!!!! Japanese restaurants can't deal
with this. The server's brain will melt. If you press the subject, they will
sadly go back to the kitchen where the chef's brain will melt. After a very
long time, they will come back and ask what they can possibly do. If you press
the subject, they will probably cry. Don't do it!

If you have an allergy, say "Arerugi nan desu!" (I have an allergy) and try to
describe it as best as possible (Best to have it printed in Japanese before
you go so you can flash it to them).

Since you were asking about sushi, the kanji for sushi is 寿司. The best sushi
restaurants will not put that on a sign because they are the best sushi
restaurant in the area and everybody knows it's a sushi restaurant (which is
why you need to get a recommendation). Unless you want to try kaiten shushi
(conveyor belt sushi -- which is actually quite fun, despite the terrible
food) say away from 回転寿司 restaurants. Again, if it has photographs of food, or
English menus, it might be good, but it won't be at the top. Also, don't look
for modern, glitzy, fancy restaurants. Look for "It seems to have been around
since 1950 and they haven't painted the exterior once". But the inside will be
nice.

Other than than, just relax, have courage and enjoy your trip! The food here
is amazing virtually everywhere. On a 3 1/2 week trip you will see and do a
lot of great stuff (I envy you going up to Hokkaido -- especially by train).
Keep in mind that every small town is incredibly proud of its local produce
and cuisine. They will want to impress you with it. Just take it in and
appreciate it. If you do, people will respond with more kindness than you can
imagine.

Hope that helps!

[0] - [http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/noren-at-sake-shop-at-
ed...](http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/noren-at-sake-shop-at-edo-tokyo-
open-air-architectural-museum-is-an-picture-id498156108)

~~~
CaptainZapp
Wow! Just wow!

    
    
      Hope that helps!
    

Yes, it does indeed. And just by reading your reply I can hardly wait to head
off to Japan.

One of the good things is that I eat essentially everything, absolutely love
Japanese cuisine (it's part of the reason for the trip) and don't mind
ordering the Menu Surprise, because I anyway don't have a damn clue what I
order :)

While I'm aware of some of the cultural dos and don'ts (like never, ever lose
it, no matter what, not ever!) your reply is a trove of really useful advise.
Like "Oishii!" to indicate happyness (which I will experience in all
likeliness, so there's nothing phony about it) or to never, ever ask for a
substitute in a restaurant. While I probably wouldn't have done that anyway
it's really good advise.

The primer in quick, useful Japanese is also fantastic.

To cut to the tempura: I just PDF'd your reply and will keep it handy as a
travel resource, while in Japan.

I can't thank you enough for taking the time and putting that up. It would be
great if other Japan visitors stumble over it and find it useful. I know that
I do.

Thank you so much!

------
darepublic
As a UI developer I feel like I am one of those artisan chefs and I dread the
day automated UI will come a knocking

------
eps
> _he could bring the previously elite Japanese dish to the masses_

I distinctly remember reading elsewhere that sushi was poor's people street
food, basically. That is, it was cheap and certainly no _elite_.

~~~
gkanai
That's sort of correct. Sushi today is very different than what Japanese
people ate hundreds of years ago. Before refrigeration, fish was largely
salted or vinegared unless it was eaten fresh. Japanese never ate salmon sushi
because Japanese salmon often had worms. It wasn't until Norway began
importing salmon that Japanese began eating raw salmon. That was a
long/difficult road as I heard from Norwegians who know that story. But now
Japan imports a lot of salmon from Norway. Also before the modern era,
tuna/maguro was not the revered fish it is today. White meat fish were, and to
many sushi chefs, still is the top fish for sushi.

------
basseq
"Conveyor-belt sushi" has such a terrible connotation. The worst of fast food,
cardboard cuisine, mindless automation, and glassy-eyed consumers.

That said, the concept of what is effectively an automatic rice-forming
machine seems pretty tame and reasonable. Compare dicing an onion by hand vs.
using a _robot-coupe_.

I was particularly struck by the dedication here: it took _5 years_ to get the
machine to "work". Keep that in mind the next time you are building your MVP.

~~~
whipoodle
Conveyor-belt sushi might sound bad but it's likely better than you'd expect.
It also isn't completely made by machine, at least in the ones I've eaten at
in America. It's a nice way to have lunch especially, I like that you can get
the exact amount of food that you want, and the immediacy of sitting down and
taking right from the conveyor is great. It usually feels like a good value
for the cost too.

------
TulliusCicero
Looks like one of the sushi making robots costs somewhere around ~$15,000.
Would be great if there was one available for the prosumer market at a lower
price.

~~~
pcurve
I'm not sure prosumer market exists for sushi making robot.

Tough part about sushi isn't forming rice and wrapping, but rather, cooking
and seasoning rice, sourcing and preparing ingredients.

------
sg0
They have a nice clean website, if the product descriptions were absent, then
I definitely would not have been able to guess what the machines were used for
([http://www.suzumokikou.com/product_type/for-
factory/](http://www.suzumokikou.com/product_type/for-factory/)).

------
dmix
> Why had the Japanese government embarked on a policy to limit rice
> production, effectively paying some farmers to keep their paddy fields idle?

Ah, the classic question asked of every overbearing economically-intervening
government.

~~~
Swizec
> Ah, the classic question asked of every overbearing economically-intervening
> government.

STORY TIME!

So I come from Slovenia, the land of wine that you've never heard of. One of
our things is that everyone with even a little bit of land grows vines and
sometimes makes wine. There's at least a few vines growing in people's
backyards even if they just eat the grapes.

People with slightly more land have vineyards and sidehustle making wine and
selling it. This has two effects, 1) there's a lot of very very crappy wine
out there, 2) crappy wine still gets you drunk so people keep buying it. As a
result a liter of wine cost about 30 euro cents at one point.

So the government stepped in and put a stop to it. Gotta avoid crashing one of
the bigger industries in the country right?

How do you do it? You pay people to cut down their vineyards. Cut it down and
we'll give you X0,000 euro.

Now people have a choice, if they're making less than that much by selling
their wine, they can take the government subsidy, cut down their vines, and go
do something else with their life. This is a lucrative opportunity for all
small-time wineries. Many people took it.

As a result, people who were making more than the amount of the subsidy,
didn't cut down their vineyards AND they can now sell their wine for more than
they could before. Very lucrative situation for them as well.

We now have a stronger wine industry, less crappy wine, and fewer pesticides
and stuff making it into nature. Hobby vineyards tend to overspray because
they really really really care about every little vine.

We still drink most of the wine ourselves though, so you are not likely to
ever hear about Slovenian wine outside our country. My French girlfriend says
it's the best she's ever had.

~~~
bisRepetita
Your girlfriend is in love... congrats! ;)

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Swizec
I also gave her the most expensivest bottle I could find to taste ;)

And she had to say she likes grandpa’s wine. No other option there.

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pcurve
Video of how one works.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=95&v=-ocpbJ0aZTk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=95&v=-ocpbJ0aZTk)

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kurosawa
somebody had to say his name thrice

