RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The line of street vendors that traditionally forms from 5 AM onwards in front of a small building on Senado Street downtown, is now a thing of the past – at least for the time being.
With the social isolation measures implemented because of the coronavirus pandemic, the ‘Biscoito Globo’ (Globo Biscuit) factory is experiencing the greatest crisis of its 67 years of existence and has closed its doors indefinitely.
“Our flagship snack is the sold in paper packages, resold on the streets and beaches. As no one is leaving their homes and the beach is banned, we have nowhere to turn”, says Marcelo Ponce, one of the company’s owners.
He says he usually sells between 5,000 and 7,000 bags a day at this time of year, doubling the amount in the summer. “This crisis is killing us”, he says. Currently there are no paper biscuit bags, the most traditional version, available anywhere in the city.
The plastic packaging, made to be sold in schools, supermarkets and stores, can still be found in large retailers. Marcelo says that he has been fulfilling some orders on demand from the few companies still operating, such as supermarkets.
“I employ two or three people for production, but only for a few specific orders, which are worthwhile. This is very sad”. More than 40,000 small paper bags will be recycled as the expiration date had already been printed on them.
A recent incident gave Biscoito Globo, the symbol of a sunny and sandy Rio, a measure of its relevance to the Cariocas. A report published in 2017 by the New York Times harshly criticized the snack, which was considered “tasteless” by journalist David Segal – “Bite into one and it’s as if your teeth are at a party to which your tongue was not invited,” wrote the reporter of the American newspaper, to the wrath of Cariocas – and Brazilians in general.
Chef Roberta Sudbrack, from Rio de Janeiro, was one of the first to react. “You don’t mess with cultural icons of a people! All the more so the gastronomic ones! Everything is subjective! But our affections understand Biscoito Globo! Biscoito Globo We Love It!”, she posted at the time.
The novelist Marcelo Rubens Paiva wrote on his social media that to say that it is tasteless would be “like saying Gisele Bündchen is a plug ugly chick”. In passionate defenses, internet users said, among other statements of love, that to come to Rio and speak ill of Biscoito Globo “is like going to your home and dissing your grandmother’s cooking”.