Brazilian Coffee

Adultery, deceit and politics, all the makings of a modern-day best-seller, yet this story is over 250 years old and what ultimately led to brazilian coffee. In 1727 a Brazilian official named Francisco de Melho Palheta was invited to mediate a heated border dispute between French and Dutch Guiana. Both governments were actively growing coffee in Guiana and closely guarded their financial interests by not allowing the exportation of viable coffee seeds.

Palheta quickly accepted the invitation with hopes of somehow obtaining some seeds for planting coffee in Brazil. While in Guiana Palheta became romantically involved with the French Governors wife.