Johnny Depp has given us Captain Jack Sparrow, and been nominated for an Oscar for his effort. Russell Crowe has given us Captain Jack Aubrey, and been nominated for an Oscar for his effort. Coffee has given us Captain Gabriel de Clieu, whose exploits deserve sea-legend status, but whose name is merely an footnote in obscure coffee histories. Hollywood, given the popularity of big-budget buccaneer flicks, could find in the story of Captain de Clieu a match as perfect as the blending of espresso and frothy milk.
Gabriel de Clieu was a Frenchman, who, with typical French pride, was unhappy with the Dutch dominance of the European coffee markets in the early 1700’s. The Dutch, in 1699, began coffee production in Indonesia, and by 1706, the first Indonesian coffee beans were sold in Amsterdam; a specimen coffee plant was exhibited in the Botanical garden. Perhaps condescendingly, cuttings from that plant were presented as gifts to other botanical gardens, including Paris Jardin des Plantes.
On leave from Martinique, de Clieu, realizing that coffee plants would thrive in the Caribbean, requested a cutting of the plant from, and was refused by, King Louis XIV. As determined as a Hollywood buccaneer, de Clieu staged a night-time raid into the Jardin des Plantes, absconding with his cutting. Housing the cutting in glass, de Clieu sailed back to Martinique in 1723, bringing the coffee plant above decks each day to get sunlight. During the journey, another passenger–with a Dutch accent, if reports are to be believed–assaulted de Clieu, breaking a shoot from the plant in trying to steal it.
The ship endured a day-long fight with pirates, a storm severe enough to destroy the glass container, and enough depletion of its fresh water stores that de Clieu kept the plant alive from his daily ration. Hollywod ending? You bet. Twenty months after arriving in Martinique, de Clieu harvested his first coffee. De Clieu was made governor of the Antilles, and Caribbean coffee, to this day, is some of the finest in the world. Let’s see either of the Captain Jacks top that.
