Martinique, I.

Martinique-a place to be reckoned with in coffee history.

Like Guadeloupe, Martinique is an overseas territory of France. It is located in the northernmost part of the Windward Islands of the Antilles. It is the largest, volcanic and picturesque island in the Windward Islands. This is a strange island, where the residents are generally so tall that even young men are called "dwarfs" if they are less than 1.8 meters tall, and tourists from other places will inexplicably grow several centimeters taller when they live on the island for a period of time. So Martinique is called "an island that can make people grow taller". The picturesque island of Martinique is an excellent destination for holiday travel.

Although Martinique is not the birthplace of coffee, it has a place on a par with Ethiopia in coffee history (although the island now produces very little coffee). Because Martinique is the place where coffee cultivation began in Central and South America! Coffee spread from France to Martinique in the 1820s. One person who cannot help mentioning this is Gabriel Mathieu de Klee, the French naval officer who brought coffee to Martinique.

Deckley was assigned to Martinique in 1723. Before leaving, the naval officer very much wanted to bring something as a souvenir to ease his homesickness. Whether he was interested in coffee or not, he finally decided to take away the coffee tree that the Dutch government gave to King Louis XIV in 1714. With the help of a friend, de Klee successfully stole the coffee tree from the Royal Botanical Gardens in Paris the night before leaving.

De Klee took good care of the coffee tree and specially made a glass cover to ward off the sea breeze and the sea. There was a man on board who was very hostile to him who had been trying to hurt the coffee sapling, which made de Klee so worried that he dared not even sleep at night. During the journey, there was a storm and the threat of pirates, no matter what the emergency, Deckley's first thought was the safety of the coffee tree. Even when there was not enough fresh water on the boat, Deckley used his own drinking water to water the coffee trees.

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After suffering, the coffee tree finally arrived in Martinique. Although it was lifeless, the coffee tree came back to life after it was transplanted to the plantation. The coffee tree bore fruit for the first time in 1726. Since then, more and more coffee has been planted, and by 1777 there were about 19 million coffee trees on the island. Then the coffee trees in Martinique began to spread to Haiti, Dominica, Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe and other places, and also to Colombia and Brazil-centered Central and South America. It is no exaggeration to say that Martinique coffee is the father of Central and South American coffee.

Unfortunately, de Klee did not see it with his own eyes. After retiring, he returned to France, where he was not rich but respected, and until his death, the French government not only forgave him for stealing coffee trees, but also erected a statue of him at the French Ford plantation on the island of Martinique in 1918 in recognition of his contribution to the spread of coffee.

But for reasons similar to Guadeloupe, today's Martinique coffee industry is not booming. Coffee also did not get people's attention, it is a pity that Blue Mountain Coffee was spread from Martinique to Jamaica via Haiti. If the coffee growing industry in Martinique can develop, it may be possible to produce high-quality coffee. Hope that Martinique, which represents the rise, development, prosperity and destruction of the coffee industry, will be able to regain the beauty that has brought it so much glory.