The history of coffee in the Americas starts with one of the most famous stories ever told about a coffee plant, and a lot of it might not be true.

A ship stuck dead still in the middle of the Atlantic. Water running out. And French naval officer Gabriel de Clieu pouring half his drinking water into a tiny coffee plant, every day, for a month. It’s printed on coffee bags and repeated in coffee history books. But almost every dramatic detail comes from one witness: de Clieu himself, writing about it fifty years later.

On this episode of Curiously Caffeinated, a coffee podcast hosted by a ten-year barista who’s still learning out loud, we tell the legend and then check it against the record.

In this episode:
☕ How a 1714 gift from Amsterdam gave France its first coffee tree
☕ Gabriel de Clieu, a mystery “lady of quality,” and a homemade glass greenhouse
☕ Pirates, a storm, a jealous saboteur, and the famous water ration, in his own words
☕ How coffee came to Martinique and grew to nearly 19 million trees, and who really did that work
☕ The Typica coffee variety and what Jamaica Blue Mountain has to do with this story
☕ Legend vs. record: was he really first, and did one tree really start coffee in Latin America?

If you’re enjoying the show, follow Curiously Caffeinated on Spotify so you never miss an episode. And send this one to your coffee person. You know exactly who I mean.

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Sources:
All About Coffee, William Ukers (1922): https://www.gutenberg.org/files/28500/28500-h/28500-h.htm
Typica variety, World Coffee Research: https://varieties.worldcoffeeresearch.org/varieties/typica
Gabriel de Clieu, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_de_Clieu
History of Coffee, National Coffee Association: https://www.aboutcoffee.org/origins/history-of-coffee/

Ten years behind an espresso bar, and I’m still learning. This episode is where the history lessons from Episodes 1 and 2 finally land somewhere useful — in your kitchen, at the coffee shop, in front of that wall of bags at the grocery store you’ve been staring at forever.

We’re covering what actually makes your coffee taste the way it does: terroir (altitude, soil, climate — yes, it matters as much in coffee as in wine), the three processing methods that shape your cup before the roaster ever touches the beans, and how to read a coffee bag without needing a degree.

Plus — how to find a roaster worth your money, what the red flags actually mean (and don’t mean), a quick breakdown of Arabica vs Robusta vs the lesser-known Excelsa, and the only real rule for figuring out what you like.

I also pulled out my French press for the first time. Twice. And yeah, everything changed.

Whether you’re a specialty coffee obsessive or someone who just wants a better cup at home — this one’s for you.

Mentioned in the episode:

BrownDog Coffee Roasters | @browndogcoffeeroasters

These are some of my favorite coffee roasters based right here in Washington state. No affiliation at all here, just someone who buys a lot of coffee from these guys.

Beanly | @beanly.app

This guy popped up on my TikTok feed and has created an app that will help you track the coffees you like and why you like them. The more you track, the more the app learns what you like and can help give recommendations on what to try next. No affiliation here either, just showing some love to a small creator with a vision.

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TikTok | @thesammimae

Insta | @curiouslycaffeinatedpodcast