Legend has it that in 1727, Sergeant Major Francisco de Melo Palheta was dispatched to settle a land dispute between French Guiana and Dutch Guiana. He arrived in Cayenne intent on smuggling out the coveted coffee plants that were so closely guarded. Setting his eyes on Madame D’Orvilliers, the Governor of Cayenne’s wife, he hatched a plan, and at the a closing banquet before his departure, his amorous exploits paid off, as she handed him a bouquet containing the seedling that would become the progenitor of the Brazilian coffee industry.

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