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Brazil is one of the biggest coffee producers in the world, but it didn't always hold this title. In fact, when coffee was first introduced to the New World, the Dutch, with their colonies in modern-day Indonesia, dominated international coffee production. It wasn't until a crippling disease swept through Dutch owned coffee plantations that Brazil saw its opening to be the next coffee juggernaut.
In the early 1700's, coffee production hadn't even begun in Brazil. Coffee was so jealously guarded, that the Brazilians had to look for an opportunity to get their hands on coffee seedlings. In 1727 they got their chance. The Dutch and French Guiana had a boundary dispute and turned to the Brazilians to help mediate. The Brazilians pounced on the opportunity to procure coffee in the process. There are several versions of the story, but it is reported that a womanizing army captain named Francisco de Mallo Palheta was sent to French Guiana to arbitrate the dispute. Upon arriving, he managed to establish a good relationship with the governor and his wife, with whom he reportedly had a brief affair. Having resolved the boundary dispute, the governors wife gifted Palheta a bouquet of flowers, in which she had hidden cuttings of a coffee plant. While some say he was openly presented with one thousand seeds and living plants, the fact is that he went back to Brazil with enough to begin coffee production in Brazil.
Initially cultivation started on a small scale, most likely intended just for local consumption. But as the plant adapted itself to the Brazilian climate, the plant thrived and flourished, leading to full scale coffee production. By 1765, Brazil started shipping coffee to Europe.
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