Gabriel DeClieu

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Gabriel DeClieu
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Background information

Gabriel DeClieu (also referenced as Mathieu Gabriel De Clieu and Chevalier Gabriel Mathiew de Clieu) was a French naval officer whom is attributed to bringing coffee to the Americas in 1723. It is said that the Dutch unwittingly provided Louis XIV of France with a coffee bush that Gabriel DeClieu in turn made due with a seedling which he transported to Martinique whilst supposedly sacrificing his water ration to the seedling after a storm ravaged his vessel. Within 50 years of an official survey a recorded 19 million coffee trees are said to have sprouted within that time. It is said that 90% of the world's coffee spread from this single plant.

Gabriel is succeeded by his family in Dieppe, France who are currently working on finishing a museum to commemorate DeClieu's legend. Food/Travel writer Stewart Lee Allen who followed the original coffee trade routes visited the DeClieu successors in Dieppe in his book "The Devil's Cup", published in 2004 by Ballantine Books.

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