Finally cracked out the package of Haitian Bleu beans my dear cousin Christiana brought me this Christmas, in somewhat belated response to an appeal put out by Delphine way back in February 2005. My partner in caffeinated crime, Mark Franco, christened the Bleu by himself yesterday evening (as I can’t do coffee after 5pm), but I just had my own inaugural swig. As an American friend of a friend (who, incidentally, staggered past me at the Alternative Concept concert on Saturday night with a T&T-flag bandana tied around his head) likes to say when he hears certain Allison Hinds songs: Holy Cow! I take my coffee black with no sugar, so flavour means a great deal to me, and this stuff is smooth and mellow, with just a hint of sweetness.

I was reading the other day that René Préval, the newly elected president of Haiti, who is also an agronomist, played a signficant role in the Haitian Bleu project during his first term as president (1996-2001). According to the Coffee Masters web site:

From 1990 to 1996, the [USAID-sponsored] project spent $5.8 million to help 20,000 farmers belonging to 24 local cooperatives. The project united them into a single federation, which acquired an export license in order to sell the coffee directly to customers abroad. That cut out brokers in Haiti, which increased the farmers' potential share of profits from their coffee, project managers say.

The project helped farmers plant 4,350 acres of coffee. This effort, along with planting new trees on existing plantations, required 5.7 million coffee seedlings, along with nearly a quarter-million plantain plants and 30,500 citrus trees. Because coffee needs moist soil, coffee farmers plant other trees around the coffee to provide shade.

What’s not to like? If you love good coffee and believe that Haitian coffee farmers deserve a break, forgive Coffee Masters the glaring spelling error on their label and get yourself some Haitian Bleu.