By The Miami New Times
Sisters and business partners Joann and Raynalda Milord want to suggest an easy alternative to Miami’s celebrated cafecito.
Before you get your caffeinated panties in a bunch, hear them out. According to Joann, Cuba isn’t the only Caribbean island with a strong coffee culture. To spread the word about Haitian coffee, the sisters formed Welcome to Little Haiti, a pandemic-born social-impact company.
“Our mission is to help make Haitian coffee as well-known as Cuban coffee,” Joann, a former director for the Miami Haitian Chamber of Commerce, tells New Times. “Haitians are Miami’s second-largest ethnic group, one with its own rich history with coffee, so this felt like a natural progression for us. Coffee is something that’s enjoyable to everyone, no matter what culture or ethnicity you’re from.”
Not so long ago, it was considered the third-largest coffee producer in the world. But the past few decades have brought droughts, earthquakes, and political unrest that have combined to cause coffee production to slow considerably.
Even so, Haiti’s mountainous regions make it ideal for growing coffee trees, which thrive in moist soil conditions at high altitude. It’s these near-perfect conditions that play a role in imbuing Haitian coffee with a unique and bold aroma and taste profile.
Haiti has been exporting coffee around the world since the 1700s, when (as the story goes) a French naval officer brought the first coffee seedlings to Martinique and its neighboring islands. Continue reading
Haitian Times
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