corsica narraganset: Travel Channel's 'Dangerous Grounds' reveals risky business of ...

Coffee importer Todd Carmichael will do just about anything to find the rarest coffee beans -- and that includes dodging third-world thugs armed with machine guns and machetes. In the new Travel Channel series "Dangerous Grounds," we follow him as he ventures into some of the world's deadliest places in search coffee that can sell for more than $30 a pound.

For the kick-off episode, he heads to Haiti, where he hopes to buy coffee beans directly from farmers, cutting out corrupt middlemen who pocket most of the profits and leave growers with next to nothing. And he's undeterred when a coffee-world insider tells him that he'd better buy a bullet-proof vest before heading into the mountains.

Carmichael hits dirt roads on the edge of chasms, and encounters farmers who are too scared to even talk to him, much less sell him coffee. At one point, he has to sleep under his truck to avoid murderous criminals. But eventually he finds a farmer who has great beans and is willing to sell, sending Carmichael back to the United States with 18 bags of coffee worth several hundred-thousand dollars.

"Dangerous Grounds" is a short-run series -- there are only eight episodes -- but it's a fascinating travelogue to places like Bolivia, Madagascar and Borneo. Seeing what Carmichael goes through to find the ultimate coffee beans makes you look at your morning cup of joe a little differently.

Premieres 10 p.m. Monday on Travel Channel, and continues at 9 p.m. Tuesdays beginning Nov. 13.

-- Grant Butler