FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MISSOULA, MT (January 10, 2006) – Cup of Excellence’s #1 winner Francisco Isidoro Dias Pereira will take home an amazing $49.75/lb. for his award winning coffee. This is the highest price ever paid at an internet auction for any coffee and broke the previous record by over $25.00 lb. Michele’s Espresso and Instaurator from Australia along with Caffe Artigiano from Canada held off a group of mainly US based roasters to finally claim victory in the over 6 hour long Brazil Cup of Excellence auction held today.

No one expected prices anywhere near this level even though the coffee had scored 95.85 by a prestigious international jury during the latest competition. Susie Spindler, the Executive Director of the program explained, “This was obviously one of those rare coffees that comes around once in a blue moon and should forever quench the discussion about whether Brazil can produce fantastic coffee.”

Thirty-six winning coffees were auctioned today to a group of bidders located all over the globe. The average lot price for all of the coffee was $4.75lb, multiple times the going rate for a coffee of even this quality.

The Roasterie Inc. from Kansas City, KS, Stumptown Coffee Roasters out of Portland OR, Ecco Café from Santa Rosa, CA, Kaffa from Oslo, Norway, and Maruyama Coffee from Japan were the triumphant roasters that placed the successful bids for lot #2. Maruyama Coffee also placed the winning bids for lot #3 and #5. World Coffee Co., Ltd., and Time’s Club Inc. from Japan were the victorious owners of lot #4 and #6 respectively.

The remaining coffees purchased by US roasters include; Cape Horn Coffees, San Antonio Coffee Roasters, Volcafe Specialty Coffee, Sweet Maria’s, Pacific Bay Coffee Roasting, The Ultimate Bean, Hunter Bay Coffee Roasters, and Intelligentsia. Japanese buyers consist of TOA Coffee Co., Ltd., Mikatajuku Group, Tashiro Coffee, Asahi Coffee, Nippon Coffee Trading Co., Ltd., Ogawa Coffee, Arab Coffee Co., Ltd., Caravan Coffee Co., Ltd., UCC Ueshima Coffee Co., Ltd., Bontain Coffee Co., Ltd., Wataru & Co., Ltd., Beans Coffee Sales, KATOCOFFEE Inc., Toho Coffee, Kyowa’s Coffee, and S. Ishimitsu & Co., Ltd. The European roasters are comprised of Mercanta The Coffee Hunters, Cafes Meo, Maison Blanche Dail, Andronicas Coffee Co. Ltd., Kaffebrenneriet AS, The Golden Coffee Box, Has Bean, Rehm & Co., Dethlefsen & Balk, Fortnum & Mason of Piccadilly, and finally Solberg & Hansen AS from Norway, which has purchased a lot in every auction. San Francisco Coffee from Malaysia and 49th Parallel Roasters from Canada complete the list of successful buyers.

The over $400,000 auction was Brazil’s seventh competition and the 22nd competition for the Cup of Excellence® program to date. To view the winning coffees, the buyers, or for more information about the program log on to www.cupofexcellence.org.