Contact: Susie Spindler
Email: susie@montana.com
Phone: 406-542-3509

For immediate release:

(San Salvador May 9, 2003), Thirty-one farms were awarded the Cup of Excellence® during a ceremony Friday evening May 9th. at the Radisson hotel in San Salvador. A packed ballroom of farmers, trade representatives, dignitaries and the press applauded the results of the first Cup of Excellence competition after days of waiting for the international jury to make their final selection.

Thirty one is the largest number of farms awarded the Cup of Excellence during a first time event.. Last year during Nicaragua's first event 23 farms came away with the award. The winning farms were chosen after a rigorous screening during the competition process. Each Cup of Excellence winning coffee had been cupped at least 5 different times with the top 10 highest scoring coffees cupped a sixth time in order to determine the top winner as well as those coffees which would receive the presidential award of merit. This additional award is presented to those scoring at least 90 points. The first place prize went to Finca Kilimanjaro owned by Everest , S. A de C. V. The Beneficio is San Miguel- Coex. This farmer also had another farm in the top 31 winners. The other two presidential award winners were Alvarez Prunera y Compañia with Finca Malacara Lote A and Francisco Arturo Alvarez Meza with finca Malacara Lote C. Both of these farms are affiliated with the same Beneficio; El Borbollon, S.A de C. These three winning farms are located on the Santa Ana volcano. All of the top ten and most of the 31 winning farms are the highly regarded Bourbon variety of coffee.

Many of the speakers at the event stressed the importance of this first competition and auction in helping change the direction of the El Salvador coffee industry. Susie Spindler, Executive Director of The Alliance for Coffee Excellence, Inc. the non profit organization which owns the Cup of Excellence program promised that "El Salvador's coffee industry would never be the same. The competition results have proven that El Salvador can stand proudly next to any specialty coffee producing country. There will now be many specialty coffee buyers who will visit these farms and beneficios looking for coffees of higher quality".

Ricardo Espetia, Executive Director of the Consejo Salvadoreño del Café agrees " Before the 1980's El Salvador was a well regarded quality origin, now after many years of silence we are finally coming out of the anonymity that was created when most of our coffees got lost in blends. The Cup of Excellence program has brought back the pride associated with producing a good quality product and producers now realize we have great potential, especially with the large percentage of Bourbon coffee that still grows here".

The 31 winning lots will be sold to the highest bidder on July 1. The previous date of June 24 has been changed to allow the coffee trade the opportunity to cup all of the winning samples. For information about the competition, all 31 winning farms, and to register for the auction and the Cup of Excellence community membership go to www.cupofexcellence.org.