FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bolivia’s Best Coffee Back in the Spotlight

Missoula MT. (November 8, 2007) - After a year hiatus the Cup of Excellence® program returned to Bolivia last month and in a packed bus terminal auditorium in the city of Coroico, 26 awards were handed out to excited farmers. The winning farm owned by two farmers received 11th place in the 2005 contest and moved to first in 2007 due to a concentrated effort on improving quality. Both Mario Mamani Mamami and Raymond Yanarico plan to use the anticipated auction returns to buy more land and reforest their plantation.

A 23-year-old first generation farmer took second place. Juanco Manami Huanco started farming when she was 16 and now manages a very small 6 hectare farm. She competed in the 2005 contest but did not place and has since focused on better farming methods. Both the third and fourth place farmers, Braulio Luque Yana and Nicolás Carrasios are new comers to the Cup of Excellence® competition process. All four are presidential winners with scores over 90 points.

All of the winning coffees come from small farms with most located in the Caranavi region of Bolivia. Twenty of the Twenty-six winners are certified organic and many are members of cooperative groups. Several of the winning lots contain an unusual coffee varietal named Corillo.

These four and the rest of the 26 winning farmers will watch the internet in anticipation on November 15th to see how high the prices will go as roasters worldwide bid against each other for the chance to own these coffees. Bolivian Cup of Excellence® coffees have historically received extremely high prices overall and it is expected that this year will be no different.

Detailed farm information for all of the winners has been posted on the Cup of Excellence® site www.cupofexcellence.org. This is the 36th program for Cup of Excellence where hundreds of small farmers have received record prices for their exemplary coffees. This Bolivia auction will be the last COE auction for 2007 as the Brazil program has been postponed.

Since it’s beginnings in 1999, the Cup of Excellence® program has hosted programs in Brazil, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Bolivia and Colombia. The Cup of Excellence® program is managed by the non-profit Alliance for Coffee Excellence, Inc. The state of the art Cup of Excellence® auction has been managed in partnership with CommoditiesOne, a leading software development firm since 2002. For more information about the Cup of Excellence® program or to become a member log on to www.cupofexcellence.org.