FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Andy Newbom, Chief Espresso Officer
Barefoot Coffee Roasters, Inc.
phone: 408-293-7200
email: andy@barefootcoffee.com

or
Susie Spindler Executive Director
Alliance for Coffee Excellence, Inc.
Email: susies@cupofexcellence.org
Phone: 406-542-3509

Bay Area Coffee Roaster selected as judge in

2008 Guatemala Cup of Excellence® competition

Barefoot Coffee Roasters’ Andy Newbom selected as only Bay Area judge of prestigious Cup of Excellence competition in Guatemala May 8^th through 12^th 2008.

San Jose, CA, April 24th, 2008 – The Cup of Excellence is the most stringent and prestigious coffee competition in the world. Judges are hand selected from coffee professionals around the world. Judging at a Cup Of Excellence competition involves three to four eight hour days of intense and non stop cupping of hundreds of remarkable coffees. To be invited to judge in the Cup of Excellence is a high honor and only a handful of judges are invited each year. Andy Newbom of Barefoot Coffee Roasters has been selected to be a judge for the 2008 Guatemala Cup Of Excellence May 8^th through the 12^th.

Mr. Newbom will be arriving early to Guatemala on the 6^th in order to visit several farmers and mills in Antigua. Joining him in Guatemala City will be Edwin Martinez, owner of Finca Vista Hermosa coffee farm in Huehuetenango which Barefoot Coffee has bought direct from for the last four years. Edwin Martinez is hoping for a repeat of the last few years where their coffee placed in the top ten in the Cup Of Excellence.

“Finca Vista Hermosa produces remarkable coffees and deserves to be in the top.” Expressed Andy Newbom, Barefoot Coffee. “In 2007 Barefoot bought the other half of the Cup of Excellence lot from Finca Vista Hermosa and we fell in love with the amazing flavors and hope to win the Cup Of Excellence lot this year!”

Susie Spindler, executive director of Cup of Excellence anticipates that 2008 will once again bring high average prices for the winning coffees sold at auction. Since its inception in 1999, the price per pound has steadily increased to reach $6.11 in 2007. In just the past four years the average price per pound has increased nearly 75% from $4.56 to $6.11.

“Attention to quality on the part of the growers, coupled with increased competition from buyers around the world has helped Cup of Excellence winning farmers receive more money for their efforts,” added Spindler. In response to the marketplace momentum, the opening price for all auctions will be increased this year.

With its continued success, international jury participation has strengthened as well. To date, juries for most competitions are already full, with waiting lists for some countries.

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 since 2002 in partnership with CommoditiesOne, a leading software development firm. For more information about the Cup of Excellence program, or to become a member log on to http://www.cupofexcellence.org

The 2008 Cup of Excellence schedule is as follows:

Costa Rica: International Competition April 7-11; Auction May 15.

Nicaragua: International Competition, April 14-18; Auction May 27.

El Salvador: International Competition April 21-25; Auction June 5.

Guatemala: International Competition May 8-12; Auction June 12.

Honduras: International Competition May 19-23; Auction July 8.

Rwanda: International Competition August 25-29; Auction October 14.

Colombia: International Competition Sept. 15-19; Auction October 28.

Bolivia: International Competition October 6-10; Auction November 25.

Barefoot Coffee Roasters, Inc. is a cafe and roastery in the heart of Silicon Valley operating in the old ways of hands-on craftsmanship. While still keeping it simple; taking great coffee, crafting it with pride and passion and treating the whole coffee experience as a culinary art while operating sustainably from top to bottom. The team has been ranked as one of the top four boutique roasters in the nation by Food and Wine Magazine and is the Bay Areas most award winning artisan roaster. Barefoot is an artisan roaster of sustainable coffees including Organic, Fair Trade, Shade Grown, co-op grown, single estates, auction winning lots and relationship coffees. Located at 5237 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Santa Clara, CA (at the corner of Lawrence Expressway). For more information, please call (408) 293-7200, visit www.barefootcoffee.com or simply drop by.

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Barefoot Coffee was invited to participate in the 2008 Ethiopian Limited Coffee Competition and Q Roundtable Conference. This is a fantastic opportunity to improve our relationships in Ethiopia, learn more about the coffee processing and farming of several different regions and visit the birthplace of coffee. This is an honor and a priveledge and we are thankful for the opportunity.

Coffee roaster Dominic Taylor is the lucky soul who is in Ethiopia right now helping with the Q Roundtable Conference. Tomorrow he is off to Djimma to visit a handful of farms and mills. During the next 9 days he will be visiting a dozen or so farms and several mills and doing pre-selection cuppings and screenings for the upcoming Ethiopia Limited Coffee Auction. This auction replaced the famous eCafe auction of former years.

The itinerary is below:

2008 Roundtable Conference, Djimma, Ethiopia

Sun. Feb. 17: Recommended date for arrival in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia.

Monday Feb 18:Q Buyers Forum - Addis Abeba.
The Coffee Buyer’s Forum is organized by the Coffee Quality Institute. The Forum has the objective to promote the concept of Q graded coffees in Ethiopia and to assist in the actual start of Q coffee trade.

So this morning at least one sleepy Barefootian is eagerly watching the Bolivia Cup Of Excellence auction. Barefoot is bidding on a few  lots of the incredibly tasty and wonderous Bolivian elixir. There were so many wonderful coffees this year it was hard to make a choice. But we did in fact narrow our selection down to our top three coffees and are furiously bidding for them as we speak.

Here are the Bolivian farmers watching the auction live in Bolivia! Super cool!

Stay tuned today for updates on the auction progress!