We would like thank you and the associate members of Brazil Specialty Coffee Association for all the assistance and courtesies extended to our coffee sales staff, Miki and Ishizaki.

Alfenas, Brazil (October 1, 2003). One more journey towards coffee excellence started on Monday (Sep. 29). For those buyers looking for quality coffees, an amazing number to choose from will be available this year.

The SCAE’s recent site visit to the largest coffee origin brought a mixed group of coffee specialists directly into contact with Brazil’s specialist growers on some of the most advanced coffee farms in the world.

June 6th to June 16th 2003.

WE MADE IT!!

• Nine days on the ground.
• Two days in the air.
• Nine Brazil Specialty Coffee Association member farms visited.
• Three states visited.
• Thousands of kilometres traveled: Bus, car, jeep, internal flight and even a boat trip.

Twelve souls and our most elegant, educated and un-flappable guide, Edgard Bressani - the complete ambassador for the BSCA and Brazil in general.

The Brazil Cup of Excellence Internet auction set a new high price record this year. The winning coffee lot from the #1 farm was sold for a US$12.85 per pound to Maruyama Coffee. Mr. Maruyama, a Japanese roaster who fought off several last minute bids exclaimed "when I found out I won the lot I was very, very happy and now I can share this wonderful coffee with my customers. I thank the farmers who put such energy into all these excellent coffees".

"I have spent the last two weeks touring the world's largest producer of raw coffee; Brazil. This year (crop 2002) Brazil produced enough coffee to fulfil 45% of the world's total coffee consumption."

"Brazil is a well known producer of quantity; perhaps less well known as a producer of exceptional estate quality coffee. People continually try to categorise and over simplify things - but consider a country as vast and diverse as Brazil with production typically in the 30-40 million bag range (of course, even more this year) and then ask; is this coffee really all the same? Of course not. Even if only 2-3% is fine estate grade; we are still talking about a considerable quantity of top quality, traceable, estate grown coffee."

The winning producers of the 2002 Edition of the Cup of Excellence® Competition received their awards during a ceremony in the American Chamber of Commerce, in the city of São Paulo.