We Celebrate Our 4th Anniversary!

Happy birthday to BCE.

Our first issue went out via email May 26, 2000. We have enjoyed a fun and interesting four years, publishing this journal. We have learned much about the fascinating world of coffee, and our hope is that you have also.

Our goal in publishing this journal is still the same, to promote good coffee. We want to learn, educate, and entertain about our most wonderful beverage.

We owe our success to you, our readers. Thank you for your support.

To see all the old issues CLICK HERE and scroll down to Past Issues.

Robert

Colombians Urged to Drink More and Better Coffee (Their Own)

By JUAN FORERO

BOGOTÁ, Colombia, May 28 - Colombia may assert proudly that it grows the world's best coffee, but Eva Celeita knows that most of her fellow Colombians do not know how to brew a decent cup.

On a recent morning, standing next to an overhead projector at the National Federation of Coffee Growers, Ms. Celeita carefully explained how to make espresso to a group of young baristas embarking on careers as counter clerks making everything from cappuccinos to mochas to frozen coffee drinks at the federation's new franchise, Juan Valdez cafes.

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Starbucks' growth could drain coffee supply

By Hugo Miller, Bloomberg News
May 29, 2004

Starbucks Corp. may face a shortage of premium quality coffee to keep pace with store expansion plans in coming years.

"Long-term, we have concerns the supply will not be sufficient for our premium coffee needs," said Alain Poncelet, head of Starbucks Coffee Trading Co., in an interview in Lausanne, Switzerland. "We will need much more high-quality coffee in the future."

Starbucks buys its beans, grown in Latin America, the Pacific region and East Africa, through its Lausanne-based trading subsidiary.

The Seattle-based company plans to buy 225 million pounds of Arabica beans in 2007, "about 1.5 to 2 percent of current world production," up from 30 million pounds this year, Poncelet said.

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Coffee Drinking On A Reinvention Mode

APARNA RAMALINGAM
Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd

Meetings, Marxists, forums and rallies. Coffee clubs have been hotbeds for all this and much more. Many a revolutionary idea have sprung from coffee rooms. Why, the drink itself has gone through a metamorphosis over the years. Initially, coffee was used as a medicine and then as an ingredient for wine.

Over the years, coffee drinking and coffee bars have gone in for a complete makeover. In the United States for instance, coffee outlets can be rented for special occasions, meetings, seminars or other events.

Coffee houses in India are not far behind. In New Delhi, the Vasant Kunj outlet of Cafe Coffee Day has Book Cafe on its first floor. The Book Cafe is replete with books on lifestyle, cookery, sports, management fiction, non-fiction and a special section for children.

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Millrock Free Pour Latte Art Competition

Contestant Applications accepted Until May 29th.

Click here to download an application and competition rules,
or call (425)283-5058 ext.13

Coffee Fest is proud to present the second annual Las Vegas Free-Pour Latte Art Competition. The Millrock Free-Pour Latte Art Competition presented by Tea & Coffee Trade Journal will feature Barista from across the globe showing off their best free-pour art. Not just the traditional barista contest, this competition will expose the phenomenal potential of espresso art, and focuses on artistry and creativity rather than the mechanics of espresso extraction. Captured within each cup finished with Free Pour Latte Art is typically a taste sensation unlike most consumers have experienced. This is why the Latte Art Competition exists. To be able to create these beautiful patterns requires an advanced level of expertise and requires that the barista have a handle on all of the scientific factors that come together resulting in a drink that may taste nearly as good as fresh ground coffee smells. Coffee Fest would like to see Free Pour Latte Art take hold and spread across the country. A latte finished in this manner is visually stunning, and captured within is typically something incredibly special. All attendees and exhibitors are invited to watch the competition each morning beginning at 10:30am and running until noon.

Coffee Fest is still looking for more contestants - Barista interested in competing should complete and return the application or contact (425) 283-5058 ext. 13.

Application for the Las Vegas Latte Art Competition is for contestant consideration only. You will be notified on or before May 28th of your participation status.

1st place = $1,000 - 2nd place = $500 - 3rd place = $250

Send your application to Coffee Fest:
13555 SE 36th Street #230, Bellevue, WA 98006 or,
Fax: (425) 283-5061 :::: Phone: (425)293-5058 Ext 13
E-Mail: davidh@coffeefest.com

Nicaragua Coffee News: Smallholder, Organic Farmer Takes First Place in "Cup of Excellence ®" Competition

International Buyers Will Bid at July 1 Internet Auction

(CSRwire) TechnoServe/U.S. -- Twenty-nine Nicaraguan coffees -- 22 of them produced by small-scale farmers -- were selected as winners of Nicaragua's prestigious Cup of Excellence® competition on May 21 and will be offered for sale during the country's third annual Cup of Excellence® Internet auction, to be held July 1.

A total of 497 coffee samples were entered in the 2004 Cup of Excellence® competition in Nicaragua. National and international coffee experts evaluated the coffees based on such qualifications as the absence of defects, sweetness, acidity, flavor and balance. The first place winner, Daniel Canales, is a smallholder farmer affiliated with the PRODECOOP cooperative. The coffee from his Pueblo Nuevo, Esteli farm, and that of seven of his fellow winners, is certified organic. Daniel's, however, was grown at an unusually high altitude for Nicaraguan coffees (1,350 meters) and received the highest point-value score of 91.40 out of 100.

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2004 China (Shanghai) International Coffee Exhibition

Time: September 8-10, 2004
Venue: Shanghai World Trade Mall (Add: No.99 Xingyi Rd.)
Sponsor: China Light Industrial Information Center
Organizer: Shanghai World Trade Mall Co. Ltd.
Shanghai Shengding Exhibition Planning Co. Ltd.
Media Support: Xinmin Evening Daily, Shanghai Morning Daily, News Evening Daily and Shanghai Oriental TV Station
Co-organizer: Alibaba e-Commerce Website
overseas supportor:Taiwan coffee Association
Vietnam Coffee-Cocoa Association
Korea Office.
Shanghai Sheng Ding ECHIBITION SERVICE CO.,LTD
Add shanghai guilin road NO.565 Room2001
Tel +86-21-34141390 -807
Fax:+86-21-34141395
E-mail: duanxiaoli2010@hotmail.com

Brazil coffee barons target China

BBC News World Edition

Brazil's coffee industry is hoping to develop a lucrative new market by wooing China's 1.3 billion tea drinkers away from their favourite beverage.
Joao Antonio Lian, head of coffee exporters' body Cecafe, has called on the Brazilian government to help promote the drink in China.

He proposed sending free samples to China using government stocks.

Mr Lian's suggestion coincides with a trade visit to China by Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

He told Reuters that cost was the main factor hindering coffee sales in China, where annual consumption is limited to half a million 60 kilogramme bags - the standard unit in the international coffee trade.

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Peru battles beetle that saps coffee crop

Reuters
By Robin Emmott

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - In the Altomayo valley in northern Peru, coffee farmer Walter Pizango breaks open a ripe coffee cherry with his fingers to reveal a tiny beetle eating away at the bean inside, part of an invading army that is quietly destroying his coffee crop.

The dreaded borer beetle, which saps nutrients in coffee trees, cuts production and damages coffee quality, is becoming a plague across Peru, South America's No. 3 coffee producer.

The Altomayo valley in northern Peru is one of the worst affected and the problem, considered to be the worst in many years, could cost Peru's coffee industry $20 million in lost sales this year, according to the National Coffee Board, which represents growers.

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