COFFEE BEAN & TEA LEAF and ADOPT-A-CLASSROOM CHARITY

THE COFFEE BEAN & TEA LEAF HAS UNIQUE PARTNERSHIP WITH
ADOPT-A-CLASSROOM CHARITY, SUPPORTS OVER 350 CLASSROOMS
THROUGHOUT SOUTHWEST UNITED STATES

Los Angeles -Based Specialty Coffee and Tea Retailer Has Donated $175,000 to
Area Elementary Schools, Making it One of the Charity’s Biggest Supporter to Date;
Will Adopt 151 Classrooms This Coming School Year

LOS ANGELES, September 5, 2006 – While kids around the country are going back to school, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® is continuing its commitment to giving back to schools. Partnering with national non-profit Adopt-A-Classroom, the Los Angeles based specialty coffee and tea retailer announced today that it will adopt 151 classrooms throughout California, Nevada and Arizona. This support is in addition to the 200 classrooms the organization has adopted in past years. In doing so, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf ® will be donating $500 to each classroom for a total donation of $175,000 since the company began its relationship with the charity in late 2004.

In business since 1963 with more than 400 stores worldwide, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® has a philanthropic mission to give back to the communities in which it does business. With those core values in mind, dozens of stores in The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® chain have chosen to participate in the Adopt-A-Classroom program – providing direct, tangible resources to neighborhood schools and positively impacting more than 25,000 children each year. And with the company’s continued support in 2006, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf ® will have impacted more than 75,000 students by the start of this school year.

“This program is a perfect fit for our company,” said Ellen Belot, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® community relations manager who initialized the partnership with Adopt-A-Classroom. “It empowers teachers with tangible resources and is especially close to our team members’ hearts.” Added James Rosenberg, Executive Director and Founder of Adopt-A-Classroom, “The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf has adopted more classrooms than any other company to date and it has made a significant impact at the local school level. Research shows that teachers spend approximately $1,200 of their own money each year to buy supplies for their classroom. This continued relationship will not only be helping the children, but the teachers that need crucial teaching aids, as well. We are thrilled about the difference their donations are making.”

The process for adopting a classroom is as follows: each participating The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® store selects a teacher and his/her classroom from the local community, then donates $500 to Adopt-A-Classroom. Adopt-A-Classroom then creates a merchandise credit of $500 for the specific classroom The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® store has chosen. The teacher orders resources to enrich the classroom and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® store gets an invoice that shows how the donation was spent. Throughout the school year, the teacher, students and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® employees correspond with each other, sharing e-mails, letters and art work.

About Adopt-A-Classroom

Adopt-A-Classroom is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide all children equal access to a quality education. The program accomplishes its mission by empowering teachers with community partners and funds to purchase resources and materials necessary to transform their classrooms into vibrant centers of learning. For more information, visit www.adoptaclassroom.com .

About The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

Founded in 1963, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is the oldest and largest privately held chain of specialty coffee and tea stores in the United States. With a reputation for excellence, the company is a leader in product innovations, having developed the original Ice Blended ® . The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf â serves more than 100 million coffee and tea beverages annually worldwide. Providing the highest quality coffees and teas for more than forty years, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf â currently has over 400 stores in California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Brunei, Indonesia, UAE, Israel, Australia, China, Kuwait, Egypt, Qatar, and the Philippines and continues to expand both domestically and internationally. 243 of the stores are company owned; 190 are domestic. For more information, visit www.coffeebean.com .