The Cup of Excellence Program® is owned and maintained by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence, Inc. (ACE), a non- profit based in the United States, which in partnership with coffee organizations in host countries organizes competitions and subsequent auctions of the finest coffees grown in those countries. In a world where coffee growers are often paid pennies on the pound for their efforts, Cup of Excellence® recognizes and rewards quality coffees. An international jury of coffee professionals, as a result of at least five cuppings, chooses the winners in a particular country for that particular year.

In the United States drinking coffee was seen as patriotic after the spilling of tea into Boston Harbor. Later with the establishment of Prohibition in 1920 coffee sales boomed.

J. S Bach wrote his Coffee Cantata in praise of the beverage in 1732. The Contata includes the lines— “Ah! How sweet coffee tastes! Lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter far than Muscatel! I must have my coffee!”

In fifteenth century Constantinople a law was passed that allowed a woman to divorce her husband if he failed to provide her with her daily quota of coffee.

You might think you get a better buzz for the buck from that cup of espresso, but you would be wrong. After a four-minute brew in a French press, a six-ounce cup will deliver up to three times the caffeine as found in a short espresso. The longer the coffee spends in the brewing process the higher the caffeine content.

A Bit of Coffee History

Legend has it that the discovery of the effects of caffeine in coffee berries was first made by goats. As related in The Thousand and One Nights a Yemeni goat herder was dismayed by the non-stop energy displayed by his goats, especially at night when they should have been sleeping. He and the wise men in his village discovered that the goats were eating vast quantities of berries growing wild in the hills. The wise men tried the berries and got a kick. Man’s enjoyment of and addiction to caffeine had begun.