JUAN
VALDEZ SET TO BREW
HOUSTON CHRONICLE 12/12
What would Juan Valdez have to say? Tired of exporting
low-value green coffee bags, Colombian coffee officials
want to diversify their product and plan to sell soft
drinks and energy drinks made from coffee beans.
Gabriel Silva, general manager of Colombia's Coffee Federation,
said coffee connoisseurs worldwide will soon start seeing
on supermarket shelves Coffee Kola, a soft drink prepared
with 100 percent Colombian coffee. Silva also announced
plans to make a drink also based on Colombian coffee to
attract younger consumers.
He
did not give a date for the launch of the two new drinks
but said they are part of the Federation's drive to
sell more processed coffee in search of added value.
With low prices of coffee ruining growers, the federation
in recent years has launched instant coffee, gourmet
coffee shops and in 2004 plans to begin selling abroad
premeasured coffee filter bags. Each bag will have a
price of 20 cents and will be prepared in a specially
made Juan Valdez coffee machine that will cost between
$15 and $20, Silva said. Juan Valdez is the happy-go-lucky,
mustachioed fictional farmer who has symbolized Colombian
beans for decades.
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