Posted on March 16, 2007 - by deCadmus

I Double Dog Dare You to Outbid Me!

Paradise Roasters, a true Mom n’ Pop (and son) coffee roastery, has been rackin’ up the accolades over at Kenneth Davids’ Coffee Review, and was recently picked as one of the country’s best boutique coffee roasters by Food & Wine magazine. They’re winning fans far beyond the ten thousand (frozen) lakes of their home in Minnesota by keeping it simple: they source the best damn coffee that money can buy, and roast-to-order in small batches.

Paradise Roasters purchased an amazing micro-lot coffee — last year’s entire crop was less than 1000 pounds — from Reynel Perez, a small-holder coffee farmer in Planadas, way up in the mountains of Tolima in southern Colombia. The entire lot — save for just five pounds — sold out within weeks after earning a whopping 96 points on Coffee Review –

Exhilaratingly intense but roundly sweet-toned aroma: black cherry, flowers, milk chocolate, with an underlying cedar-toned crispness. Sweet flowers and cherry dominate in the cup with an almost symphonic richness of tone. Medium bodied but silky mouthfeel. The floral notes linger into the farthest reaches of the finish.

I believe that’s the highest mark — and certainly the loftiest prose — I’ve ever seen in Ken’s reviews. I really want to taste this coffee.

Here’s the deal:

That five pound reserve of the Colombia Tolima – Reynel Perez is now being offered in a Dutch auction on eBay, with 100% of the proceeds going direct to Coffee Kids. I’m a huge fan of Coffee Kids. They’re easily the hardest working, biggest hearted non-profit organization I know. Founder Bill Fishbein and his team work tirelessly to improve the lives of children and families in coffee-growing communities the world over. And I’d love to win some of this coffee and help Coffee Kids at the same time.

What I want *you* to do is make me work for it. I’m not asking you to shill up this auction, but to pump it up with real bids that will put more dollars toward the efforts of Coffee Kids. In the best of all worlds, you win, I win, and Coffee Kids wins, too. And if you manage to contribute toward a bidding frenzy that knocks me out of my winning position, than I’ll have the warm comfort of knowing that Bill’s organization came out the better for it, and the bittersweet taste of knowing that somebody else is drinking my coffee!

So, outbid me! I double dog dare you.

P.S. Just to make sure you know I’m walkin’ the talk… if I don’t win I’ll make a direct contribution to Coffee Kids equal to my top bid.