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| A Revolution is Brewing...One Cup at a Time! Keurig, Inc. Offers Speed and Convenience with the Next Generation of At-Home Coffee Brewers
NOTE TO MEDIA: Multimedia assets available A photo is available at URL: Adaptive intelligence for a serious advantage: business, investment and technology- BizVantage! http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.093003/bb6 WAKEFIELD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 30, 2003--Perking is passe...dripping is done! Today, Keurig, Inc.(TM) ships the next big thing in brewing that will change the daily grind for more than 160 million American coffee drinkers with its groundbreaking new single-cup brewing system for the home. Keurig has perfected a superior system that brews great tasting gourmet coffee with astonishing ease and simplicity. Keurig has rapidly grown to be the leading single-cup office coffee brewing system in the U.S. Along with its gourmet coffee partners, Keurig now proudly brings the superior taste, convenience and variety of its innovative single-cup brewing system into the home. Keurig's patented single-cup brewing system lets people brew a perfect cup of gourmet coffee in less than a minute without the hassle of grinding beans, measuring coffee, handling filters or cleaning up. The Keurig Brewed(R) system takes away the guesswork and delivers a consistently perfect cup of coffee. Brewing gourmet coffee at home has never been so simple and convenient. "This is the next leap forward in the evolution of coffee brewing," said Nick Lazaris, President and CEO of Keurig. "Why brew a pot at a time, when we drink coffee a cup at a time? Coffee lovers always want the freshest cup of coffee -- the first cup from the pot. With the Keurig single-cup system, every cup is the first cup. The combination of Keurig Brewed patented single-cup brewing technology and over 30 gourmet coffee varieties from our licensed coffee roaster partners uniquely positions the Keurig system to deliver a superior coffee experience. We call it: Brewing Excellence One Cup At A Time(R)." The Keurig System The Keurig System consists of a Keurig Single-Cup Brewer and a K-Cup(R). The brewing actually takes place inside the patented Keurig K-Cup. The K-Cup is impermeable to oxygen, moisture and light and contains an individual paper filter cone with the exact amount and grind of coffee from one of Keurig's gourmet coffee partners. To brew a cup, a user simply places a K-Cup of their choice into the brewer, which is designed to consistently deliver the exact amount of water at the correct temperature and pressure to extract the optimum coffee flavor. A perfect cup of coffee is brewed at the touch of a button and in less than a minute. Because each cup is individually brewed, the Keurig system allows a coffee drinker to select the coffee of their choice from over 30 gourmet coffees that are currently available for the Keurig System. Keurig's gourmet roasting partners include Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Diedrich Coffee, Gloria Jean's, Timothy's, Van Houtte and in Asia, UCC. "Our roaster partners decided to package their freshly roasted and ground gourmet coffees in K-Cups because no other form of packaging that they use guarantees that when people brew gourmet coffee, the resulting cup of coffee will taste the way the roaster intended," said Lazaris. "Keurig Brewed technology protects the freshness of the coffee and controls all of the variables relating to the brewing process and therefore insures taste consistency. The fact that many of the premier gourmet roasters in America have selected Keurig as a partner is testimony to the quality of our single-cup brewing technology." In addition to coffee, Keurig now lets tea drinkers brew a fresh single cup of gourmet tea in under one minute with the addition of the following tea brands: Celestial Seasonings, Timothy's, Bigelow and Gloria Jeans. There are 20 gourmet tea varieties available in K-Cups. "The Keurig Brewed system will revolutionize the way people brew coffee and tea at home -- just as it has in the office," said Lazaris. "In just seconds, coffee and tea lovers can enjoy the gourmet taste of their favorite brand of freshly brewed coffee or tea, at home, effortlessly -- without waste, mess or cleanup." Lazaris added that Keurig's success in the office market indicates that there is enormous potential for Keurig Brewed systems in the home market where about 70% of all coffee is brewed. Keurig introduces the Model B100 Keurig Single Cup Brewer at a suggested retail price of $249.95. Keurig also launches several introductory consumer direct marketing programs in cooperation with Keurig's roasting partners and office distributor network. The Keurig Brewer and K-Cups will be available on the Internet at www.keurig.com, and through participating roaster and office distributor network partners. About Keurig Inc.(TM) Keurig introduced its patented brewing single-cup system in 1998, when Green Mountain Coffee Roasters was licensed to pack its specialty coffees in Keurig's patented container called the K-Cup(R). In 2000, Keurig partnered with coffee roasters Diedrich Coffee and Gloria Jean's. In 2001, Timothy's World Coffee of Canada and Van Houtte of Canada joined the Keurig family of roasters. In 2001, Keurig also entered into a joint venture with Ueshima Coffee Company (UCC) of Japan for exclusive distribution in Japan and nine other Asian countries. In 2003 Celestial Seasonings, Timothy's, Bigelow and Gloria Jeans began offering their gourmet specialty teas in Keurig's patented K-Cups. Keurig's patented technology allows individuals to brew their preferred variety of fresh coffee on demand in just under a minute. Keurig is the leading single-cup coffee system in the U.S. office coffee service market. Over 40,000 Keurig brewers are now placed in offices and food service establishments in North America and Japan, with over 13 million cups of Keurig Brewed(R) coffee consumed in an average month. For more information, visit the Web site at www.keurig.com or phone 1-888-CUP-BREW. Note: A photo is available at URL: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.093003/bb6
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