Coffee cake is one of those things I don't make too often. Not for lack of love, but more because I love it TOO much. When I make a coffee cake, I'll spend the next week picking at it every chance I get, until I realize that the whole sum of my calories for the week is about 90% sugar and flour. This is one of those coffee cakes you'll want to pick at, or, if you're like me, share with people you need to show love to. I took this cake to the nurses on the ICU ward at a hospital in San Antonio. They were tirelessly caring for my father post heart surgery. If men and women like that don't deserve a little extra sugar and Green Mountain Coffee® Fair Trade Island Coconut® coffee in their life, I don't know who does.

Speaking of Fair Trade Island Coconut, it is absolutely vibrant in this coffee cake. Adding delectable coconut flavor without altering the perfectly dense cakey texture you expect when you bite into a coffee cake. Now that's what I'm talking about! I can also attest that a steaming mug (with half and half for me, please!) is wonderful along-side this cake for an afternoon treat. Make Fair Trade Island Coconut Coffee Cake for someone you love, as a thank you, or simply to put smiles on your coworkers' faces. You won't regret it.

Fair Trade Island Coconut Coffee® Cake

makes 1 bundt cake

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar

2 egg yolks, well beaten

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup evaporated milk

1/3 cup cooled Fair Trade Island Coconut® coffee

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or a large mixing bowl, cream butter. Add brown sugar and egg yolks and mix again, until light, fluffy, and completely combined. In a separate, smaller bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. Whisk together to combine and aerate, then set aside.

In a measuring cup, combine evaporated milk, cooled Fair Trade Island Coconut coffee and vanilla extract. Stir together until completely combined.

Add the flour mixture and the coffee mixture in alternating increments to the butter mixture, beating between each addition until fully incorporated. Set aside.

In a small bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form. (Peaks should not fall when mixer is pulled out of the egg whites.)

Gently fold stiff egg whites into cake batter until just combined.

Spray a bundt pan generously with cooking spray or grease with butter and sprinkle with flour. Pour batter into the pan as evenly as you can, then use a spatula to distribute as needed.

Tap the pan on the counter to even out the top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until cake is deeply golden and when poked with a toothpick, it comes away clean.

Allow to cool completely. Glaze if desired.

Notes

To make a glaze, combine 1/4 cup powdered sugar and up to 4 tablespoons of cooled Island Coconut coffee. Beat with a whisk until a smooth, liquidy glaze forms. Pour over cooled cake and allow to soak in before indulging.

If you’ve got a Keurig® K-Cup® or Vue® brewer, there are lots of options for trying something new to “Renew Your Brew.” Things like flavored coffees – Limited Edition Island Coconut comes to mind – and Brew Over Ice flavors like lemonade, iced coffee, and iced tea. (You did know that every Keurig® brewer can make iced beverages, right?)

The point is, single-serve packs are a really convenient way to enjoy a great cup of coffee any time of day. But being able to use your brewer to make iced coffee, iced tea, lemonade and other fruit drinks is a little like discovering that your washing machine can also fold and do ironing. Sigh…if only.

So in case you need a little more motivation, here are 10 Ways to Renew Your Brew that you may see floating around as you travel through cyberspace in the next few weeks. And if you do try something new – beverage related or not – please leave a comment; we’d love to hear about it.

10 Ways to Renew Your Brew

1. Start chillin’ with your Keurig® brewer. Enjoy iced coffee, iced tea, and more.

2. Raise a mug to Mom. Order a special Mother’s Day Brewer Bundle to make her morning easy.

3. Think outside the bean. Try Brew Over Ice lemonade by Green Mountain Naturals® and other fruit brews.

4. Stockpile your favorite flavors with 15% off storewide, now through May 7. Just use keycode RENEWBREW at check-out.

5. Give a gift of good taste to someone special (see #4 regarding storewide sale).

6. Take a sip to paradise with Green Mountain Coffee® Island Coconut® seasonal coffee.

7. Get a special delivery. Café Express® members enjoy regular automatic delivery of their favorite items AND save 15% on every order.

8. Get a newer brewer. Check out the Keurig® Vue® V500.

9. Make time for tea with Bigelow and Celestial Seasonings K-Cup® and Vue® packs.

10. Try something new to you. Fair Trade Certified™ selections, Tully’s Hawaiian Blend, and more!

You know where to find all these great options, but here’s a shortcut to get you started: www.GreenMountainCoffee.com

We believe that our products can be sourced, designed, and manufactured in ways that are good for people and good for the environment. We strive for balance in the way we engineer our 

products. We engage with players throughout our value chain to understand the social and environmental impacts of our business and our industry.  In addition, as a leader in beverages with a positive social impact — particularly Fair Trade coffee — we can encourage consumers to use their purchasing power to support more sustainable products across the entire beverage industry.

During fiscal 2012, we worked to reduce waste and and energy. We continued to make progress toward our reduction targets for energy use and waste to landfill, even as our business growth has challenged those efforts. We have coupled our support of coffee from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms with consumer education campaigns that demonstrate the benefits for farmers and for the environment using a model that generates consumer demand for certified coffees. 

As our business grows, we hold fast to our belief that our responsibility is to create sustainable products that help us to brew a better world.

Some other key accomplishments include:

• More than tripling the amount of waste chaff, burlap, coffee, powder, and tea that we composted, and increased recycling of corrugated boxes, boxboard, paper, and plastics by 50% in its facilities, compared to the previous year.
• Being ranked the largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certified™ coffee in the world for the second year running by Fair Trade USA (2010, 2011)
• Selling 11 million pounds of coffee from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms

We're committed to creating a higher quality of life for our coffee communities all over the world, and a better cup of coffee for you. That's why we're excited to announce that one of our best-selling and most loved coffees, Green Mountain Coffee® Nantucket Blend®, is now one hundred percent Fair Trade Certified™!

That’s right. One hundred percent fair trade!

This means approximately five million pounds of our coffee will switch to being fair trade this fiscal year alone!  That's almost $1 million in fair trade social premiums that go back to the farmers each year.  Named the world’s largest purchaser of Fair Trade coffees in 2010 and 2011, this is just another step in toward our commitment to support fair trade - and other opportunity to share the great quality and familiar tastes that a conversion of such a beloved coffee can do for fans!

Take part in our quest to do good and pop in a Fair Trade Nantucket Blend K-Cup® in your Keurig® brewer.  Brew a Better Day™!

Here in our PR team, we love our coffee. Is anyone really surprised? It’s our life’s work! Even though we have so many different varieties of to choose from, each of us has that one blend that brews up something special in our hearts. Take a look at some of our teams' favorite coffees:

Elizabeth- “My go-to coffee is Green Mountain Coffee® Nantucket Blend.  I think it’s well-balanced and combines my favorite flavor notes from each region - berry from Africa, citrusy from Central America, and full-bodiedness from Indonesia.  It’s neither too light nor too dark, so it’s a good go-to in the morning when I’m not awake enough to decide what I want!”

Jessica- “My favorite right now has to be French Vanilla by Green Mountain Coffee®. I love vanilla as a flavor in general and it adds a creamier body to the coffee, which you don’t get with a lot of other blends."

Amy- “My favorite coffee is Green Mountain Coffee® Colombian Fair Trade Select. I’m a little personally biased on this one, because I was lucky enough to visit several coffee farms in Colombia last year, and meet the producers and their families. My experience was incredible, and it makes that cup of coffee all the more delicious.”

What's your go-to blend?

We are excited to announce the release if our eighth annual sustainability report, outlining our environmental and social performance for fiscal 2012. The report details the our long-standing commitment to sustainability and unveils a new focus on three specific practice areas: Resilient Supply Chain, Sustainable Products, and Thriving People and Communities.

In the report, we announce that purchases of Fair Trade Certified™ coffees represented over 50 million pounds, or five million more pounds than fiscal 2011. In 2011, Fair Trade USA ranked GMCR the largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certified^TM coffee in the world for the second year running.

We delivered a 46% increase in net sales in 2012 while also improving energy efficiency, recycling more waste, and reducing the proportion of waste sent to the landfill. Highlights of the fiscal 2012 report include:

• - We more than tripled the amount of waste chaff, burlap, coffee, powder, and tea that it composted, and increased recycling of corrugated boxes, boxboard, paper, and plastics by 50% in its facilities, compared to the previous year.
• - Over $10 million in grant money was allocated to supply-chain communities, including food security projects for over 20,000 coffee-farming families around the world.
• - The Company maintained an employee retention rate of approximately 90%.
• - Sixty-five percent of full-time employees volunteered through a company-sponsored program called Café Time, which allows employees up to 52 paid hours per year to volunteer.

The report also highlights our goals for fiscal 2013, which include continuing financial support for projects addressing food security in coffee-growing communities, increasing the sourcing of sustainable coffees, and further reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills.

Read the full Sustainability report our website at www.gmcr.com/sustainability.

Pi Day is celebrated on March 14^th to celebrate Pi (π); the symbol used in math to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, which is approximately 3.14 (or March 14^th!). What better way to celebrate Pi Day than with pie paired with a mug full of Green Mountain Coffee®? We asked a few members of our Coffee Department what their favorite pie/coffee combinations were – and we have 3.14 responses for you!

Patrick, Coffee Generalist - “My favorite pie would have to be chocolate cream pie with a big mug of  Dark Magic® to wash it down.  The robust chocolaty roast notes from Dark Magic compliment the sweet, creamy, chocolate pudding in the chocolate cream pie perfectly to me. “

Brent, Coffee Generalist - “I’m all about the pumpkin pie with a nice large mug of the Kenya AA.  They balance each other perfectly.”

Patty, Coffee Product Manager - “I love banana cream pie with a nice crisp, flaky, butter pie crust to it, and some Organic Sumatran Reserve  or Fair Trade Organic French Roast. I love to drink my coffee from a China cup and saucer or a porcelain mug.”

Cozy Sunday afternoons by the fire. That's what February means to me. We're hunkered down here in New Jersey, where it was 16°F when I woke up this morning. That's some serious cold, my friends.

When it's that cold, there's just nothing for it - except maybe that cozy fire, a hot cup of Fair Trade Golden French Toast® coffee, and the scent of delicious, buttery shortbread studded with coffee wafting from your oven. 

The recipe is simple - no eggs required. You might want to grab your coffee or spice grinder. While Fair Trade Golden French Toast comes pre-ground, you might want a finer grind for your shortbread. We used as-is from the bag, and the tender shortbread is perfect in my opinion. Just know that it's your call to make a finer grind.

Traditional shortbread also contains oats, did you know? Don't skip them here. They take on buttery notes from the Fair Trade Golden French Toast coffee, and make this shortbread an extra special treat. 

Fair Trade Golden French Toast Shortbread

Makes one 8" x 10" pan

Ingredients

1 cup oats (not quick cooking)

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into smaller chunks

1 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/8 to 1/4 cup ground Green Mountain Coffee® Fair Trade Golden French Toast coffee

Directions

1. Pour oats into the bowl of a food processor and pulse 3 to 5 times, until oats have been somewhat pulverized. 

2. Add chunked butter, sugar, kosher salt, and all purpose flour to the food processor. 

3. Pulse ingredients 3 to 5 times, then add your desired amount of coffee. Remember to separately grind the coffee finer, if you prefer the grounds to be smoother in your shortbread. 

4. Process all the ingredients together for 1-2 minutes, until a smooth dough forms. You will hear a change in the food processor when everything suddenly comes together in one large piece of dough. 

5. Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour, or overnight if you prefer. 

6. When the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8" x 10" baking sheet with parchment paper, or lightly spray a shortbread mold with cooking spray. 

7. Press the dough into the baking sheet or shortbread mold, taking care to make the dough as even as possible across the pan. Sometimes it can help to use a drinking glass like a rolling pin to push the dough where you need it to be. 

8. If using a baking sheet, score the cookies into rectangles using a knife or bench scraper - press all the way through the dough, making rectangles that are about 4 inches long each. (One division of the dough down the long side of the pan, in the center, and then smaller, 1" wide cuts horizontally is what I did.)

9. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the cookies are golden brown. 

10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then turn the cookies out onto a clean surface and cut through the score marks. It is easier to cut the cookies when they are slightly warm. Allow them to cool on a wire rack after cutting. 

Want to win some Golden French Toast to try in your own shortbead recipe?  Go on over to my blog, Bluebonnets & Brownies, to see how to enter!

Oh, Valentine’s Day. You can smell the love in the air! Or is it just Green Mountain Coffee® brewing? While a mug of one of our coffees is delicious alone, when put together with the right foods, they are irresistible – much like your special someone, we’re sure. Here is a list of some of the food and coffee pairings we love, and we're sure you’ll love, too.

Green Mountain Coffee® Breakfast Blend and blueberry pancakes are a morning delight.  Breakfast is in the title of this light roasted coffee for a reason! This duo is perfect for starting your morning off right.

Green Mountain Coffee® French Roast  and almond biscotti are a perfect snack to get you through the day. The almonds in this treat play very well with the full-bodied and smoky taste of this coffee.

Green Mountain Coffee® Fair Trade Organic Sumatran Reserve  is at its best when paired with dark chocolate and cherry cupcakes. Is your mouth watering yet?  The rich taste of the Sumatran coffee’s chocolate and dark fruit undertones will only magnify with the help of these cupcakes.

Green Mountain Coffee® Guatemalan Finca Dos Marias™ goes nicely when matched with apples with a caramel dipping sauce. The sweetness of the caramel and the spicy notes of the Guatemalan roast will knock your socks off.

Green Mountain Coffee® Tanzanian Gombe Reserve is a great with a slice of cheesecake. Only a deep and rich cup like this could match the thick and creamy goodness of this dessert.

Take our advice and surprise your Valentine this year with one of our perfect pairings. What’s not to love?

Do you have a food that you love to drink with your Green Mountain Coffee®?

Happiness comes from lots of things in life; a smile from a stranger, an email from a friend, or your favorite seasonal Green Mountain Coffee® flavors - like Fair Trade Gingerbread and Fair Trade Spicy Eggnog - coming back into rotation.

I'd never made whoopie pies before, but I had my heart set on creating them using Fair Trade Gingerbread coffee since the moment we decided that would be this month's flavor. Can I tell you a secret? Whoopie Pies are now a full on obsession!

They're way easier than I ever imagined. You'll be able to bake up a dozen saucer-sized whoopie pies with tangy, creamy filling in no time at all. They'll make a fabulous impression beside all the sugar cookies and shortbread that make an appearance this time of year.

Imagine the oohs and ahs you'll garner when you present a tray of these festive Gingerbread Coffee Whoopie pies with Gingerbread Cream Cheese filling decorated with red, white, and green sprinkles!

Fair Trade Gingerbread Coffee Whoopie Pies with Gingerbread Cream Cheese Filling

Makes 12 saucer-sized pies

Ingredients

For the Pies

• 1/4 cup Green Mountain Coffee Fair Trade Gingerbread Coffee
• 1/4 cup butter flavored shortening
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (also known as graham flour)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup full flavor molasses
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

For the Filling

• 1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons Fair Trade Gingerbread Coffee
• Holiday Sprinkles (optional)

Directions

For the Pies

Brew one 4 oz cup of Green Mountain Coffee Fair Trade Gingerbread Coffee and set aside to cool. Preheat the oven to 375°F.

In a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, add vegetable shortening and softened butter, and mix on medium speed until well combined, scraping the sides of the bowl a few times. Add brown sugar and beat again until well mixed, then do the same with the egg.

In a separate medium mixing bowl, combine whole wheat pastry flour, kosher salt, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Stir with a whisk for one minute (this aerates the flour so there is no need to sift), then set aside.

Add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture in the large mixing bowl and mix on low speed to combine. Scrape the sides of the bowl often. When fully incorporated, add molasses to the mixture and mix on low speed again until fully combined.

Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix on low again. Scrape the sides of the bowl and make sure all the flour is mixed in. When this is done, add the buttermilk and cooled coffee and mix on low speed until these last two ingredients are well mixed-in.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, then, using a large cookie scoop or an ice cream scoop, spoon 6 portions of batter onto the sheet, well spaced apart as they will spread.

Remove cream cheese for the filling from the refrigerator at this time and leave it on the counter. It will soften while you bake off the pies. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove immediately.

Allow to cool on the baking sheet for a moment, then carefully peel the parchment paper away from each pie half. Place the cookie on a cooling rack to continue cooling, and continue baking the rest of the pies.

For the Filling

Once all the pies are baked and are cooling, begin to make the filling. In a medium bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, whip cream cheese on high for about a minute.

One cup at a time, sift the powdered sugar and add it to the cream cheese, mixing on low at first, then on high to fully incorporate and whip.

When all the powdered sugar is mixed in, add vanilla extract and Fair Trade Gingerbread Coffee to the mixture. Whip on medium speed until the filling reaches the consistency you'd like.

If you find the filling too thick for your liking, add half and half or whipping cream one tablespoon at a time, mixing after each tablespoon, until you reach your desired consistency.

Spoon filling onto one half of a whoopie pie and spread with the back of the spoon in a circular motion towards the outside of the cookie. Top with a second cookie and press slightly so that the filling is visible from the edges.

If you would like, hold the pie over a baking tray and lightly coat the filling with holiday sprinkles. The tray will catch any sprinkles that don't stick to the filling and make for easy clean up.

Refrigerate the pies until ready to serve, up to two days.

[Psst - if you go over to Bluebonnets & Brownies, there's a Gingerbread coffee giveaway going on, too!  Go on over and check-it out!]

Life is always interesting in the event marketing world, and you never know where the opportunities may take you or who you may be rubbing elbows with. From both a professional and personal standpoint, you can mark down the Green Mountain Coffee® sponsorship of the 46^th Annual Country Music Association (known as the CMAs to us fans) Awards in Nashville in the time-well-spent column.

In October, the Green Mountain Coffee brand sponsored a massive 2-day marathon of remote radio broadcasts preceding the Country Music Association Awards (CMA) Show in Nashville, TN. Personnel from 50 Country stations from around the U.S. were there, all part of the Clear Channel Premiere Radio Network. Naturally, all those radio personalities need people to interview, so also in attendance were over 100 of the biggest names in Country music today. Artists and bands like Faith Hill, Luke Bryan, Little Big Town and Kelly Clarkson were there, along with Tim McGraw, Reba McEntire, Miranda Lambert, Darius Rucker, Zac Brown Band, Eric Church, Lady Antebellum, Jason Aldean, Taylor Swift, and many more. Many of them enjoyed the unlimited access to our Keurig® sampling array and tasty lattes and cappuccinos served up by a talented local barista that we partnered with.  To say the least, it was an elbow rubbing time.

(My strictly un-scientific poll revealed that the Green Mountain Coffee Caramel Vanilla Cream K-Cup® packs were the belle of the ball, and seemed to be the variety of choice for many country fans.)

We also served free samples of great K-Cup® pack varieties like Fair Trade Organic Sumatran Reserve and Fair Trade Vermont Country Blend® to all the fans lined up in front of the hotel, waiting patiently for photos and autographs from some of their favorite Country stars. 

Another part of our sponsorship entailed working with a great new band called The Henningsens. The band is currently in the midst of a ten-city promotional tour, and are criss-crossing the country in a beautifully wrapped Green Mountain Coffee bus. Let us know if you happen to spy the bus in your area!

Hope to rub elbows with you at an event sometime soon…

We’re quickly approaching cooking season here in the United States.  Between turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie, we thought you'd like to hear about what some of our countries of origin for coffee eat to celebrate together.  Let's start with: Guinea Pigs in Peru, also known as cuy.

Jose Espiritu Pintado, President of Frontera de San Ignacio

It’s estimated that 65 million cuy are eaten every year in Peru. High in protein and low in fat, they can be fried, grilled, or roasted. They don’t take up much space.  They taste like rabbit and/or chicken and reproduce like the former. They’re so important to the diet of small coffee farmers in remote areas in Peru (which is most of Peru) that we’re funding a food security project to help raise more cuy. In the picture is my first experience with cuy in the town of San Ignacio, Cajamarca, Peru, near the border with Ecuador. We were visiting one of our best suppliers of Fair Trade Organic Peru, Frontera de San Ignacio. Like any good meat, it goes great with potatoes.

What do you cook to celebrate time with your family and friends?

The question: How best to generate excitement for a live stream concert in support of Fair Trade Month?

The answer: Rent a vacant storefront in Los Angeles, build a pop-up café, and invite Michael Franti to do an exclusive online concert for fans of the Green Mountain Coffee Facebook page. Bingo!

A beautiful venue was located, and the team went to work creating the fabulous “Great Coffee Good Vibes Lounge”. For two days we gave away Fair Trade favorites (like Fair Trade Organic Sumatran Reserve and Colombian Fair Trade Select) and after the end of the second day of non-stop sampling, the event culminated with an amazing live set by Franti and his longtime guitarist and collaborator J “Boogie” Bowman. The size and atmosphere of the venue were perfect for the intimate performance, and Franti wasted no time setting the tone and getting the small crowd to “make some noise”. Between songs he talked about the importance of Fair Trade and about some of the experiences he had during a recent trip to visit with coffee farmers in Sumatra. The vibe was special and electrifying, the music was phenomenal, and the message was spot-on. Fair Trade provides better coffee for you and a better life for farmers – pass it on …

You might think of Honduras as the country next to Nicaragua in Central America or where the great diving on Roatan Island is. But it is also the 8th largest grower of coffee in the world and grows more coffee than Guatemala. 

Honduras is one of our larger suppliers of Fair Trade Organic coffee and we were long overdue for a visit to see some of our suppliers down there. Last week we hosted 6 different coops for 2 days of cupping, meetings, plant tours, some tourism, and plenty of good food. 

One of the guests named Jose Danilo Mejia is the president of CARSBIL. His coop is based in the department of Intibuca, and the offices are in “The City of Hope” (Ciudad de la Esperanza). When I picked them up at the hotel, he and I hit it right off as he heard that I raise animals and do a lot of gardening. He was impressed, though he might be less impressed if he saw how non-profit my small farm in Vermont is. 

It turns out Jose Danilo is Lenca, a sub category of the Mayan races that populated (and still do) Mesoamerica. It’s amazing how many different indigenous groups there are who grow coffee that ends up in my cup of coffee. He shared a bunch of pictures from his community that I thought were very interesting:

He said that this school bus is actually run by the community for local transportation, where it’s mostly used by coffee farmers to get around. It was stuck in the mud… And in the second picture you can see why!

Last year they used their Fair Trade social premiums to build 14 kilometers of road to one of their remote communities. Here’s an example of an improved road in the third picture. 

This past May, I had the pleasure of travelling to Colombia with Grace Potter, to shoot the recently launched fair trade campaign “Great Coffee, Good Vibes, Pass It On”. If you’ve seen the videos from this trip, you’ll know that while in Colombia Grace met with local coffee producers, visited several farms, helped harvest coffee and charmed the locals with a very special live acoustic performance.

The videos capture the energy and essence of our trip beautifully, with a mélange of shots piecing together our adventures. What you don’t see are the adventures that happened off-camera. A lot can happen in four days, so here’s a little behind-the-scenes story of our travels...

The first day, we scouted El Porvenir – a small coffee farm located high in the hills of Popayan, owned by Flor Moreno – a lovely, soft-spoken lady who has been farming coffee her entire life. After trekking through hillsides covered in coffee trees, we settled into an evening dinner with officials from COSURCA – the area’s fair trade coffee cooperative. It was amazing to hear firsthand how fair trade has impacted their lives and their communities. They explained how coffee is the social fabric of Colombia and shared stories of family, politics, social economics, and visions for the future – plans for change, purpose and prosperity, not for some but for all.

The following day, Grace arrived in Colombia accompanied by her lovely mother, Peggy.  Upon meeting Grace, I was struck by two things: First, is that in-person Grace looks exactly like Heidi Klum. For some reason this isn’t as evident in photos, but in person it’s uncanny.  Second, I was struck by how genuinely nice Grace was. And it was genuine. Over our four-day shoot in Colombia, Grace wore a smile on and off-camera and provided constant comic relief to the crew, with a seemingly endless stream of witty one-liners.

In the days that followed we travelled to three different farms, met with dozens of coffee producers, their families and members of their communities.  On the final night, Grace performed an intimate, acoustic set for about 100 or so coffee producers and their families. People travelled for miles, some leaving their homes before dawn, to join us at a family-owned coffee farm. The farm seemed to be situated on top of the world and offered a 360 degree vista of breathtaking peaks and valleys, including the most northern reaches of the Andes.

As the sun set, Grace sat atop a massive tree stump under a small pavilion and began playing for a captivated audience. By the end of her fourth song, you could feel the energy, the good vibes, radiating from our small gathering. The family hosting the concert prepared an incredible traditional meal of roast pig, plantains and potatoes. After the performance, we made our way back to the monastery (our hotel), to begin packing for the following day’s trek home.

As I said, a lot can happen in four days. I didn’t tell you that our videographer broke his arm 10 minutes into shooting on our first day. Or that we had dinner with the Mayor. Another time perhaps!

I feel lucky that I have the opportunity to travel with my career, but even more lucky that I get to meet people from all over the world. People I would not have an opportunity to meet otherwise. There’s beauty in the unfamiliar, and travelling over the years has taught me to open my eyes and ears, and listen with my head and heart.

We love you, we love you, we love you! And Michael Franti, too!

Michael’s free live in concert kicks off tomorrow night, October 24 at 10:30 PM EST, on Green Mountain Coffee’s Facebook page! We'll be brewing up Sumatran Reserve as we soak in the melodic tunes in the Great Coffee, Good Vibes Lounge – some of us in L.A. to see Michael in person and some of us virtually from home, relaxing in our pajamas.

Remember: If you’re in Los Angeles tomorrow, October 24, 2012 visit 7111 Melrose Avenue and enjoy a free cup of Green Mountain Coffee® Fair Trade brews.  You never know who you’ll meet when the great coffee is flowing and the good vibes are all around!

Increasing demand for high-quality products that are sustainably produced is core to our business strategy. In fiscal 2011, we expanded our efforts to offer and promote products such as Fair Trade Certified™, Rainforest Alliance Certified™, and organic coffees, helping to widen adoption of socially and environmentally responsible business practices.

In fiscal 2011 we:
- increased the volume of sustainably certified coffees we sold from 25% to 28% - a significant gain considering that overall coffee sales increased by 52%
-continued to educate consumers, suppliers, and employees about the value and benefits of sustainable products, through the support of community outreach programs run by organizations such as Fair Trade USA

We also continued our commitment to our Farm Identified (Farm ID) program - a cornerstone of our sourcing strategy. Our Farm ID program is an alternative to conventional sourcing through the anonymous commodity market. It represents our overall commitment to working together with our supply-chain partners, and not simply buying from them. In fiscal 2011, 34% of the coffee we purchased was Farm Identified. A portion of this is also certified coffee; other Farm Identified suppliers are at the beginning of their journey to sustainable coffee production.

This past weekend was the 10^th Annual Let’s Talk Coffee, an annual event hosted by our friends at Sustainable Harvest (a coffee importer based in Portland, OR).  Every year, Sustainable Harvest brings together its own farmers, exporters, roasters (like us!), banks, non-profits, and other interested people for four days of coffee talk -- presentations, panels, round tables, business meetings, lots of coffee, and field trips to coffee farms. We were excited to finally meet some of the Arhuaco Indians from northern Colombia who are part of ASOANEI, one of our Fair Trade Organic suppliers.

Pictured are (me), Aurora Maria Izquierdo, her son Jorge, and Lindsey Bolger. They were as excited as we were that we were buying their coffee as they didn’t initially know who their buyer was. As a gift, Aurora gave Lindsey and me “assurance” bracelets – two small white cloth wrist bands with a little bead in each one (one white and one black). They were made in their community and blessed by their shaman (for lack of a better word) to make sure that we didn’t forget them nor stop buying coffee from them. Rest assured, I won’t forget: it was the highlight of my visit.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  And yes, I am singing that line - because right now is Fair Trade Pumpkin Spice time. My favorite of all Green Mountain Coffee® blends, made even better because it is Fair Trade Certified™. I big puffy heart developing recipes around all the Green Mountain Coffees that I do, but anyone who's known me for a while knows that Fair Trade Pumpkin Spice is the end-all, be-all in my coffee world. Developing a recipe with this scrumptious coffee is a highlight for me every Fall.

Let's talk about classic combinations for a second. Peanut butter and jelly. Cookies and milk. Doughnuts and coffee. Just a few simple ingredients: pumpkin doughnuts from your favorite bakery, vanilla pudding with a Fair Trade Pumpkin Spice kick, and fresh, decadent whipped cream. Put them together and what have you got? Fair Trade Pumpkin Spice Coffee & Doughnuts Trifle! Fair Trade Pumpkin Spice coffee provides the perfect flavor profile for a decadent Autumnal dessert fancy enough for Thanksgiving, but also at home on a Tuesday. These trifles are make-ahead, and look adorable in mini trifle cups or Mason jars, which also means they'd be easy to transport to the next football tailgate too. Just a couple of Fair Trade Pumpkin Spice K-Cup® packs and you'll be on your way. Just make sure you get your K-Cup® packs ordered soon. They're known to sell out quickly!

Fair Trade Pumpkin Spice Coffee & Doughnuts Trifle

serves 8

Ingredients

4 Pumpkin doughnuts from your favorite bakery (Cake doughnuts with a sugar glaze work best.)
1 3 oz package Vanilla Cook & Serve Pudding
3 8 fl oz cups Green Mountain Coffee Fair Trade Pumpkin Spice coffee, divided
2 pints heavy whipping cream, divided
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
4 tablespoons granulated sugar Pumpkin Pie Spice for garnish

Directions

Prepare the vanilla pudding mix. The cook and serve style calls for 2 cups of milk on the package. Instead, use 1 cup of heavy whipping cream (You will have 3 cups of heavy whipping cream left over) and brew one cup of Fair Trade Pumpkin Spice coffee. Add both to a small saucepan, and then add the pudding mix.

Stir constantly over medium heat until just reaching a bubbling boil. Remove from heat, place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place the pudding in the refrigerator - it will thicken as it cools.

After about an hour, the pudding should be the perfect consistency, and nicely chilled.

Slice each of the doughnuts in half, and then chop each halve into smaller pieces. Fit 1/2 a donut into each vessel, whether it be a mini trifle cup or an 8 oz mason jar.

Brew two 8 oz cups of Fair Trade Pumpkin Spice Coffee. Pour 2 oz (the size of a shot glass) over the pumpkin doughnut pieces in each vessel and set aside.

Spoon about 3-4 tablespoonfuls of pudding over the donuts in each serving glass. Distribute evenly among the glasses until all the pudding is used.

Add the remaining cream to a large bowl, along with the pure vanilla extract and granulated sugar. Whip on high speed in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until the cream has stiff peaks.

Spoon whipped cream over the pudding layer in each trifle, making sure each cup gets an equal amount until the cream is all gone.

Cover each trifle with plastic wrap (or screw on lids if you're using mason jars) and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Just before serving, sprinkle each trifle lightly with pumpkin pie spice for garnish.

Trifles can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.

[Psst - if you go over to Bluebonnets & Brownies, there's a Pumpkin Spice giveaway going on, too!  Go on over and check-it out!]

Fair Trade means better coffee for you, and a better life for farmers. During Fair Trade month you can save $2 on any Fair Trade Certified™ coffee purchased through greenmountaincoffee.com. This offer is valid through 10/31. Learn more about this offer today.