Earlier this month, SingleServeCoffee.com gave Hot Apple Cider by Green Mountain Naturals™ Vue® packs a perfect score: 100-out-of-100!  But who’s really surprised? With a total of five all natural ingredients and no artificial flavors or preservatives, this drink should be at the top of the list for hot apple cider lovers (Like me!).

The review was sure to highlight the “rich notes of sweet apples with bursts of spicy cinnamon” and the “silky smooth” consistency. Overall, it was decided that Green Mountain Natural’s Hot Apple Cider was, “spot-on with real mulled apple cider.”

Don’t just read about how great the apple cider is, taste it!  Hot Apple Cider by Green Mountain Naturals is available in both in Vue® packs and K-Cup® packs on our website, as well as in grocery stores and retailers nationwide.

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!]

Today marks a first for Green Mountain Coffee® Special Reserve.  For years we’ve offered exquisite, rare coffees in limited supply through our Special Reserve collection, but this marks the first time it is also available in K-Cup® packs for Keurig® brewers, and we couldn’t be more excited about it!  Introducing the latest Green Mountain Coffee Special Reserve, Colombia Geisha:

I recently had the opportunity to visit the farm where this coffee is grown and to get a rare, first-hand glimpse into the process that is meticulously followed to bring you this amazing coffee.  I was astounded to learn of the care and dedication that is put into each step of growing, harvesting and processing this coffee.  For example, only the tiny plants in the nurseries with straight roots are used for growing the Geisha varietal.   The coffee cherry pickers are trained for four-twelve months to ensure only the best cherries are selected.  Plus, once harvested, the coffee is processed in a wet mill that is dedicated for Geisha and is then dried in a mechanical dryer so the flavors are preserved.   That’s a lot of extra care and consideration – which you can taste in every cup. 

While we were in Colombia at Finca Cerro Azul, we had the opportunity to go and cup a variety of coffees, and when I got to Sample #4, I had my ah-ha moment.  I instantly knew that the coffee I just tasted was this Special Reserve – it was no ordinary coffee.  This coffee is known for its sweet, dynamic citrus-like flavor profile.  As you sip it, it turns gently from honey to blood orange, with hints of juicy cherry, lime and orange blossoms. 

I’ll take a lot away from this trip, but the most important is that the coffee I sip on while getting ready each morning will never be seen as “just a cup of coffee” ever again!  I hope you enjoy this coffee as much as I do!

Colombia Geisha  is available online in whole bean bags and K-Cup®  packs, while supplies last, exclusively on www.GreenMountainCoffee.com and www.Keurig.com.

“When you at Green Mountain buy coffee to roast, how do you know it’s going to taste good?”

We drink a lot of coffee here as part of our jobs. And even better, we get paid to drink and then evaluate it. Even though a lot of evaluating any beverage you drink for pleasure is subjective, there are still some objective ways to judge coffee for purchase. By the way, I should explain: I'm talking about the Coffee Department in Waterbury, Vermont, where we shop for and buy the millions of pounds of green coffee that we then roast and package and ship all around the United States and Canada.

We can't taste every single pound of coffee we buy (though that would be fun), but we do taste a lot. And when I say taste, I'm really talking about cupping, which is the professional version of tasting. (Want to know more about cupping and slurping, go here: “Why slurp?”).

We buy coffee by the container, which is the big metal box you see on large shipping vessels. Generally speaking, you can put about 42,000 pounds of green coffee in one container. When we evaluate that lot of coffee, the seller sends us a composite sample from that huge pile of green coffee. A few beans from this bag, a few from that bag, a few from that bag over there, until we have one pound of green coffee ready for us to roast and cup.

Before we roast it, however, we measure how wet or dry the coffee is in terms of moisture level. If it comes in too wet, it might not have been properly dried at origin, or maybe it got wet on the boat ride over the ocean. If it's too dry, it might be old coffee. We still cup it, but that's an example of an objective way to evaluate coffee.

We do a visual inspection of each sample as well. It should generally be a uniform color and size, without foreign material, bits of stone, twigs, and beans with insect damage (among other issues.) Even if a sample looks sub optimal, we still cup it, but note the state of the sample. Some coffees look beautiful, but don't taste that great while some coffees don't look so great but taste amazing.

We roast the samples ourselves so that we can control that important stage. And then the real proof is in the cup. We use the Specialty Coffee Assosication of America cupping sheet to tally our scores, average up the scores and then decide if the coffee passed the grade or not. The cupping sheet lets you score based on fragrance/aroma, flavor, acidity, body, aftertaste, balance, uniformity, clean cup, sweetness, and then there are ways to score defects and taints in the coffee as well. If it seems like a lot to keep track of, after the first 1-2,000 samples, it gets easier. Our supply chain uses the same scoring system so that we can all communicate in the same language, in spite of everyone speaking so many different languages.

We like metrics here and so we keep track of a lot of our activities:

• I can tell you that I have cupped 3,779 samples of coffee this year.
• For every sample (1 sample represents a container), we put out 6 cups of brewed coffee to evaluate. So in the past 12 months, I have "put a spoon" in 45,348 different cups of coffee.
• Two of my coworkers, Brent and Penny, cup more than I do (4,613 and 3,756 respectively).

So, if you ask how we know if the coffee will taste good, it's because we drink so much of it. We drink the bad stuff so that you won't have to. On top of that, every sample that we cup was also cupped by the importer, by the exporter, and even by the co-op or farm. There are many, many ways for a coffee to shine or receal itseld as an imposter of great coffee.

Next time you have a nice cup of our coffee, don't forget how much work went into making it a nice cup of coffee, and also don't forget all the work that went into making sure it's not a bad cup of coffee.

Yesterday was not only the first official day of summer, but here in Vermont the temperature reached a record-breaking 95 degrees! While we native Vermonters are used to winter conditions – it can snow anytime between November and April around these parts – this heat wave is really throwing us for a loop. We know how to keep warm with a down snowsuit, a hand-knit hat, and a steamy mug of coffee but keeping cool is a new phenomenon altogether.

As someone who drives a non-air-conditioned truck, and whose house is kept cool by a series of fans and open windows, beating the heat can be a bit of an art form. These past two days have seen me relying on my Keurig® brewer to chill me out, brewing cup after cup (after cup, after cup) of my favorite Brew Over Ice iced beverages.  I’ve been drinking my favorite summer treat, Brew Over Ice Nantucket Blend Iced Coffee, to both cool me down, and perk me up.  Until today.

You can imagine my horror today when I realized I was not the only one at the office using Brew Over Ice to beat this week’s heat – when I went to the break room to make myself a cup, I discovered the box of Nantucket Blend Iced coffee was completely empty! After frantically searching for just one more K-Cup® pack, I had to accept that I was going to find a different way to refresh myself.

I decided to try and fend off my disappointment, and the high temperatures, with the Original Donut Shop’s new Sweet and Creamy Nutty Hazelnut Iced Coffee. After all, it was sitting right next to my beloved Nantucket Blend on the shelf. I filled up my plastic cup with ice, popped the K-Cup® pack in the brewer, and pressed the 8-oz. brew setting. I took a curious first sip, and then another deep slurp. The mix of toasty hazelnut and coffee flavors, and the sweet cream notes was the perfect way to beat the heat, and give me that afternoon perk I craved.

I think I’ve just found the best way for a Vermonter to keep cool in the summer months - how are you beating the heat today?

Even though the cooler months are coming to an end, a nice mug of Hot Cocoa from our Keurig^® brewer can be a warm welcome on a chilly morning or a ray of sunshine on a grey, uninviting day.

When our family comes home from a late afternoon walk and everyone’s hands and noses are a little cold, there isn’t a more comforting feeling than a warm drink in your hands.  Typically, I love sipping on Swiss Miss^® Cocoa K-Cup^® and Dad likes to sit back with a strong cup of coffee, but on weekend afternoons, the whole family gravitates towards hot cocoa. And every weekend we end up in the same debate: which is the best K-Cup^® hot cocoa?

We keep a variety of Café Escapes^® K-Cup® packs on hand - Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate and even Café Mocha for when we need a little extra kick. Now that we’ve discovered the Swiss Miss^® Cocoa K-Cup^® pack, we keep those stocked up for when the nieces and nephews come over, too!

The kids love the Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa, which is rich and creamy, and Dad goes for the sophisticated flavor of the Cafe Escapes Dark Chocolate. I prefer the Milk Chocolate - classic, sweet, and really decadent!

No matter how long we discuss it, there’s really no way to settle this debate - each flavor has its own appeal. You just have to try them for yourself.

In our family, the best hot cocoa K-Cup^® pack is topped with a healthy dollop of whipped cream. I sometimes add extra goodies, like marshmallows, sprinkles, a stick of cinnamon, or a little cocoa sprinkled lightly over everything. Yum!

As copywriter for Green Mountain Coffee, one of my favorite assignments is writing the stories behind our Special Reserve coffees. These coffees are extremely rare and in very limited supply, so any time I get to write about them (and taste them!), it’s a special treat.

This month’s Special Reserve is also notable because it’s organic and Fair Trade Certified™. “La Prosperidad” is the combination of two microlots from the Cajamarca region in the northern highlands of Peru. It has lush, juicy fruit notes of apricot, lemon, cherry, and grapefruit. After a seductive, delicate aroma, the flavor leans toward buttery caramel and cocoa. Delicious!

The back story of this coffee is very down to earth — literally. In 2008, members of the Chirinos Prosperity Cooperative told us “tired soil” was one of their biggest problems, so we helped fund a certified organic compositing facility. Since then, production has almost doubled, new coffee plants are flowering earlier, and the plants are more resistant to disease. There’s also a noticeable difference in the cup — citrus notes are brighter, and the sweetness is more pronounced.

We’re pleased that an investment at ground level can have such wonderful, delicious results!  This limited batch roasts on October 18th!

Over the past few months, many of you have responded to our blog posts about the return of your favorite seasonal coffees, asking why our seasonal blends have been retired from the the K-Cup® Portion-Pack line-up.

Trust us: It was not an easy decision to make.  We know how much some of you love these blends and brewing them in your Keurig® brewer, so the retirement was not one we took lightly.

Discontinuing items from our product lines not new -- as a company, it's standard practice for us to evaluate our products' performance to see how well they're doing, for better or for worse.  At a recent review of our Seasonal coffees, it was shown that the Flavored Seasonal coffees in K-Cups outselling the Seasonal Blends in K-Cups 4 to 1.  We also saw that Seasonal bagged coffees are strong overall, for both flavors and blends.

It's never easy to have to break news like this to our customers--we realize that decisions like this can be disappointing to those who develop a fondness for the products that are discontinued.

But there is are a few options for those of you who adored our Seasonal Blends in K-Cups.  First, Seasonal Blends are still available in bags - so you can pick up at My K-Cup adapter and still brew your favorite.  Second, while the Seasonal Blends are no longer available in K-Cups, our coffee team has worked to find some great recommendations of other coffee blends that you may enjoy:

In place of Holiday Blend, try Green Mountain Coffee Nantucket Blend or Newman’s Own Special Blend Extra Bold.




In place of Wicked Winter® Blend, try Green Mountain Coffee Lake & Lodge®.




In place of Spring Revival® Blend, try Green Mountain Coffee Nantucket Blend.




In place of Summer Safari® Blend, try Green Mountain Coffee Colombian Fair Trade Select.




In place of Autumn Harvest Blend®, try Fair Trade Vermont Country Blend.

How many times has this happened to you: it’s a hot day, and you head to the fridge to pour yourself a refreshing glass of iced tea—only to find that someone (and you know it wasn’t you) put the practically empty pitcher back in the refrigerator, thinking it will miraculously refill itself once the door closes and the light goes out. Frustrating, indeed.  Well now you can say sayonara to that scenario—we’ve come up with the perfect solution: Brew Over Ice™!

Brew Over Ice is a way to quickly make cold, refreshing iced beverages using your Keurig® Brewer. All it takes is a few simple steps: 1. Fill a tall (16 oz.) cup with ice and place under the brewer. (We suggest you avoid using glass, the hot liquid may cause glass to crack.) 2. Shake the K-Cup and place in brewer. 3. Choose the brew setting (6 oz. or 8 oz.) and press “brew.” 4. Add additional ice as needed and enjoy!  For a step-by-step visual, make sure to click on the "See how easy it is to brew" icon when visiting the product pages for each Brew Over Ice product.

Many of you may already be familiar with our Perfect Iced Teas™,  (the first Brew Over Ice products we introduced last year) available in three all-natural, lightly sweetened fruit flavors: raspberry, lemon, and peach, as well as a full-bodied unsweetened black tea. Beginning this month, we are pleased to be adding two new flavors to the Perfect Iced Tea family: Southern Sweet Tea and Half and Half. Southern Sweet is a robust and smooth black tea, sweetened with a generous helping of natural cane sugar for a distinctively Southern approach to sweet tea. Half and Half (a.k.a. an Arnold Palmer) is a refreshing combination of lemonade and iced tea.

Whichever flavor iced tea you choose, we’re confident that you won’t find an easier way to enjoy this classic beverage than with our Perfect Iced Tea K-Cups®.   Just remember to have plenty of ice on hand!  When shopping our site, remember to use keycode BREW-ICED in your cart, to get $1.00 off all Brew Over Ice K-Cups.  This is a limited time offer that expires on 8/16/10.

Be on the lookout for other new Brew Over Ice™ products that will be introduced this summer. And if you really want to show off your cool, be sure to pick up one of our new Brew Over Ice Tumblers, at GreenMountainCoffee.com.

Fair Trade Month Quiz:

Question 22: What is Max Havelaar?

Answer: The name of the first Fair Trade certification initiative and a fictional Dutch character who opposed the exploitation of coffee pickers in Dutch colonies.

Haven’t answered our Fair Trade Quiz question of the day, yet? Well, why not? The answer’s right there! If that isn’t enough for you, the first 100 participants* get a sample of Green Mountain Coffee’s Fair Trade Certified™ Organic House Blend and all answers get entered to the grand prize drawing of 12-months of Green Mountain Coffee Fair Trade Certified™ Coffees. Go here to enter: http://www.eatdrinkandbefair.com/quiz.php.

*Sorry, employees and their immediate family members of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. are not eligible. But keep an eye out for our internal Fair Trade quiz.

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While there’s no way to really know, we’d like to think that Max Havelaar would approve of our Fair Trade efforts at Green Mountain Coffee. Or, at least that he’d enjoy one of our most popular seasonal Fair Trade coffees, Pumpkin Spice.

Pumpkin Mocha Supreme

People tell us they can’t wait for fall…and then they stock up on Pumpkin Spice like little squirrels. The cinnamon and nutmeg flavors are even better when you add a touch of hot chocolate.  Try this yummy Fair Trade recipe:

Pumpkin Mocha Supreme

• Brew a pot of Fair Trade Certified™ Pumpkin Spice or get a K-Cup of Pumpkin Spice


• Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg in the bottom of the coffee cup


• Fill the cup halfway with hot coffee (either from your pot or your Keurig machine)


• Fill the remainder of the cup with hot chocolate.  (We carry Fair Trade Organic Hot Cocoa from Lake Champlain Chocolates in our catalog and on our web site.)


• Top with whipped cream and garnish with cinnamon and/or shaved chocolate

-Ken

How does a nice sea urchin cappuccino sound?  Or pork tenderloin and coffee-sunchoke gravy?  Attendees at celebrity chef cook-off  “Eat, Drink and Be Fair” will be the first to find out as these and other delicacies are debuted as part of a push to make Boston one of the largest Fair Trade Towns in the U.S.

Hosted by Green Mountain Coffee, “Eat, Drink and Be Fair” will pit some of the area’s most inventive culinary wizards head-to-head as part of a series of events celebrating Fair Trade Month.  The event aims to educate guests on the importance of Fair Trade and the impact it can have on people and the planet.

Meet the Chefs

Each chef will be challenged to create a unique dish featuring Fair Trade Certified™ ingredients, such as honey, sugar, cocoa, coffee, bananas and more. They’ll be combining creativity, sustainability and seldom-paired flavors.  Competing chefs include:

• Chef Richard Garcia, Tastings Wine Bar & Bistro (Foxboro at Patriot Place)

• Chef Jay Silva, Bambara (Cambridge)


• Chef Will Gilson, Garden at the Cellar (Cambridge)

• Chef Peter McCarthy, EVOO (Cambridge)

Take the Fair Trade Pledge

This October, Green Mountain Coffee is calling on Bostonians to take the BE FAIR pledge, a promise to choose Fair Trade Certified™ products whenever possible. Fair Trade provides a fair price for farmers which leads to higher living standards, healthier communities, more sustainable farming practices, and higher quality products.

Green Mountain Coffee is hoping 5,000 people in Massachusetts, and others across the country, will pledge during October’s Fair Trade Month.  Individuals can take the pledge by visiting www.eatdrinkandbefair.com.

BOSTON—THE NEXT  FAIR TRADE TOWN

Boston is on track to become the largest East Coast Fair Trade city in the United States.  In order to become a Fair Trade city, Fair Trade products must be widely used in local schools, workplaces and businesses, and the city must pass a resolution supporting Fair Trade.  For a full guide on Boston’s quest and how you can help, visit www.eatdrinkandbefair.com/fair_trade_towns.php.

“Eat, Drink & Be Fair” will take place on Wednesday, October 21 from 6:30-9:30 p.m., at the Artists for Humanity Epicenter, Boston’s first LEED-certified building.  The event, which is by invitation only, will support TransFair USA and the Boston Faith & Justice Network in their efforts to make Boston a Fair Trade Town in 2010.

-Kristen

Fair Trade Month Quiz:

Question 16: Other than coffee, what food products are Fair Trade Certified in the United States?

Answer: Tea, cocoa & chocolate, fresh fruit, sugar, rice, vanilla, flowers, and honey

Haven’t answered our Fair Trade Quiz question of the day, yet?  Well, why not?  The answer’s right there!  If that isn’t enough for you, the first 100 participants* get a sample of Green Mountain Coffee’s Fair Trade Certified™ Organic House Blend and all answers get entered to the grand prize drawing of 12-months of Green Mountain Coffee Fair Trade Certified™ Coffees.  Go here to enter: http://www.eatdrinkandbefair.com/quiz.php. 

*Sorry, employees and their immediate family members of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. are not eligible. But keep an eye out for our internal Fair Trade quiz.  

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Fair Trade coffee means many things to me:

1.      Fair prices paid to democratically-organized farmer cooperatives

2.      Fair labor conditions

3.      A direct line of commerce between growers and buyers

4.      Community development

5.      Environmental sustainability. 

But most of all, it means that a single sip, bite, or spoonful is a great way to start the day…for me, you, and many farmers, as well.

With your day off to a rousing start, why not keep the Fair Trade ball rolling?  It’s possible to fuel the Fair Trade movement in a bunch of mouth-watering ways: chocolate, bananas, mangos, pineapples, grapes, sugar, honey, rice and tea (and, if you consider flowers edible, there are Fair Trade flowers too!).  Sounds like there is a killer batch of brownies or a lush fruit salad in my future.

For those without the time (or, in my case, skills!) to whip up something from scratch, our neighbors from just up the road, Ben & Jerry’s, use Fair Trade vanilla, chocolate, and coffee in their versions of these flavors.  À la mode, anyone?

Green America (formerly Co-op America) a not-for-profit membership organization whose mission is to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society, has a nice list of where to find these Fair Trade products.  See that list via the link HERE.

-Paula

Fair Trade Month Quiz:

Question 15: How many Fair Trade Certified™ varieties of coffee does Green Mountain Coffee sell?

Answer: 41

Haven’t answered our Fair Trade Quiz question of the day, yet?  Well, why not?  The answer’s right there!  If that isn’t enough for you, the first 100 participants* get a sample of Green Mountain Coffee’s Fair Trade Certified™ Organic House Blend and all answers get entered to the grand prize drawing of 12-months of Green Mountain Coffee Fair Trade Certified™ Coffees.  Go here to enter: http://www.eatdrinkandbefair.com/quiz.php. 

*Sorry, employees and their immediate family members of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. are not eligible. But keep an eye out for our internal Fair Trade quiz. 

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With 41 delicious Fair Trade coffees, is it any surprise that we have a story for each of them? Allow me to introduce you to the origins of one our Fair Trade Single Origin coffees: Sumatra Lake Tawar. 

Indonesian coffees are prized for their complexity. The unusual processing techniques used by the farmers create a distinctive coffee experience; a mosaic of heady aromas and pungent flavors that tumbles around in the mouth.

We began working with farmers from the areas near Lake Tawar in 1997, when we provided start up money to create an organic coffee cooperative.  Since then, we’ve helped the cooperative build a community center, a water supply system, and a seedling nursery. In the wake of the 2004 tsunami-earthquake, many of our employees donated money for disaster relief, and the company matched their donations.

Today, the cooperative is thriving. With the premium received from Fair Trade prices, the community has been able to build new roads, schools, and a clean water supply.

Lindsey Bolger, our Director of Coffee Sourcing and Relationships, recently visited the Lake Tawar region to meet with farmers who contribute to our Fair Trade Certified™ Sumatran coffees. She was introduced to Fauziah, a 30-year-old farmer who was looking forward to a brighter future.

“Now that we’ve joined a Fair Trade Certified co-op,” she told Lindsey, “we know that there will be funds available to help us improve quality and yields.”

Single Origin Sumatran Lake Tawar has a syrupy body with notes of clove and cardamom. Independent coffee critic Kenneth Davids gave it 85 points in August 2009.

-Laura

Fair Trade Month Quiz:

Question 14: Between 2003 and 2008, how many pounds of Fair Trade coffee were imported into the US?

Answer: 309,259,758

Haven’t answered our Fair Trade Quiz question of the day, yet?  Well, why not?  The answer’s right there!  If that isn’t enough for you, the first 100 participants* get a sample of Green Mountain Coffee’s Fair Trade Certified™ Organic House Blend and all correct answers get entered to the grand prize drawing of 12-months of Green Mountain Coffee Fair Trade Certified™ Coffees.  Go here to enter: www.eatdrinkandbefair.com/quiz. 

*Sorry, employees and their immediate family members of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. are not eligible. But keep an eye out for our internal Fair Trade quiz. 

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We believe that our highest quality coffees come from coffee communities with a healthy quality of life.  

In fact, Fair Trade Certified™ coffees are some of the highest quality coffees in the world.

But don’t just take our word for it.  Kenneth Davids is editor of the independent Coffee Review (www.CoffeeReview.com), one of the most respected and widely read coffee publications.  Like wine, coffee is judged on aroma, acidity, body, flavor and aftertaste on a 100-point scale. Connoisseurs look for a score of 80 or above, and a 90 is considered “outstanding.”

Mr. Davids gave our Kenyan Highland Cooperatives a score of 92.  And our Limited Edition Fair Trade seasonal coffees have also scored highly, with a 90 for our Holiday Blend, and a 92 for our Spring Revival Blend. 

Recently Green Mountain’s Fair Trade coffees were also honored with the UK’s 2009 Great Taste Awards from the Guild of Fine Food, “the acknowledged benchmark for specialty food and drink.”  Our Fair Trade Organic Espresso Blend received a 2 Star Gold Award and our Fair Trade Organic Sumatran Reserve (my personal favorite) received a 1 Star Gold.

That’s the beauty of Fair Trade organic coffees – it’s a better deal for farmers, and better coffee for you!

-Sandy

Fair Trade Month Quiz:

Question 12: What is GMCR’s bestselling Fair Trade coffee on our website?

Answer: Wild Mountain Blueberry ™

Haven’t answered our Fair Trade Quiz question of the day, yet?  Well, why not?  The answer’s right there!  If that isn’t enough for you, the first 100 participants* get a sample of Green Mountain Coffee’s Fair Trade Certified™ Organic House Blend and all answers get entered to the grand prize drawing of 12-months of Green Mountain Coffee Fair Trade Certified™ Coffees.  Go here to enter: http://www.eatdrinkandbefair.com/quiz.php. 

*Sorry, employees and their immediate family members of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. are not eligible. But keep an eye out for our internal Fair Trade quiz. 

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Wild Mountain Blueberry™

Say the name and you may just hear the whispered chorus of contented sighs from this coffee’s legion of fans.  People are absolutely passionate about its sweet flavor of juicy, sun-kissed blueberries.  So passionate, in fact, that this coffee made the move from seasonal to year-round availability.  Today, blueberry is easily the bestselling Fair Trade and Flavored coffee.

The good news?  Wild Mountain Blueberry™ makes a refreshing iced coffee, too.  Try this mouth-watering Fair Trade recipe:

Iced Blueberries ‘N Cream

·          Double brew a pot of Fair Trade Certified™ Wild Mountain Blueberry™ . (Usual amount of water, twice the amount of coffee.)

·          Pour hot coffee into a glass of ice.  Chill until ice melts.

·          Add more ice, half & half, and simple syrup to taste.  Mix well.

·          Top with whipped cream.

For K-Cup^®

·          Brew two Fair Trade Certified™ Wild Mountain Blueberry™ K-Cups^® (on smallest brew setting) into a glass of ice.

·          Add half & half and simple syrup to taste.

·          Stir and top with whipped cream. 

Happy brewing!

-Kristen

Fair Trade Month Quiz:

Question 9: How many Fair Trade co-ops work with Green Mountain Coffee?

Answer: 88

Haven’t answered our Fair Trade Quiz question of the day, yet?  Well, why not?  The answer’s right there!  If that isn’t enough for you, the first 100 participants* get a sample of Green Mountain Coffee’s Fair Trade Certified™ Organic House Blend and all answers get entered to the grand prize drawing of 12-months of Green Mountain Coffee Fair Trade Certified™ Coffees.  Go here to enter: http://www.eatdrinkandbefair.com/quiz.php. 

*Sorry, employees and their immediate family members of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. are not eligible. But keep an eye out for our internal Fair Trade quiz. 

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Time to highlight another of our Fair Trade cooperatives, Chajulense cooperative in Guatemala.

In the rural highlands of Guatemala, you can tell where a woman lives by the patterns on her huipil, or traditional blouse.  The beautifully woven and embroidered motifs are unique to each community.  In a similar way, astute coffee lovers can discern a Guatemalan bean’s geographic provenance by the distinctive flavor and aroma patterns imparted by the soil, altitude, and rainfall of its environment.

Guatemala boasts eight distinct coffee-growing regions, each with its own personality and expression in the cup.  We source Guatemalan beans from coops in several regions, including Association Chajulense Val Vaq Quyol near the Chuchumatanes mountains of Chajul.  The name of this Fair Trade co-op means “only one voice,” and the co-op’s main goal is to improve the quality of life for its members while maintaining their traditions, values, and cultures. It is the largest organic coffee cooperative in Guatemala.

We’ve been working with Chajulense during the past three harvest cycles and are delighted by what we’ve tasted on the cupping table. On a recent trip to Guatemala, our chief coffee buyer, Lindsey Bolger, teamed up at the cupping table with cooperative President Arcadio Daniel Galindo and head cupper Arsemio Rivera Molina to identify beans that best displayed the unique qualities of coffee grown in regions around Chajul.  The cooperative’s prized Caturra and Bourbon varietals displayed shimmers of high-toned fruit, a vibrant acidity, and a resonant depth.

Fair Trade means the cooperative will receive a fair price for these excellent beans, and more. “Searching for a fairer market means not only that we will get better prices,” they write on their website, “but also that we are committed to work towards justice, freedom, and life for all men and women, so that we can live in justice among us and justice with our Mother Earth because only then we will achieve peace and happiness.”

Fair Trade Certified™ beans from the Chajulense cooperative are often used in Fair Trade Organic French Roast, Fair Trade Organic House Blend, and Heifer Hope Blend.

-Laura

One month after welcoming Tully's to the Green Mountain Coffee family, Tully's K-Cups are now available on our website and through Cafe Express.  We're offering ten K-Cup varieties, covering all three Tully's roast profiles: spirited, balanced and grand.  On a comparitive scale, Tully's coffees are darker than Green Mountain Coffee roasts due to their roasting style.

Tully's roasting style produces dark and full bodied coffees, typical to the Northwest coffees.  AJ Rendon, Tully's Roast Master speaks to their roasting style, "We roast our coffees slowly at low temperatures in order to pull our the most flavor and development. We think roasting longer and at a lower flame creates bold and piquant notes as well as more delicate citrus and floral flavors."

If you're not used to drinking dark roasts,  introduce yourself to the Tully's style with their version of a Breakfast Blend.  It's bright and vibrant in taste and has a smooth, buttery mouthful.  Perfect for sipping anytime of day.

You can also find Tully's at over 150 cafes  in the Northwest, California and Arizona. But now you can bring that coffeehouse flavor into you home with the convenience of a Keurig Brewer and Tully's K-Cups.

Embark on an extraordinary coffee journey!

Our Special Reserve coffees are handcrafted on small family farms and remote estates. These coffees epitomize our unique approach to sourcing and our worldwide search for coffees with unsurpassed aromas and exceptional flavor profiles.

Fresh from the roaster our latest Special Reserve coffee has made it's debut - Rwanda Lake Kivu. Five years ago Lindsey Bolger, our Chief Coffee Buyer, began working with a group of young coffee professional in Rwanda. All of them had grown up in the wake of the country's horrific civil war. Many had never drank coffee before.  In 2008 these young professionals, now experienced cuppers, were asked to be judges when Rwanda became the first African country to host the prestigious Cup of Excellence^® Coffee competition. Their participation was a dramatic illustration of Rwanda's meteoric rise on the international coffee scene.

Tasting Notes: Aromatics of black cherry and citrus blossom are perfectly paired with flavors of red currant, blackberry, and milk chocolate. Sparkling clean in finish, with a hint of sweet almond.

All of our Special Reserve coffees are handcrafted, artfully roasted, and limited in supply, but endless in delight.  These unique finds are offered approximately every other month.  Order a bag today!  Due to the limited supply of these coffees, we suggest you place a standing order (Special Reserve Tour) and we will ship all future offers to you within 24 hours of roasting -now that is fresh!

http://www.greenmountaincoffee.com/Coffee/special-reserve-rawanda-lake-kivu

October is national Fair Trade Month.  There's no better time to seek Fair Trade Certified products and support those who offer them.  It's easy to find a yummy breakfast bagel, or even a meal, and a great tasting Fair Trade Certified coffee at Bruegger's.  With over 250 locations in 23 states Bruegger's bakery-cafes have what you need and they are a fun place to go.  When you walk into a Bruegger's it's warm and smells so yummy!  The scent of the fresh brewed coffee and homemade bagels beckons you!  They serve a wonderful mix of delicious, fresh, hot, Green Mountain Coffee that includes flavored, regular, Limited Edition, and at least one Fair Trade Certified selection daily!  What more could you ask for?...Fair Trade coffee and more than 15 New York-style bagel options.  My favorite?  A leisurely stop into the Church Street, Burlington, Vermont location to enjoy a cup of Fair Trade Organic French Roast with a toasted honey grain bagel and honey walnut cream cheese!  Ok you caught me...sometimes I tack on a freshly baked cookie with a second cup of Fair Trade coffee.
Mmm mmm!  Gotta go! 

Bruegger's bagels and Green Mountain Coffee…just another way to celebrate Fair Trade month.

The Keurig brewer is a great invention - no doubt about it.  The engineers that toiled, experimented, failed a hundred times before figuring out how to make something work, showed the kind of grit and determination that is required to bring a new idea, a new machine, a whole new way of doing something like making coffee a marketable possibility.  And what a success it is!

There is an old saying that "necessity is the mother of invention."  And, indeed we often drive our experiments and pursuits for new things based upon perceived needs.  But, its not just the mothers that deserve credit for recognizing necessity - the kids seem to have a good amount of applied creativity, too!

Today was the second of a couple of hot, humid days here in Vermont (believe me, I'm not complaining about the weather, as contractually I cannot), and the kids were alternating between jumping on the trampoline and coming into the house to get cold water, juice and anything else that would cool them down.  Walking through the kitchen at one point, I noticed that the Keurig brewer was on (it isn't usually, as I have a particular penchant for espresso), and upon further examination, I saw that a fresh cup of cocoa had just been brewed.

Emma, age 9, had helped herself to a cocoa, turning on the Keurig brewer, dosing a big glass of ice, and when the cocoa had brewed, poured it over the ice to make a cold cocoa beverage.  I checked on her a few minutes later and she had drank the whole thing!

Well, I had been involved in the development of the Keurig Hot Cocoa, and we had struggled to make it strong enough to suit most people's palates.  Given the small size of the K-Cup, we had to densify everything, the sweetener, the cocoa powder and dairy flavors, and still make it dissolveable.  The project took over 3 years to get it right and bring it to market, and never did I think during that time that we were making something that would be used to make a cold drink.

In fact, we still have this belief that the Keurig brewer is just a hot beverage brewer.  But, necessity proves otherwise.  I did a catering gig one time on Randall's Island for  the Dave Matthew's Band.  We had a whole team of Green Mountain Coffee folks there to service the audience and demonstrate Keurig brewers.  It was boiling out, and we ended up serving more iced tea out of the Keurig brewers than we did hot coffee.

And Emma showed me again today that I have more to learn.  Here is this Keurig brewer on our counter, well used over the cold long winter months (again, I'm not complaining, just being factual) for the kids to make hot cocoa anytime they wanted.  If I had thought about it, I probably would have taken it out of the kitchen and put it down in the basement as Summer approached.  But now I know it has a use for the next few months as well, and I'm sure if I moved it now, Emma would want to teach me a few more lessons!