For those of us in New England, the fall season conjures up images of brilliant fall foliage, apple picking, pumpkins, and a hint of chill in the air.  With the onset of this glorious season comes another highlight to fans of the Green Mountain Coffee® Family of Brands: our fall catalog! The fall edition of our catalog is jam-packed with a large assortment of coffees, teas, and beverages, as well as a variety of food, mugs, and gift baskets to help get you started with your holiday shopping.

A few highlights, for your reading pleasure: 

1. Our catalog opens with a Hot Apple Cider from Green Mountain Naturals®. Nothing says fall quite like a cup of hot apple cider—now available in both K-Cup® and Vue® packs.

2. Wellness Brewed™ Beverages:  A new collection of K-Cup® packs, created with your wellness in mind.  Included in this collection are two new coffees, two new teas, and Vitamin Burst™ fruit-brewed beverages.

3. The Gift of Discovery:  We are bringing you a few handicrafts from artisans that live and work in some of the world’s finest coffee-growing regions.

4. Vue® Brewer, the next generation Keurig® brewer!

5. Accessorize your Keurig® Experience:  Featuring a full range of storage solutions for K-Cup® packs.

6. Lot and lots of gifts: The catalog closes with six pages of ideas for just about everyone on your list.  No excuses this year - the perfect present awaits!

For those of you who may not have received a catalog in the mail, it’s not too late to get your hands on one!  It is available to you in a digital format that you can read online. Or, if you’d like to receive a print copy, please fill out the catalog request form.

Happy shopping!

Summer is upon us! We spend much of our time in anticipation of this time of year, only to watch it go by in an instant.

How would you describe the perfect summer day? Maybe you feel like James Dent, who said that the perfect summer day "is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken." Or maybe your perfect summer day involves friends, family, and a barbecue. Or perhaps you're the type that prefers to beat the heat by staying inside and chilling by the air conditioner.

Since summer tends to be so short, many of us like to keep our lives a bit simpler so we have time to enjoy it.  That's how we can help!  We're serving up the convenience of shopping from wherever you are and having your favorite coffees, teas, and beverages shipped directly to you.  Our summer catalog is just the tool to do this! It's lightweight, portable, and offers you plenty of choices.  Keep watching your mailbox for your copy!

Highlights from our summer issue:

• Stay cool and refreshed with Brew Over Ice® iced teas and coffees in K-Cup® portion packs.


• Summer sizzler:  get a FREE Brew Over Ice tumbler when you buy two boxes of Brew Over Ice portion packs.


• Enter to win a Brew Over Ice Alaskan Cruise.


• Fair Trade Island Coconut® coffee--available throughout the summer!

If you forget to take your catalog with you, don't worry, you can view it digitally, page by page, right here.

If you are not currently on our mailing list and would like to be, please visit our catalog request page on our website: www.greenmountaincoffee.com/CatalogRequest.

From all of us at Green Mountain Coffee, have a happy, safe, and healthy summer.

What better way to usher in the warm weather than with a mug of Wild Mountain Blueberry® and a new recipe from the kitchen of Amber of Bluebonnets & Brownies? In February, Amber dazzled our team with her super easy and scrumptious Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake featuring our Nantucket Blend.  Today, she's back with a mouthwatering rendition on a traditional pound cake, with a little coffee kicker!

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Wild Mountain Blueberry Pound Cake Recipe from Bluebonnets & Brownies

Green Mountain Coffee’s Wild Mountain Blueberry Coffee has a bit of an underdog story. Originally a seasonal flavor, its fans came out in droves to beg GMC to make it year round. Never one to ignore their customers, Green Mountain began making it year round! It’s been a staple of the catalog since then.

My first experience with Wild Mountain Blueberry Coffee came during a visit to the Green Mountain Coffee Train Station in Waterbury, VT. I wasn’t quite convinced about the flavor. Talked into it by two very enthusiastic GMC employees, I was presented with a Blueberry Creme Latte. It was the most wonderful of concoctions - creamy, light, enchanting.

It was that first experience that lead me to the leading notes in this delectable dessert recipe. I wanted to recreate the flavors most pronounced in that drink - in cake form - and I’m happy to say that the combination of white chocolate sauce with the brown sugar coffee pound cake strike just the right notes.

Without the sauce, this pound cake actually makes a tasty breakfast. But with it, you’ve got a decadent and Summery dessert sure to please any crowd.

The recipe calls for a total of about one mug’s worth of Wild Mountain Blueberry Coffee - so this very well may be the first recipe that uses your Keurig® as a cooking utensil! And you thought it was only great at making coffee.

Wild Mountain Blueberry Pound Cake

2 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. butter
1 c. dark brown sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 c. Wild Mountain Blueberry Coffee
1 c. fresh blueberries, washed and dried

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk together until fully combined and aerated.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition until fully incorporated.

Add flour and coffee in turns with mixer on low, mixing until flour and coffee are both completely mixed in, but do not overmix.

Mix in the fresh blueberries by hand. You do not want them to burst, so mix gently.

Spray a 9" x 5" bread loaf pan with cooking spray for baking, or grease with butter or vegetable shorting and sprinkle with a little flour. Pour batter into pan and bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10-20 minutes. Using a butter knife, work around the edge of the pan to loosen the cake. Remove to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely, about an hour.

Drizzle with white chocolate blueberry coffee sauce and more fresh blueberries.

White Chocolate Blueberry Drizzle Sauce

1 c. White Chocolate Chips
1 tbsp light corn syrup
1/4 c. Wild Mountain Blueberry Coffee
2 tbsp half & half
Powdered sugar as needed to thicken

In a medium bowl, place the chocolate chips and corn syrup. Set aside. In a small sauce pan, heat the coffee and half and half slowly, until just boiling. Pour over the chocolate and corn syrup and stir continually until the chocolate is completely melted. The sauce should be fairly thick, of a "drizzle" consistency. When you lift the spoon out of the sauce, it should slowly fall off the spoon. If the sauce is a bit too thick, thin it with a bit more coffee. if the sauce is too thin, add powdered sugar by the tablespoon and stir until you get your desired consistency. The consistency can vary by brand/type of white chocolate chips used.

Savour with friends and a cup of your favorite Green Mountain Coffee.

Throw thick slices on the grill at your next barbecue to add extra caramelized grill marks that add a depth of flavor you wouldn’t expect from a pound cake.

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

Enjoy!

-Ken

There is no denying it, reusable bags are all the rage right now. They are convenient, stylish, and of course they are more eco-friendly than using paper or plastic. Here at Green Mountain Coffee, we decided to create a reusable bag for our Better World Gift Basket. We received so many compliments and requests to sell the bags as a separate item, we just had to oblige. Now our Better World Reusable Shopping Bag is available as a three-pack on our website and in our catalog.

 

I use mine for shopping, or just to carry stuff while running errands (you know-- because my purse is never big enough to carry everything!). It is also the perfect size for carrying your Keurig Mini Brewer with a few boxes of K-Cups.

 

Let us know how you use yours!