Breakfast in bed is the quintessential way to kick-off a quality Mother’s Day.  Mom gets to lounge, kids get creative in the kitchen, and dad gets to coordinate to make it all happen (and clean it all up)!  To simplify the process but still give mom that special, “For me?” moment, how about brewing her up a little something sweet and tropical in your Keurig® brewer?

Coconut Vanilla Cream

Ingredients

- Green Mountain Coffee® Island Coconut® K-Cup® pack, Vue® pack, or bagged coffee

- 1 tablespoon of brown sugar

- ½ - 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

- 2 teaspoons of heavy cream or whipped cream

Directions

- Add 1 tablespoon of brown sugar into a large mug

- Brew or pour 6-8 ounces of Green Mountain Coffee® Island Coconut® into the mug

- Add ½ - 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract to taste

- Stir

- Pour 2 teaspoons of heavy cream over the backside of a spoon into the mug creating a layered effect or top with whipped cream

Tip from the Brew Team

- Don’t stir again after adding the heavy cream or whipped cream. Sip the coffee through the cream and transport your senses!

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'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™!

While I’m no glue gun goddess, I’ve been known to enjoy a good crafting session.  With Easter just around the corner, I have my DIY Easter list narrowed down to one project: K-Cup^® pack Easter Baskets!  This little beauty came from Karen on our Sustainability team.  Cute and bunny-sized, how could I not give it a try?  Here’s how to do it: 

1. Brew your favorite Keurig Brewed^® coffee – perhaps Green Mountain Coffee^® Island Coconut^® to welcome in spring?  Sip, savor, and enjoy that cup!  (And let the brewed K-Cup^® pack cool down a touch.)

2. Once cooled, carefully remove the foil lid, filter, and coffee grounds.  Your soon-to-be planted garden will appreciate a little coffee ground compost.

3. Gently wash out and towel-dry the empty K-Cup^® pack.*   

4. Poke two small holes on each side of the K-Cup^® pack below the lip and thread each end of your pipe cleaner through to create a handle.

5. Fill with Eater grass and your favorite candies.  Jelly beans and candy coated chocolate eggs are our favorites. 

6. Delight your family with this bunny-sized treat on Easter morning!

*Psst - If you want to add more color, grab some paint, glue, rhinestones, - you name it - , and decorate the pack before putting in the pipe cleaner handle.

Your wait is over: Green Mountain Coffee^® Island Coconut^® is back for the spring and summer!   It’s time to brew yourself into a tropical getaway – even if you never leave your cubicle.

We’ve captured the lush aroma of fruity, exotic coconut and blended it with the subtle sweetness of a lightly-roasted, Central American coffee. The result is as refreshing as it is unexpected.  Enjoy it in bags, K-Cup^® packs, and, for the first time, Vue^® packs for your Keurig Vue^® brewer!  Remember: It’s Limited Edition – brew it while supplies last!

Are you going to take a trip to paradise with Island Coconut this season?

New Year, new you.  Or me.  Or us.  You get the idea.  It’s 2013 and it’s a new start.  Clean slate.  Blank sheet of paper.  An open road.   But we don’t want that slate/paper/road to be empty for long: we want adventure.  We want stories.  We want triumph.  That’s why we make resolutions – to be able to look back at the past year and have exciting tales to tell in the next.  In preparation for those stories, here are a few of our goals for 2013 (with a little Keurig Brewed® twist):

1. Take one small step toward a more balanced life.  Make a small change that helps our wellness – like choosing Wellness Brewed™ beverages like Green Mountain Coffee® Antioxidant Blend.

2. Embrace “me” time.  Stress is so last year – now is the moment to savor the moment.  Even if that’s just enjoying an indulgent cup of Café Escapes® Café Caramel (and it’s only 70 calories).

3. But don’t overlook the family.  Make time to be together – craft, hike, bake, and watch a family movie with some Green Mountain Naturals® Hot Apple Cider for the kids.

4. Appreciate the beauty around us.  Stop, look, and listen to the artistry that surrounds the everyday, may it be the beauty in a hand built gazebo, the tang of handcrafted cheddar, or the brightness of a mug of Tully’s® House Blend.

5. Learn a new language.  Bonjour, ciao, hola – expand your vocabulary so travel to your new favorite destination isn’t as intimidating.  And do it all with a mug of Barista Prima® Italian Roast by your side – bellissimo!   

What stories do you want to tell about 2013 next year?

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…

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.

As a smartphone owner myself, I must admit that I really enjoy the convenience of being able to shop all of my favorite products no matter where I am. With the smartphone market continuing to grow with no sign of slowing down, it is important that we give coffee lovers the opportunity to shop on the go. With endless days of seemingly endless christmas shopping right around the corner, Green Mountain Coffee has made shopping for the coffee fanatic in your life easier than ever. Green Mountain Coffee fans can now shop their favorite Keurig® beverages, brewers and accessories from the convenience of their smartphones with our new mobile website. Check it out today at www.greenmountaincoffee.com/mobile. Happy Shopping!

There has never been a better time to save on a new Keurig® brewer. Through October 28^th, anyone who purchases a Keurig Vue® or K-Cup® brewer on GreenMountainCoffee.com will get up to $50 off with a mail in rebate. This rebate can also be downloaded by customers who have recently purchased a brewer (online or in a retail store). Add Keurig Brewed® packs and accessories to your order for additional savings. (Café Express® 15% savings and benefits are eligible for purchase.)

Just in time for autumn, the ever popular Pumpkin Spice from Green Mountain Coffee® is now available for your Vue® Brewer! Shop Pumpkin Spice Vue® packs and bring the flavors of autumn to your Keurig® brewer.

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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.

Imagine a lazy late-summer weekend, with warm winds whipping the white caps up and down the New Hampshire coast, and acres of options for fresh-from-the-ocean culinary delights. Not too bad, right? The only thing that would improve the image is an oasis of free freshly brewed hot and iced gourmet coffee served up by our knowledgeable and enthusiastic sampling team.

Now you’re in the frame of mind – you’re walking along Ocean Boulevard at the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival, and there, like a mirage, in stark contrast to the multiple white tents of vendors selling everything from driftwood art to emu oil soap, is our giant green and blue Green Mountain Coffee® tent, doling out thousands of complementary cups of great Keurig® Brewed® coffees.

The tent is alive with activity as many people, like you, were drawn there, enticed by the lure of specialty coffee. You enter the massive booth, and read about coffee harvesting and processing.  Who knew?  You choose from one of the 12 Green Mountain Coffee® varieties being offered (ooh, Dark Magic®, good choice – I was thinking the same thing!). You take a goofy picture with your friends inside our 9 ft. tall My Coffee Moment coffee cup-shaped photo booth, and can’t wait to share the picture on your Facebook wall Monday morning. You take a caffeinated coffee quiz and get some fun prizes for showing your java knowledge. Suddenly your good day just got a whole lot better…nice! So good to see you, thanks for stopping by.

And if we missed you at Hampton Beach (maybe fried dough and lobster quesadillas aren’t your thing), hopefully we’ll see you in our backyard, Burlington, Vermont, for a rocking good time at this weekend’s Grand Point North Festival!

These days, a healthy choice doesn't have to be a hard decision between what's good, and what's good for you. 

That's why we're thrilled to introduce Wellness Brewed™ beverages, a new line of K-Cup® packs that are a delicious complement to your wellness lifestyle. Taking care of yourself can be as easy as the touch of a button on your Keurig® brewer, and as satisfying as knowing you've done the right thing.  Because when wellness is balanced by goodness, both your body and your tastebuds benefit.

This new collection of six beverages includes two new Brew Over Ice favorites, Strawberry Pomegranate and Acai Berry from Vitamin Burst™, as well as Fair Trade Certified™ Green Mountain Coffee® Antioxidant Blend,  Green Mountain Coffee® Focus Blend™, and two Celestial Seasonings® Antioxidant Max™ Green Teas that are available in Blackberry Pomegranate and Blood Orange Star Fruit flavors. Shop now and explore these wonderfully craveable beverages!

They're here: the dog days of summer. If you're like me, you're craving fall (and Fair Trade Pumpkin Spice K-Cup® packs) like crazy. But we're not quite there. These last few weeks of summer's warmth and late sunsets are just the time to savor Green Mountain Coffee's Brew Over Ice flavors.

Around our house, we adore all the Brew Over Ice choices, from Nantucket Blend Iced Coffee to Strawberry Pomegranate Vitamin Burst™, but we decided to harness the inherent dessert qualities of Brew Over Ice Hazelnut coffee to make one last summery treat - Brew Over Ice Hazelnut and Cream Ice Pops! Just a few simple ingredients and one press of your Keurig® brewer's button will have you on the way to an indulgent sweet treat that's easy too. We love this novel approach to "iced" coffee. I can see making many more ice pops this way with all the Brew Over Ice flavors! I used my Zoku Pop Maker to create these ice pops, but you can use any ice pop mold you like. It'll just take longer to freeze each layer.

Green Mountain Coffee® Brew Over Ice Hazelnut & Cream Ice Pops

makes 4 ice pops

Ingredients

6 oz Green Mountain Coffee® Brew Over Ice Hazelnut coffee

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

6 oz Coffee-Mate Natural Bliss Vanilla Creamer

Directions

Brew one 6 oz cup of Green Mountain Coffee® Brew Over Ice Hazelnut coffee in your Keurig® brewer. Pour the cup into a small saucepan and add sugar.

Stir the coffee-sugar mixture frequently over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved completely. Pour the coffee back into a ceramic mug and place it in the refrigerator. Allow the coffee to cool completely before you make the ice pops. When the coffee is cool, use a measuring cup or funnel to pour coffee into each pop mold about 1/3 of the way up.

Place in the freezer and allow to freeze completely before starting the next layer.

When the first layer is frozen, repeat this step with Coffee-Mate Natural Bliss creamer, pouring it on top of the first layer, another 1/3 of the way up the pop mold. Place back in the freezer and allow to freeze completely.

Once the second layer is frozen, finish with another coffee layer.

If you'd rather have ice pops in a hurry, and don't care about the striped look, simply mix the coffee and creamer together and freeze all at once.

 Some things just belong together: peanut butter and jelly, sugar and spice, Sting and Trudy, salt and pepper, Sweet and Creamy Nutty Hazelnut Iced Coffee and French Vanilla iced coffee….

 Trust me, that last pair needs to be added to this list as another perfect combination.

 Why?

As some of you already know, I love a good glass of Brew Over Ice coffee in the summer, and I’m always searching for new ways to drink it. It was a stroke of genius (or maybe just a mild heat stroke) that inspired me to combine two of my beloved icy brews into one fabulous summer indulgence: the Creamy Vanilla Hazelnut Iced Coffee.

 It’s simple to make, and even simpler to drink, and perfectly blends two of my favorite flavors, vanilla and Hazelnut. Here’s the easy recipe.

1. Brew 2 K-Cup® packs of Sweet and Creamy Nutty Hazelnut Iced Coffee on the 6 oz. setting without ice into a mug (or cup) and then carefully pour the brew into a standard ice-cube tray (remember: it's hot).
2. Place into the freezer and wait until the Sweet and Creamy Cubes are frozen.
3. Take your frozen Sweet and Creamy cubes and put them in a 16 oz. plastic tumbler (as you would with normal ice cubes for any Brew Over Ice beverage), and place under your Keurig® brewer.
4. Pop a Green Mountain Coffee® French Vanilla Iced Coffee K-Cup® pack into your brewer and brew at the 6 oz. setting, over the Sweet and Creamy Cubes. As the coffee brews, it will melt some of the Sweet and Creamy cubes, expertly blending the Hazelnut and French Vanilla flavors. Add simple syrup to taste.

And that’s it! You have yourself a delightful Creamy Vanilla Hazelnut Iced Coffee! It’s easy, pretty, delicious… A perfect summer pairing!

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?

As a competitive runner, people usually assume that I'm some sort of superhuman fitness and nutrition guru who dedicates her entire day to becoming a healthier person. While eating like an athlete certainly takes work (I regularly fight urges to binge on some very sugary snacks, in case you're wondering), I'd be lying if I said that intense workouts and a rigid diet are my entire life. I think I've managed to find a relatively simple path toward a healthier lifestyle - one that doesn't require sweating profusely in the gym five times per day or eating chalky nutritional supplements on a daily basis.

With summer quickly approaching, several of my friends have asked me for some guidance about slimming down (swimsuit weather is almost here!) and incorporating more nutritious foods into their diets. And let me tell you - they were all stunned at the incredibly easy and straightforward advice I gave them about how I maintain a healthy and happy lifestyle every day. Here are some of my not-so-secret tips for success.

While many people feel like they need to run or jog several miles a day for an effective cardio workout, I've found that hiking and mountain biking are also enjoyable alternatives that fit nicely into my daily routine. On beautiful sunny days, it’s hard to make myself return indoors even after finishing a workout, so I’ll hike some local trails if I feel that more vitamin D and exercise are necessary. Similarly, I love exploring the beautiful back roads of Vermont on the weekends by bike. As long as you get outside and start moving, there's no reason you need to make a cardio workout feel like torture.

To be honest, I've tried cutting snacks and desserts out of my life and it just hasn't worked. Even if I manage to go a day or two without indulging, I typically find myself gravitating towards the junk food isle looking for sugary sweets. Once I came to terms with this inevitable reality, I learned to adjust my eating habits so that my snacks benefit my diet. I try to keep low-fat cheeses in the fridge along with an assortment of fruits.

However, my secret weapon to nutritional success is my Keurig® brewer. While it's great for brewing a hot cup of coffee in the morning, I primarily use it to enjoy a variety of my favorite hot tea flavors, such as Mandarin Orange Spice, India Spice Chai, Green Tea, Mint Medley and English Breakfast. Not only are these flavors rich in antioxidants, but they're also incredibly convenient to make and taste great - all it takes is the push of a button. 

I will admit – when I cross the finish line after a hard race, I often opt for a thick vanilla milkshake rather than tea.  Reward yourself!  A healthy lifestyle change doesn’t have to mean “die” with a t.  So, there you have it. It doesn't take much to lead a healthier lifestyle - all you need to do is make time to get outside and incorporate nutritional snacks into your everyday life in order to get off on the right foot.

Guys, can I take a minute here to talk about one of my favorite times of year? No, not summer antiquing - I'm talking about music festival season. While one of the year's biggest music events - Coachella - just passed back in April, many of the summer's most exciting extravaganzas of live music, artwork, delicious food, camping and comedy are just around the corner - Bonnaroo, Newport Folk Festival, Lollapalooza, Wakarusa, Sasquatch and Austin City Limits, among dozens of others.

While I try to get to as many of these incredible events as I can, the sheer volume of live music makes it impossible. Because of this, I have to pick and choose which festivals I want to experience each year. As someone who enjoys the outdoors, I tend to prefer the festivals that let me take advantage of the opportunity to spend a few days enjoying the sun and greenery, but I also like mixing things up with the occasional city jam every now and again.

This year, I'm heading down to Bonnaroo in the great state of Tennessee. For four incredible days, we get to disconnect from everything happening in the outside world and just listen to some of my favorite artists and bands. The event starts in just under a month, so I've already gotten to work organizing the necessary supplies.

Along with the essentials, a tent, food, sunscreen, lots of water, ice and summer clothing, I never forget to bring a whole heaping mound of Green Mountain Coffee® K-Cup® packs. Luckily the campground I am staying at provides electricity to each campsite so my Keurig® brewer can continue to function at the picnic table with nothing more than an extension cord - it beats searching for a decent cup of coffee every morning, afternoon, and night.

There's nothing better than a cup of Nantucket Blend® Iced Coffee to beat the summer heat during the early morning performances. However, it can get a little chilly at night - even in the middle of June in Tennessee - so it's nice to have some hot French Roast coffee to get me through the late night shows that sometimes cross into the wee hours of the morning.

Considering that we'll be sleeping in tents under the hot sun - not the easiest conditions to get any amount of rest in - the coffee is as much about the routine and taste as it is survival. However, no amount of roughing it will deter me from my love of my musical summers.