Molly Pekarik

 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!

As you know, we’re spending a week on the river. But we haven’t ‘gone fishing’ – at least not in the traditional sense. During our signature volunteer event, we ‘fish’ for trash in our local Winooski River. Our ‘big catches’ are bottles and cans, tractor tires, or old signs.. We know how important clean water is to our world and to our cherished cups of specialty coffee, so for the past eight years we have volunteered hours and energy to maintaining water health in our own backyard.

This is my second year in a row participating in River Cleanup, and I couldn’t be more thrilled about some of the litter we’ve managed to clean out of the river already. Last year, the ‘catch’ I was most excited about, the story I recalled over and over to my friends and colleagues, was the ancient laptop we’d pulled from the bank – it didn’t even have a full screen! This year has already topped that ‘catch’ by far. Just this morning my volunteer group dug two shopping carts out of the river. Talk about cleanup in Aisle Three...

Our crew wasn’t afraid to get down and dirty for the cause, either. Our volunteers come from every department in our company, from the manufacturing plant to the high-tech coffee lab, and everyone worked together and put in a tremendous effort. Catching those two shopping carts (along with over a hundred tires, and bucketful’s of trash) was hard work, but completely rewarding. And while I don’t have a fish story to share for my time on the river, I think my catch of the day might be even more special.

The Creative Department in our specialty coffee team is not only “creative”, they are some of the most innovative and fun people here, putting together the exciting visual side of our Family of Brands. Recently, one of our creative teams got special recognition for their efforts as one of the Graphic Design USA Magazine’s 2012 Inhouse Design Award Winners!

Ryan Dreimiller, Art Director, Carolyn Brown, designer and Rick Slade, creative director, each won for their work on this elegant Barista Prima direct mail piece. The mailer, a small booklet highlighting the different luxury blends of the Barista Prima collection, spoke to the brands history of creating European coffee artistry and caught the attention of Graphic Design USA. The Graphic Design USA competition has been held annually since 1963, and aims to assure that the outstanding work of Creative teams – like ours – is fully recognized by work colleagues, the creative world, and the community.

We’re so proud of our Barista Prima team. Doesn’t their award-winning piece just inspire you to brew a deep, rich, European inspired cup?

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?