TeaZazz – This is a semi-new sparkling iced tea though TeaZazz has been around on the west coast since 2006. We really enjoyed this pleasant blend of tea (black or green), fruit flavors and carbonation.  TeaZazz is a refreshing change from tea and flavored waters, with a light bit of fizz and without the High Fructose Corn Syrup.  There are only 25 calories in a serving of TeaZazz which makes it a delicious low calorie drink. The Green Tea with Mint was my favorite while my husband liked the Green Tea with Lemon. You can also choose Original Tea or Peach Tea , all are carbonated and all are tasty.  The bottle is 20 convenient ounces, large enough to share, but small enough to carry in for your work lunch.

The only draw back is that it isn’t local for me and has limited store availability .  However, that is not too big of a problem because you can order a case online – shipping is included in the price.  If you register online, they’ll keep you updated so that you’ll know when it shows up in your area.  

Adina Drink No Evil Coffee Energy Drink – First off, besides being delicious it is made with fair trade organic coffee a big plus in my book.  Also it is packed with natural antioxidants (one can contains the equivalent of 4 servings of fruit) and Drink No Evil contains Guarana for a natural energy pick up. Drink No Evil has organic NO fat milk and evaporated cane juice.  My favorite flavor Drink No Evil is Caramel Kick.  I love that it has a really nice caramel taste, but isn’t too sweet.  All of the others were just as great and I loved them all.  I shared the mocha with my husband because that’s usually his favorite coffee drink, and he agreed.  I took the others on the trip with me – the Double Xxpresso, Hazelnut Hookup and Vanilla Nut Case – a very nice slightly spicy nutty vanilla drink .  They stored away nicely in the cooler and were a perfect pick me up on my long drive.   You should be able to find Adina Drink No Evil Coffee Energy Drinks in Whole Foods Markets.  I haven’t found them in other stores yet, but hopefully it will be there soon.  I’ve asked at my local place a couple of times hoping to push the issue.  Adina’s other beverages look just as cool.

Shock Coffee – This is a new coffee drink my husband found.  He liked it so much he ordered a case of the mocha and a case of the latte online, since we can’t find it nearby. (These aren’t organic though like the Drink No Evil). This is another really good tasting lightly sweetened coffee. Shock coffee contains 50 percent more coffee than the other brands, so if you want to stay awake, this might help.  I like this question under the faqs.

• Q. Is Shock Coffee available in decaf?
• A. Exactly what part of hyper-caffeinated didn’t you understand

Caribou Coffee – Iced Coffee Drinks – This is the drink we pick up most often because it’s convenient and easy to find.  While Drink No Evil is my first choice, Caribou Coffee comes in close.  It’s lightly sweet with a nice coffee flavor.  It comes in Vanilla, Regular and Espresso.  Espresso is our favorite of the three. Here’s Deb’s review from a while ago.

Tis the season to give and Dunkin Donuts Coffee has a great gift for five lucky Cookerati readers. A Dunkin Donuts coffee gift basket featuring several varieties of Dunkin Donuts coffee and a mug to enjoy it all with. Mmm mmm. Wish I could win.

Tell us how we win Deb…

Ha! You think I’m going to make it easy for you? If you read any of my contest post you know I nothing irks me more than people who enter contests without reading the instructions. The least we can do is offer some love to our generous sponsors. Thus, if you only post “thanks”, “enter me” “great contest” or you copy someone else’s answer verbatim consider yourself disqualified.

We get it, Deb. You’re mean.

Yes. Yes I am. My son will back me up on that one. In any event, if you want to win one of these puppies, you have to do the following:

1. Visit the Dunkin Donuts website.
2. Choose your three favorite varieties
3. Tell us what you would put in a gift basket to your friends, in addition to Dunkin Donuts coffee.

See? I may be mean, but I’m easy.

The contest ends Friday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. EST.

Can’t wait to see your gift basket ideas!

I’m a simple girl. I don’t spend much money on myself and it doesn’t take much to make me happy. My favorite times are spent hiking on the weekends with my family or having a movie or reading night at home. So when I received a case of Dunkin Donuts packaged coffee in the mail it was a real treat. You see, Dunkin Donuts is my favorite coffee ever. It’s like Christmas came early.

So just after receiving my case of packaged coffee (Two giant thumbs up for the Cinnamon Spice, by the way) I saw a commercial about how more people prefer the taste of Dunkin Donuts coffee to that of Starbucks. It took me less than 30 seconds to agree. Now, don’t get me wrong because I do love me some white chocolate mocha, and I actually spend more time at Starbucks because it’s closer, but if I had to choose, it would be Dunkin Donuts all the way.

I remember when I lived in my first apartment in Middle Village, Queens, NYC (this was in the mid to late 80′s). There was a Dunkin Donuts a little more than half mile away on Woodhaven Boulevard. Every Sunday I would pick up a newspaper a couple of large Dunkin Donuts coffee, and a warm, freshly baked bagel or roll from the bakery across the street from my apartment. Now that’s comfort food.

See? Simple pleasures. I wasn’t married, didn’t have any obligations except to myself, and couldn’t afford to go out on a regular basis like many of my 20-somthing counterparts.  Even so, $5 for a Sunday paper with all the fixings was a worthy splurge.

Every cup of Dunkin Donuts brings me back to that time.  Maybe that’s the reason behind my preference and the reason I feel a good cup of coffee should be enjoyed and savored, not gulped.

Speaking of savoring,  I had the pleasure of trying the new packaged Dunkin Dark coffee, a rich flavorful roast. This is what coffee is all about. It’s not flavored or sweetened, just everything you’d expect from a gourmet cup of coffee – but at a reasonable price. Starbucks is good, don’t get me wrong, but Dunkin Donuts has kept the tradition going for me for over 20 years and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon. And why should I when I can now buy the packaged coffee at my supermarket?

What’s your preference?

The Winners are below.  I sent an email to each one of you.  Please reply to me with your postal address.  After 5 days your prize will be awarded to someone else.  Feel free to participate in any and all of our other contests.  Winning any contest doesn’t preclude you from winning again.  We select winners based on whether or not they meet the winning criteria and then with a random number generator.  

THE WINNERS!!

1. chris swanson 
2. Evelyn
3. Kimberly
4. Veronica Garrett
5. Kathy Conley
6. Belinda
7. Melanie Miller
8. Heidi Todd
9. Theresa Shafer
10. Jaque

Don’t forget our other contest going on right now – Celebrate National Nut Day with a Diamond Nut Giveaway

Joffrey’s philosophy is found here. My favorite line is :  I am the David to the industry’s Goliath. But I don’t throw stones at my competition. I throw better beans.

The advertising for this coffee is aimed at the blogger, web designer,gamer, technical geeks who spends a lot time online. All of that is cool, but for me make it good coffee that I can sit out on the back deck on a  cool October morning and get me energized for my day. 

Joffrey’s is offering 10 of our readers a free pot (read sample) of their Joffrey’s 2.0.  I don’t care if you are a blogger and you already have one, or your are our favorite reader and you want one anyone can enter. 

Rules (cause Deb loves ‘em):

1. US resident only

2.  Only 1 entry (yes, we check)

3.  Tell us about your Joffrey coffee drinking preferences.

• when(morning, afternoon, mid-day, late night)
• where (back deck maybe?)
• whether you’ll share it & with whom OR if you’ll drink it alone

4. Entries taken until Midnight Thursday, October 23rd.

Good Luck.

Joffrey’s is a Coffee & Tea company.  A year(?) ago, they ran what they called a java beta test and bloggers signed up to get their free sample of coffee, including me.  I loved their coffee and so I am thrilled that they are running a special during the month of September.  If you go to Joffrey’s.com and place an order in September, use the coupon code DCWEBLAUNCH085 to get 25 percent off your order.  That’s a very nice discount.  They have a wide variety of coffee including organic and fair trade, fun flavored coffees, different types of teas, flavored syrups and more.  Take a look around the website and see if there’s anything that tickles your fancy, but if you order don’t forget your discount code to get 25 % off the order. 

Buying organic certified fair trade coffee is one way to make your coffee green, but that’s just the beginning.  You need to think about what you can do next.  Some things you can do are frugally green or obvious but others may seem a little further than you are willing to go. 

• Buy only what you need/ Make only what you need.

When you are buying coffee, think about how fast you will use it up and only buy that much. Then make sure you use it up.  I know some coffee aficionados want their grounds super fresh and only keep it for a short amount of time.  In that case, buy it in smaller amounts.  However, only do this if you are replenishing your stock that often anyway.  I buy a bag and use it up before I get another one.  That way the new one is as fresh as it can be.  Also, consider how much you will drink and only make that much.  Single serve machines are good for families where only one person drinks coffee.  That way you are only making what you need when you need it.  If you have a bunch of people drinking coffee, then make as much as you would use up quickly and then go for single servings after that.  Don’t make a whole pot just in case someone else might want it.  It will probably be wasted.

• Don’t pour that coffee down the drain!

Use it instead for your composter.  I have a bowl near the sink in my house, a bucket on the porch and a composter out back.  We use the bowl to bucket to composter method.  When the bowl is full it gets emptied into the bucket.  The bucket gets emptied every other day into the composter. I also throw my grounds into the bowl.  This isn’t easy to do if you live in an apartment.  However, I lived in Queens growing up and we did have a compost pile at that time.  Now they make great looking composters to contain it all. My grandfather used to take the eggshells and coffee grounds and bury them around his plants.  A few years ago we visited my (at the time) 89 year old Uncle and he was still doing that.  You can too!

•  Reusable all the way!

I know you think I’m talking about your mugs and cups.  Yes, I am.  However, I’m not only talking about mugs and cups.  When I’m at work I try and remember to bring my mug to get a cup of coffee in the cafeteria.  I chastise myself when I forget.  I definitely use mugs and cups at home.  I have travel mugs on hooks screwed into the side of my cabinets to make them easy to find. 

What else can be reusable?  How about filters?  When my daughter received a coffee machine for her Christmas gift, I went and found a filter for it.  Sometimes you have to search hard to find what you want.  I have a Senseo single cup machine.  They sell specially made filter pods for the machine.  Every time I used them I wondered if I could find something reusable so that I didn’t have to waste all of that filter paper.  I bought Ecopads on Amazon, but that was only two plastic filter packs for a good deal of money.  I found a better deal online and if I could remember where I’d tell you.  So I pack all my filters in the pod tin that came with my machine and when I need a cup, I fill a couple of filters with coffee grounds and run them through one at a time.  It doesn’t take long.  I rinse the grinds out and stick it in the dishwasher to run with the rest of the dishes.  Rinsing them might be good enough, but I’m just trying to get the grounds out, so I use water that’s soaking in another pot instead of from the tap.  There are reusable keurig cups also. It’s also frugal to use the reusables because you get more coffee in a regular bag, than the bag with the filter packs, for less money.  If I have people coming over though I will use the filter packs to make it easier on my guests.

• Gray water?

This may be going further than most of us want to consider dealing with.  If you are rinsing out your reusable filter packs in water, you can do it over a bowl and then pour the rinsing into the compost bowl or another water bowl and pour it over the plants.  We haven’t started it yet, but we’re considering it.  My husband already hauls the water from the dehumidifier out to the garden, plus we use rain barrels. 

I think most people believe we do what we do because we’re frugal.  The truth is that we do it to lessen our impact on the earth’s resources. 

Boyd Coffee Company Introduces the Next Generation of Brewing Equipment

New Coffee Profiler® brewing system removes the guesswork and delivers a Golden Cup Standard cup of coffee, every single time. The Coffee Profiler® was the first coffee brewing system to score more than a 90 percent uniformity of extraction rating by the SCAA – its 91.3 rating eclipsed the previous highest score ever of 85.6.

While The Coffee Profiler® can brew up to 250 different coffee profiles (or recipes), operation of the high-tech device is as simple as pushing a button.  Initially available only to Boyd Coffee Company customers west of the Mississippi River, The Coffee Profiler® is pre-programmed by a Boyds technician, guaranteeing quality in every cup of coffee by controlling all aspects of the brewing process including water contact time, temperature, formula, volume, dilution and bypass. The machine offers simple, push-button operation, not only for hot coffee drinks, but for iced coffee as well as hot and iced tea.

The Coffee Profiler® has a small footprint and it can brew your specialty, gourmet, decaf, iced tea or iced coffee drinks in several different sized containers – with the promise of producing the finest cup possible each and every time,” said Mike Johnson, the R & D Manager for Boyd Coffee Company who spent five years overseeing the research and development of the equipment.

100% Organic Rip City Iced Coffee Recipe

(as seen on www.boyds.com)

To start, fill a 12 fl. oz. glass with cocktail ice and follow the steps listed below:

-Brew 1 package (3 oz.) of 100% Organic Rip City Coffee® into an airpot (2.2 liters) using the 1/2 airpot setting
-Fill the airpot the rest of the way with cold water

-Pump into glass filled with ice and add sugar and cream if desired

Please see http://www.boydscoffeestore.com/coffee/#orgripcity for more information on 100% Organic Rip City Coffee.