the lucky, caffeinated winner!

as promised, i have a winner for the keurig portion pack giveaway...

3carnations 

congratulations! a box of donut shop cinnamon roll plus the barista prima sampler will arrive on your doorstep very soon! 

thank you to all who entered & be on the lookout for the next keurig-related giveaway. unfortunately, i won't be giving away more coffee, but i will be reviewing the cafe escapes line AND the next giveaway may or may not have something to do with a year-long subscription to birchbox. hint, hint.

psst...i used random.org to generate the giveaway winner. 

coffee date & a giveaway.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED.

THANKS FOR ENTERING!

before i catch you up on some of the yummy portion packs we've been indulging in, i want to let you know that you can get free shipping and 15% off your purchase at green mountain coffee by using the code
AM0016-3605. this code is good until february 29th.
{no minimum purchase required & offer is valid in the u.s. only}

once upon a time, i referred to myself as the ambassador of coffee quan.
of course, anyone who owns a keurig might think of themselves in the same way. 

but, you & i both know that the keurig is not just for coffee lovers.

one of my family's favorite portion packs is the hot apple cider.

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made from real apples, this is a warm, refreshing drink that the whole family enjoys. my children love that it's an alternative to hot chocolate and they have a lot of fun using the keurig to make a cup. the hot apple cider portion packs are available year round.

another favorite are the fair trade coffees.

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the sumatran reserve is just one example of the variety of fair trade coffees offered at green mountain coffee. my husband and i loved the bold flavor of this blend. 

it's no secret that i love iced coffee. while it's convenient to swing into my favorite coffee shop and order an iced coffee to go, it is certainly cheaper to be able to make them at home. i'll admit...i was skeptical of the iced coffee portion packs at first. but, add in some hazelnut syrup and some half & half and i'm good to go.

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everyone i know how has a keurig has tried the donut house variety of portion packs. the flavor is familiar...it's described as "easy going, bold, and dependable."

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we enjoyed the "regular" variety of donut house, but we did not care for the cinnamon roll portion pack by donut house. my husband and i prefer bolder, stronger coffees and the cinnamon roll was a bit too weak for our taste.

for the holidays, we had the privilege of sampling two seasonal portion packs: spicy eggnog & gingerbread.

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my husband and i are not big fans of flavored coffees. yes, we'll use flavored creamers or add syrups to our coffee, but we prefer a nice, bold coffee taste for our coffee {if that makes any sense at all}. my father enjoyed the gingerbread coffee. it had a nice, spicy flavor and he enjoyed it black. the spicy eggnog's flavor, however, was inconsistent. sometimes it tasted like eggnog, sometimes it did not.

one seasonal flavor i did enjoy was the pumpkin spice. yum, yum!

perhaps the most favorite portion pack we've sampled thus far has been the barista prima variety: french roast, italian roast, house blend & colombia.

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out of the four varieties, the house blend was our least favorite. why? because it wasn't as bold as the other three. the italian roast was my husband's favorite. i preferred the french roast. both were smooth, bold and tasty. in many ways, the rich flavor reminded me a lot of the coffee we enjoy whenever we vacation in mexico.

and, if you've made it this far, you have the chance to win a four pack sampler of the barista prima variety {one serving of each blend}. and, as an added bonus, i'll even throw in a box of your favorite portion pack!

here's how to enter...
in a comment, let me know your favorite keurig portion pack.
for an extra entry, tweet about this giveaway. leave proof of the tweet in a separate comment.


please make sure to leave your email address in your comment so i have a way to contact you if you're the winner.

Winner will be announced on Friday, February 3rd!

disclosure:  i am a k-cup ambassador working in conjunction with green mountain coffee roasters & the your perfect cup program.  i was given all of the k-cups mentioned as compensation for my review.  all opinions in this review are my own. regarding the giveaway, the barista prima sampler has been provided by green mountain roasters. the bonus portion pack will be paid for and provided by me.

currently loving.

lush godiva shampoo bar & jungle solid conditioner

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colgate optic white toothpaste

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korres guava bath & body collection

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paper mate inkjoy 300 rt pens

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starbucks caffe verona k-cup portion packs

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what are you currently loving?

if you own a keurig or received one for the holidays, please come back to my blog tomorrow because i'm giving away a mini sampler pack of the barista prima k-cup portion pack {when i say mini, it's one sample of each of the four barista prima roasts}. also, if you need to stock up on portion packs, please take advantage of the code at the top of my blog!

coffee? yes, please.

i'm sure many of you have noticed that badge off to the right.  yeah, the one that shouts to the world that i'm a keurig k-cup ambassador.

so i'm not an ambassador of quan.  but, if you equate coffee with quan, then maybe i am your girl.

i don't know about you all, but my blood is caffeinated.  coffee gets me through my day.  but, i know that some of you don't like coffee.  some of you may be tea drinkers or even cocoa drinkers.  shoot, some of you might not even like hot drinks and prefer your coffee or tea to be iced.

decaffeinated, high-octane, hot, cold, sweetened, unsweetened, flavored creamer, half & half...no matter how you take your coffee, tea or cocoa of choice there is one thing you should know...the keurig does it all.  trust me, i've been a keurig owner for years and my family loves it.  my husband & i even joke about who will get the keurig if we ever split up...yep, we're that serious about our machine.

once upon a time, we were slaves to our coffee maker.  filters, programs, scorched coffee, stained carafes...not fun.  keurig came to our rescue with their k-cups.  suddenly, there was no more stale, burned or wasted coffee.  k-cups allowed us to brew the perfect cup - in three different sizes - whenever we wanted.  and the variety? unbelievable!

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and, let's not forget the keurig's versatility because sometimes we prefer to grind our own coffee beans and the keurig allows us to do that.

we've tried many of the different k-cup varieties, but this past month we've been enjoying two: tully's french roast & green mountain coffee's breakfast blend

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my husband is a fan of dark, bold coffee {so what if he then proceeds to load his coffee up with flavored creamer AND sugar}.  tully's french roast is the tully brand's most popular blend.  it is extra bold, "powerful and intense with a smoky, decadent finish."  to him, tully's french roast is THE perfect cup of coffee.  he starts his morning with a cup and he sometimes finishes his day with a cup.

i find that i'm not nearly as particular about the intensity of my coffee.  true, i love drinking coffee black {especially if we're in mexico}, but i also appreciate the subtle flavors of smoother coffees like green mountain coffee's breakfast blend.

{source}

the breakfast blend is lovely.  the aroma is heavenly.  it's not bitter nor is it as acidic as darker, bolder blends.  to me, it's the perfect cup of coffee to wake up to.  to my husband, not so much.

so what does all of this coffee talk mean for you?

from now until june 10th, you can enjoy 15% off anything AND free shipping when placing an order online with green mountain coffee.  use the code: AM0013-3605

if you don't have a keurig, don't worry.  green mountain coffee sells whole bean & ground coffees as well.  but, i seriously think all of you who are on the fence about buying a keurig should really take the leap.  and, guess what?  green mountain coffee sells keurigs, too!  talk about a one stop shop!


next week, i'll be reviewing gloria jean's hazelnut coffee and celestial seasonings english breakfast black tea.  i will also have additional discount codes for you every so often, but please take advantage of the current offer & be sure to share it with your friends, family & fellow bloggers!




disclosure:  i am a k-cup ambassador working in conjunction with green mountain coffee roasters & the your perfect cup program.  i was given the k-cups as compensation for my review.  all opinions in this review are my own.

a jolt to the bladder.

you're familiar with the newest beverage size at starbucks, right?  no?  you're not? 

well, i am.

meet the trenta, 31 ounces of iced coffee goodness:

{a horribly fantastic cell phone pic of my trenta iced
hazelnut breve coffee}

i meet up with this gal & this gal about once a week for coffee.  about a month ago, during one of our friday morning coffee dates, i decided to take the plunge and "trenta size" my beverage.  whoa.

yes, whoa.

caffeine doesn't really do much for me {since i consume so much of it}, but let me tell you i got one heck of a work out that day because all i did was walk back & forth to the bathroom!  caffeine is a diuretic.  diuretics make you pee.  a lot. 

the drink was good, don't get me wrong. 

oh, and not only did i pee all day long, but i also didn't have much of an appetite either.  why?  well, the average human stomach has a capacity of about 900 ml.  the trenta?  um, it's about 916 ml of caffeinated liquid goodness.*

i'm not knocking the trenta.  in fact, if you're an iced coffee fan like i am, then i say try it.  if you don't like iced coffee, you can try iced tea in it.  you only live once, so why not, right?

*click here if you want a diagram of the sizes in comparison to a human stomach.

what k-cup?

the best thing we ever did was:

a) buy a coffee mill*

&

b) stop buying k-cups

okay, so that's two things.  

but, i'm being totally serious here.  

adam & i love, love, LOVE our keurig, but we got tired of buying k-cups.  if you chug drink coffee like we do, then you will understand why.  also, if your husband drinks his coffee out of a 24 ounce tervis tumbler, then you will really understand why {because you use two k-cups to fill a tervis that size!}.

needless to say, we were spending serious money on k-cups.  don't get me wrong, we love their convenience & the variety of flavors, roasts, brands, etc.  but, let's be real here...we are a single-income family.  and, our single income does not have wiggle room to buy $9-$10 boxes of k-cups...every. single. week.**

behold!

a 13 ounce can of coffee beans for $3.99.  we buy two cans per month.  adam grinds what we need for that day & we are good to go.  it's cheaper than starbucks!***

see...there is a reason your keurig comes with a filter so use it! 

* we bought our coffee mill at target for $18 

** we DO still buy k-cups from time to time because the kids like making hot cocoa with the keurig

*** this cost effective strategy for the keurig has NOT curbed my addiction to starbucks in any way, shape or form...that's a whole 'nother issue! {psst...i'm one of becky's starbucks divas}

coffee. it's what adults drink.

we went to target today {it was my 3rd trip since friday morning} and on our way out i stopped at starbucks to replace one of our "to go" mugs that was broken yesterday AND to get me a little pick-me-up. i settled for a venti peppermint white mocha frappucino - no whip. as we were leaving target, i asked aidan if he wanted a sip of my drink.

"um, no thank, mom. it's coffee."

"yeah, you're right son. it's coffee. and you probably don't need any."

"no, adults drink coffee, mom. it's what keeps them awake. if they don't drink coffee, then they have to sleep for a few more hours."

so true, son, so true.

Stress calls for Starbucks

I don't handle stress well. At all.

This morning was no exception. I dropped the pup off for surgery this morning and, while I was there, my mother was in surgery herself {nothing major or life threatening}!

Between all of the phone calls about the pup & my mother, I decided that before I headed back to work that I would need to treat myself to something lovely.

So, I drove straight to Starbucks and bought myself one of these:

The Banana Chocolate Vivianno - hello, it's like heaven in a cup! Yum! I also bought myself a fruit & cheese platter...oh, and a chicken cobb salad sammich. And, much to my delight, there was some money left on my Starbucks gift card to pay for some of the 'damage.'

Got coffee?

OK all of you coffee-aholics out there, you know you cannot pass up the opportunity to...

WIN A KEURIG!

(you know you want one!)

Want to know how? It's really simple:

• First, head on over to MomLogic and join the MomLogic Coffee Club group (it costs absolutely nada to join MomLogic...free, free, free!)


• Next, check out the Coffee Club's featured blog post for Thursday 2/26, Somebody Call The Plumber!, written by yours truly and show me the love...you know, leave me a comment


• Then, show me even more love by leaving a comment on my profile page at MomLogic(remember to use the same name on my blog & on my profile page at MomLogic...that way they can keep the entries straight!)

Could it be any easier than that? No! So, whaddya say? Read my blog entry, comment me on my blog & show me some love over at MomLogic and get entered to win quite possibly the coolest coffee maker ever?! Yeah...you gotta do it!

And, definitely consider hanging around MomLogic, too, to mingle and get to know the other moms (and dads, too) that hang out there. You won't be disappointed!