Another program that gets a lot attention during the summer months is our product donations. Product donations are a great way to supplement events – whether for brewing or for auction items. We think it’s a great way to have folks sample our coffees while supporting communities throughout the country. The coffee we donate is Fair Trade Organic – so folks can feel good about it at their events.

For more information on product donations visit http://www.gmcr.com/productdonations

And for good reason: We need our iced coffee. When mid-afternoon rolls around (or even when it hits 10 a.m.), we jump at the thought of a chilly-drink that’s bold, fresh, and “ahh”-inspiring.  It’s just too good to turn down when it’s so simple to brew and tastes so good, just ask two enthusiastic members of our newly dubbed Green Mountain Coffee Tasters Guild:

First, French Vanilla Iced Coffee K-Cups® with a newly-energized, ready to “chilax” Caitlin from marketing.

Yes, we have ice! Afternoon energy lull be gone! With a tumbler full of French Vanilla Iced Coffee, I have the perfect exotic afternoon pick-me-up to get me through the rest of my day.

And what about Nantucket Blend® Iced Coffee K-Cups®? Lesley from B2B, our resident poet, thinks it’s totally tubular – like hanging ten in the office!

An Iced Nantucket in the middle of the day turns work into a getaway!

Now those are two brews you can get behind and brew directly over ice!  I sense a trip to the ice maker coming on…

Groundbreaking of organic garden (photo from Pueblo a Pueblo blog)

grants. It is a great way to learn about the different organizations and regions our company touches. At a recent meeting I got to learn about a project we supported in partnership with Pueblo a Pueblo in Santiago Atitalan, Guatemala to start an organic garden at Escuela Mixta Rural de Panabaj  school.  They broke ground in early February and were sowing the first seeds by the end of the month (read about it on their blog)!

Pueblo a Pueblo, an organization that helps to improve the lives of indigenous Guatemalans, describes the project below:

“The area surrounding Santiago Atitalan is among one of the the poorest regions in Guatemala. In a region where many households live on less than a dollar per day and do not own livestock, families face severe seasonal food shortages, known as “los Meses Flacos” (the thin months).

Pueblo a Pueblo has worked in this region since 2005 and has been involved in school nutrition and providing healthy

Planting in school garden (photo from Pueblo a Pueblo blog)

meals to needy children. Our new partnership with Green Mountain Coffee only adds to this effort bringing life-changing aid to child nutrition and families who need our help the most. Our shared goal is to improve nutrition and strengthen

food security.

Through a two year pilot project grant, we seek to teach 500 children in the Escuela Mixta Rural de Panabaj about organic gardening and basic nutrition. We will help the school community increase food supplies through education and diversification of crops to include foods with higher nutritional values.

Garden after Tropical Storm Agatha (photo from Pueblo a Pueblo blog)

Their food security efforts teach children and their families ways to avoid food shortages and increase nutrition, while our development projects also support educational opportunities and improve family health.”

Although the garden and the area were affected by Tropical Storm Agatha in May (read about the storm and damage), repairs continue and the garden is recovering.

Read more about our Coffee-Community Outreach on our Corporate Social Responsibility website, http://www.brewingabetterworld.com.

We are introducing two new varieties of Brew Over Ice Perfect Iced Teas from Celestial Seasonings® to help you choose your destination. First is Sweet Berry Lime Iced Green Tea—a sweet and citrusy fusion of smooth green tea and juicy berry flavor with a splash of lime.

Second is Sweet Tropical Breeze Iced White Tea—a refreshing fusion of delicate white tea and the tempting tropical flavors of passion fruit and papaya.

If you want to go for something a bit less tropical, then our Perfect Iced Tea Variety Pack might just be the ticket. This pack lets you try our four classic iced teas: lemon, raspberry, peach, and unsweetened black tea, all in one place. Sample them all and find the one you love!

Whichever one you choose, you will find a paradise of flavor, right in your glass. And with our limited time price discount, you can afford to travel to both places, as long as you remember to enter the keycode BREW-ICED in your shopping cart when booking your iced getaway.

This just in: we are extending our discount for $1.00 on ALL boxes of Brew Over Ice K-Cups through 10/4/10! Stock up and save!

Remember, Brew Over Ice is simple: Fill a tall (16 oz.) cup (do not use glass) with ice and place under brewer. Shake K-Cup and place in brewer. Choose your brew size (6 or 8 oz.) and press “brew.” Add additional ice as needed. To see how easy it is to brew these coolly refreshing beverages, click here:

Our Perfect Iced Teas are a convenient way to serve up the quintessential summertime beverage—one cup at a time. Click below to see our entire selection of Brew Over Ice products.

Thousands of hot air balloon enthusiasts congregate in Stowe each July for this festival.  Organized by the Stoweflake Resort & Spa, and held on their vast grounds, the fun includes three early morning and two evening launches.  The morning launches are more for the pilots; it’s their play time.  Spectators are welcome, but only the most intrepid are there for the early flights.  At 4:00pm on Friday and Saturday, the gates open for the evening launches, which usually take place around 6:30pm, and that’s when the crowds start pouring in.  Green Mountain Coffee has sponsored the festival for several years, and this year our sampling set-up featured our new Brew Over Ice K-Cups.  In the middle of a fortnight of unusually high temperatures, attendees were thrilled to try the iced coffees and teas, and were delighted to learn that their Keurig brewers could open up this new dimension for them.  While the French Vanilla iced coffee was probably the most popular choice, the delicious Southern Sweet tea was also a big hit.  And everybody who tried it instantly fell in love with the iced Half and Half – our K-Cup version of an Arnold Palmer, half tea and half lemonade.  So nice on a summer afternoon…trust me, I had plenty of them.

The whoosh of propane bursts filled the air, as the fanned heat began filling the balloons.  It’s magical to watch yards of colorful fabric come to life as the heat slowly swells them into bulbous airships.  A few eager people hop into the basket, and sail up into uncertainty.  By managing short blasts of intense concentrated flames pilots can control the altitude, but when it comes to direction, there is no way to steer a hot air balloon.  Those smiling people are at the mercy of the wind, destination unknown.

My destinations, alas, are a bit more scripted. After a fabulous weekend of watching imaginations soar, it’s off to events in Boston, New York City, Rockland, Maine, and beyond.  It’s a tough job, sharing the splendors of Green Mountain Coffee beverages, but someone’s got to do it.  I’m glad that someone is me.

Hope to see you at an event sometime soon.  You’ll know me by the smile and hyper-activity.  Or by the family of skunks….